Study on matching effect of operating variables and particle motion behavior in Teeter Bed Separator

ABSTRACT

Water velocity and bed density are most important operating variables affecting the separation of coal particles in Teeter Bed Separator (TBS). In this paper, experimental investigation is carried out to evaluate the matching effect of operating variables on the performance of TBS for separating a coal sample with size of 1–0.25 mm. Furthermore, the particle motion based on the Euler-Euler simulation approach and slip velocity model is analyzed to explain the experiment phenomenon. Experiment results show that at a constant cut density (δ₅₀), two operating variables present a negative relationship. When a considerable clean coal yield is produced, the matching of a lower water velocity with higher bed density displays more desirable performance. The performance difference at different matching operation is also reflected in the separation of narrow size particles. The simulation results and theoretical analysis on particle motion illustrate that coal particles are separated more significantly according to their density at the operating condition of lower water velocity matching higher bed density. The study is of great importance to offer the reference of operating variables controlling and develop numerical simulation study for TBS.

KEYWORDS:

• Teeter Bed Separator
• operating variables
• matching relationship
• separation performance
• particle motion

Acknowledgments

The authors thank anonymous reviewers for fruitful discussion and useful comments.

Additional information

Funding

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 51604281, 51904160 and 51574252].