DETERMINING THE ADVANTAGES OF THE GRAVITATIONAL MIXER OF GRANULAR AND BULK MATERIALS

Abstract

In the food industry, the batch and continuous drum mixers of various designs are used for mixing of granular and bulk materials. The drum mixers have low productivity because they are typically batch and have considerable energy costs for the mixing process, as energy is consumed not only for the dosing, loading and unloading of components and mixtures, but also energy is consumed directly for the mixing process, which involves the rotation of the drum and workers bodies and surfaces. The gravitational mixers have several advantages over the drum mixers. As a rule, in the gravitational mixers the mixing process takes place without energy consumption, which significantly reduces the specific energy consumption for mixing. The results of the comparative calculation of the productivity of the drum mixer and proposed gravitational mixer and the specific energy consumption for the mixing process in these mixers indicate the benefits of the gravitational mixer, which has higher productivity and lower specific energy consumption. Analysis of the possible trajectories of movement of the particles of granular and bulk materials in the mixer section leads to the conclusion that their contact with the walls of the section body is possible, which does not directly affect the flow of the mixing process, but may cause damage to the components. The theoretical study allowed obtaining a condition for determination of the design parameters of the mixer section taking into account the physical and mechanical properties of the components. In the gravitational mixer with these design parameters, the components particles will not contact with the walls of the section body and accordingly will not be damaged.
Keywords: mixing process, mixer, bulk and granular components, mixer productivity, mixer energy consumption.