Abstract
It was presented in the previous paper that the simulation model of mixing in a two dimensional particle system was not so effective as to estimate the state of actual mixing process in a three dimensional particles system. This is because the area of mixing zone was determined on the basis of the results obtained from the photographic observation of only the upper surface of mixer during the actual mixing process.
The purpose of this paper was to investigate how to derive a simulation model applicable to the mixing in a three dimensional particle system. The area of mixing zone in the three dimensional particle system was determined by introducing a representing equation where the area of mixing zone decreases with the depth of a plane to which the mixing zone belongs. Furthermore, the size of three dimensional model system was determined on the basis of the size of particles and mixer used. The electric resistance of a particle was its observed value.
The conclusions obtained are as follows;
(1) The validity of the simulation model derived was confirmed by comparing the parameters (σ, R) of the actual mixing process with those of the simulation model.
(2) The size of mixing zone decreased exponentially with the depth of a plane to which the mixing zone belongs.
(3) The area of mixing zone has an upper limit which varied with the change in length of a blade. The correlation coefficient between σc and Rs was greater than 0.8, when the upper limit area of the mixing zone was given; where σc is the standard deviation calculated in simulation experiments, and Rs the total electric resistance calculated by applying the approximation method.
