Abstract
The study was aimed to optimize the rice-mixing operation by the dynamic analysis of the mixing process of rice particles in a batch mixer.
In this paper, the flow characteristics of rice particles in the twin-shell mixer were measured by an image processing technique using CCD video cameras.
Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of vessel loading and rotation speed on bed configuration flowing in the twin-shell mixer, which is either slipping, slumping, rolling or cascading mode depending on the rotation angle of vessel.
Rice particle mixing characteristics were evaluated by the time required to achieve final mixing and the final degree of mixing. The effects of bed behavior on rice particle mixing characteristics were determined, and based on the above, the explanation of vessel loading and vessel rotation speed affecting the mixing characteristics was given.
