Simultaneous evaluation of wind flow and dust emissions from conveyor belts using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling and experimental measurements

Conveyor belts are widely used in industries for the transport of particulate material, and particles from the surface can be entrained by air motion and cause health problems. An advantage of the application of continuum modelling within a Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD environment is the ability to couple the granular flow region directly to the airflow region. In the first stage, the wind flow around a conveyor belt is studied by experimental tests in a mine. Four turbulence models and three types of mesh independence are studied, and the turbulence model k-epsilon and an intermediate mesh are selected. In a second stage, the CFD methodology simulation is extrapolated to study dust emissions. Particles PM10 and PM50 are studied because of their importance in people's health. Likewise, the effect of dust emissions on the loss of treated product and on the maintenance of equipment and facilities is analysed. All the simulations are validated by experimental measurements. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.