Material Flow in Rotary Drums

The experimental investigation of material flow in non-flight rotary drums is studied in a pilot scale apparatus. Contrary to the other published references that have used granular materials, the novelty of this work is that fine particles were used in the experiments. The objective of the paper is to declare the errors of steady-state model of material flow in such devices. The operating conditions during experiments were conducted in the range of slumping, rolling and cascading regimes of material flow inside rotary drums. To keep with such conditions the rotation speed, axis inclination and feeding flow rate were considered within the range of 3.33 to 7.00 (rpm), 0.00 to 3.00 (deg.) and 6.80 to 13.60 (g/s), respectively in a drum of 14 cm diameter.The obtained experimental data reveals that the model does not describe well the material flow in feeding zone as well as in the discharge zone. However, it is reasonably well for application in the intermediate sections.