Conceptional Design of a New Type Powder Mixer with Fluctuating Air

The Mechanism of Convective Mixing

Abstract

A mechanism for the continuous convective mixing of dry powders is proposed in order to design a new type of static powder mixer using fluctuating air. Separate layers of a binary mixture are fed into the upper inlet of the mixer and are mixed with horizontal fluctuating air alternatively along the vertical side walls.
As a result of the simulation of single particle movement, it was found that the degree of mixing depends on the mixer dimensions, such as the width of the powder inlet and the interval of the air inlets, and on the operating conditions, such as the particle-falling velocity, the maximum velocity of fluctuating air and the fluctuation frequency. This suggests that it may be possible to control the degree of mixing by means of the proposed powder mixer with fluctuating air.