The effects of powder plug characteristics in a horizontal pipe were investigated both numerically and experimentally. The results show that the pressure drop depends on the dynamic friction coefficient of powder as well as the plug characteristics. The correlation between the dynamic friction coefficient of powder and the plug characteristics revealed that the pressure drop should be estimated from the dynamic wall friction coefficient at a low plug velocity, whereas it should be estimated from the dynamic internal friction coefficient at a high plug velocity.
The effect of liquid additives of grinding aid on the ultrafine grinding of alumina was studied by using a vibration rod mill. Liquid additives studied were five alcohols and two glycols with different alkyl groups. Experiments were carried out by batch operation, and the changes in specific surface area of products with grinding were measured by BET adsorption method. The behavior of alumina powder during grinding was also investigated by monitoring the temprature change of the grinding vessel. The results showed that alcohols and glycols had a significant effect on the ultrafine grinding of alumina as a grinding aid. The maximum specific surface area of alumina obtained with an additive was found to increase proportionally with the amount of additive. The thermal analysis of ground products suggested that three molecular layer of the additive molecules existed on the product surface when the specific surface area reached the maximum value. It was found that the monitoring of the temperature change of grinding vessel would be useful in understanding the grinding status.
The effect of fuel particle shape on the reverse combustion process of a packed bed was investigated through the comparison of combustion of spherical-particle packed bed and non-spherical particle bed. In the experiment, we measured the combustion propagation rate at various superficial gas velocties by using the spherical and non-spherical granular activated carbon particles consisting of the same primary particles. Experimental results showed that the propagation rate of non-spherical particles was higher than that of spherical particles with the same diameter measured by sieves and that the rate of smaller particles was higher than that of larger particles. The combustion propagation rates were well correlated by the equivalent specific surface area obtatined by penetration method. This implies that the effect of particle shape on the reverse combustion of packed bed can be estimated by the penetration method.