Performance of Brush Wheels for Scavenging Volcanic Ash.

Experiments on scavenging volcanic ash with various rotational brush wheels having polypropylene fibers have been performed, changing the rotation frequency and the scavenging speed. At the same time, the wheel torque and the rate of collecting ash were measured. Consequently, it is revealed that the values of wheel torque and the rate of collecting ash decrease with unsuitable combinations of the natural frequency and wheel angular velocity. In addition, the rate of collecting ash below 100% seems to be linearly proportional to the nondimensional value of wheel torque.