Convective drying of iron ore fines: A CFD model validated for different air temperatures and air velocities

Abstract

In this research, a granular Eulerian multiphase model coupled with heat and mass transfer was used to simulate the convective drying process of iron ore fines. The CFD model was validated with experimental data for different air temperatures and air velocities. Convective drying experiments were performed using laboratory-scale equipment in order to obtain drying kinetics data for iron ore fines at air temperatures up to 140 °C and air velocities up to 15 m/s. The drying system had combined characteristics of fluidized bed and pneumatic transport. Numerical results showed good agreement with experimental data (average RMSE of 3.9 × 10⁻³) for the moisture content for nine drying air conditions. Since the coupled momentum, heat and mass transfer model could accurately and validly estimate the drying rate for iron ore fines according to the local conditions of the drying air in laboratory-scale equipment, it has potential for application in CFD simulations of industrial-scale equipment.

Keywords:

• Mineral drying
• Computational fluid dynamics
• mass transfer coefficient
• drying coefficient
• heat and mass transfer

Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to CNPq, CAPES and Vale S.A. for financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001. This work was supported by CNPq– Brazil under Grant [142102/2019-9]; and Vale S.A. - Brazil.