Abstract
Loose material stored in silos can create vaults and bridges. The situation takes place while an adverse operating conditions occur. Hence, restriction of transportation or even blockage of the loose material could be. Various solutions are taken into account in order to prevent situations mentioned above. One of them is a destruction of loose material structure by the compressed air shockwave. This phenomenon is applied in equipment such as, for example pneumatic pulsator.
The methods of CAE, particularly CFD are commonly utilized during the design of the process equipment. The airflow phenomena are the bases of the pneumatic pulsator design, and therefore, the usage of CFD took place. It is crucial to employ heuristic, analytical, and experimental knowledge in the design methodology. Only the application of the three makes possible to create a rational, and subsequently optimal design.
The article presents a chosen set of the design issues considering the head of the pulsator and fins placed on that head. A numerical simulations were carried out and the results obtained showed temperature distribution on head surface and in the fins, stress distribution, safety factor, displacement in the head, and the temperature and velocity field of the flowing around air. The numerical results were validated and compared with the analytical and experimental results, which confirmed their value. The results confirm the head design of reason. The temperature distribution calculated with CFD are approximately equal to the values measured during the exploitation investigations. The CFD utilization helped to launch a new product to the market, but it cannot eliminate the exploitation investigations, nevertheless.
