Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
625
AB STRACT
The physical basis of electric impulse fragmentation and its applications to the recycling of
composite materials are reviewed. The method is based on the initiation of a pulsed electric
discharge inside the solid dielectric material. With pulse amplitudes of 300 ky material
layers of 2 cm can be punctured. Specific energy deposition, of 5 100 Jlcm at a GW power
level, leads to pressure buildup of 5 10" Pa in the discharge channel. Pressure waves and radially propagating cracks are launched into the solid body, which can lead to the separation of
inclusions from the matrix or to detachment at material boundaries. To induce the discharge in
the solid dielectric it must be immersed in a dielectric liquid with higher breakdown strength.
Most applications use water, which has excellent breakdown strength at fast ramp rates and,
due to its high permittivity, leads to field concentration in the solid dielectric. Electric impulse
fragmentation is a clean physical method without any environmental burden and therefore
well suited for recycling applications. In this paper we consider applications in the fields of
demolition debris, incineration ashes, contaminated surface layers, electric appliances, glass,
and elastoplastic materials. Finally, the economy and the scaling of the technique to large material throughput are discussed.
N
1 INTRODUCTION
ECYCLINC of
ENERGY BALANCE OF
DISCHARGES IN SOLIDS
626
its disintegration. The energy balance equation for the spark channel
can be written as
pdV + dE = dW
(1)
where p is the pressure in the channel, and E = Ei El is the sum of
the internal energy E, of the channel products and the losses El due to
leakage at the channel ends, radiation and heat conduction. W is the
energy provided by the discharge.
+-
35
a
e!
25
2o
15
10
Figure 1. Time dependent calculated pressure wave profiles origlnating from a discharge channel in a Plexiglas body [Z].
HV Electrode +
I.&
\
is used [3],where y is the effective ratio of specific heat at constant pressure and constant volume. Results from this kind of analysis for spark
channels in PlexiglasTMsamples are shown in Figure 1 [2,3]. While
the pressure pulse propagates into the solid material, its amplitude de-
627
field strength (for thin samples and short periods of stress) of solid diSince breakdown is a stochastic process not every pulse will lead to
electrics is higher. Recently it has been suggested and experimentally a discharge in the solid. The probability can vary over a wide ran e,
demonstrated that the breakdown of gas filled pores inside the solid depending on the geometry, the dielectric properties of the material, &e
electrolytic conductivity of the water in the process chamber, etc.; howmay play an important role in this process [6].
ever in an optimized configuration 773 = 0.8 to 0.9. Only a fraction 7 4
Although transformer oil has a higher breakdown strength than wa- of the available electric energy is deposited in the discharge channel.
ter, it is not appropriate for many technical applications, especially for The rest is wasted in the generator, i.e. appears as ohmic and dielectric
recycling. Water does not only have a good insulation strength if it is losses. However, experience has shown that r)4 = 0.65 to 0.7 can be
stressed for short periods of time, but also has a very high permittivity achieved. Since the electrodes do not always touch the solid, part of
and thus pushes the electric field lines into the solid material, which in the arc channel can arise in the surrounding liquid, where it is less efgeneral has a much lower permittivity Of course this effect only occurs fective. Therefore, another efficiency coefficient 115 must be introduced,
if we have a layered distribution of liquid and solid materials between accounting for this effect ( r ) ~N 0.9).
the electrodes. However this is the most frequent situation in an operThe product of all these efficiencies leads to qt and the estimate
ating discharge vessel filled with pieces of material to be fragmented. that a fraction ~ 0 . of4 the stored electric energy can be released in the
useful part of the arc channel. This energy W splits into different forms
W = A + E, + El
(3)
A = [pdV
J
To assess the efficiency of material destruction by pulsed electric discharges one has to consider the following steps: Charging of the capacitor certainly can be carried out with efficiencies 71 > 0.95. For most
industrial applications tap water with a conductivity 0.6 mS/cm is
chosen as the dielectric liquid. In many cases the conductivity rises
during the process because of salt release from the fragments. Therefore electrolytic current losses occur before breakdown. To minimize
these losses, most of the electrode rod needs to be covered by a solid
insulating material. If the electrode tip does not contact the material,
the discharge may be delayed and the electrolytic losses can become
quite large before breakdown, depending on the water quality, and
the material filling factor in the interelectrode gap. Values as low as
0.2 to 0.4 have been measured for the pulse coupling efficiency 772 on
FRANKA-Stein (a semi-industrial prototype for concrete fragmentation,
see Section 5.1) in positive polarity In negative polarity 112 fell to 4l.1.
However,by controlling the water quality and filling fraction, the losses
can be reduced to 10% and 72 ---t 0.9. We have found that a conductivity of 5 2 mS/cm can be tolerated in the process water.
N
7lf = A 7 t
(4)
where w is the specific free surface energy, and S the area of the newly
created surface.
Using the assumption that most of the energy A is expended for
plastic deformation of the solid Epl and applying the approximate relation 111
= 9wSln
(z)
(5)
628
the grain size distribution curve, the relatively small amount of contamination introduced by the process, and the low heat transferred to
the milled material on the average. However its main advantage is the
high degree of selectivity
3 SELECTIVITY OF
DESTRUCTION
Recycling of composite materials (e.g. concrete, fiber glass enforced
plastics, etc.) or material composites (e.g. electrical apparatus, circuit
boards, etc.) requires separation into the basic components. Electric impulse destruction can produce separation at material or grain boundaries via three effects.
-I
4-HV
J7
Discharge Channel
\~.
_/
Weak
Medium
Pressure Wave
Strong
Figure 5. Mechanisms by which components in a composite material can be separated: Top: Metallic inclusions or inclusions with high
permittivity can attract the discharge track. Middle: A compression
wave can be transformed into a tensile and shear wave by reflection
and refraction at an inclusion and separate it from the matrix. Bottom: A crack propagating from the discharge channel into the solid
can branch around an inclusion if its mechanical properties are different from that of the matrix.
629
Figure 7. Schematic of the wiring inside the Marx generator to minimize the magnetic stray field in the surrounding. In the right part of
the Figure the calculated magnetic stray field is presented.
630
HV processing unit
HV Generation
Material classification
Figure 8. Complete setup of an industrial demonstration facility for metal recycling with screen box and sound insulation
5 APPLICATIONS
concrete aggregates. Nearly all particles consist of single minerals. Under an optical microscope, the gravel fraction (>2 mm) is apparently free
5.1 RECYCLING OF BUILDING
from contaminants and baked particles. Spherical particles are domiMATERIALS
nant in the sand fraction (<2 mm, >0.5 nun)and seldom with cement
Approximately 1 m3 of concrete per inhabitant per year is used up adhesions. The total fraction of cement in the aggregate part (gravel,
for building purposes in Germany. Similar quantities are consumed in sand) is -1%.The recycled aggregates are not mechanically predamother industrialized countries. The raw materials gravel, sand and ce- aged and fulfill the increased demands of the frost-dew resistance acment are completely taken from natural resources. On the other hand cording to DIN 52104. Concrete made from these recycled aggregates
30 million tons residual masses of concrete, mortar, and brick are cre- has the same material strength as that from natural aggregates.
The radiography of the silt fraction (<0.063 mm) is free of quartz. It
ated per year in Germany The rate of reutilization of these building
materials is quite low and restricted to secondary constructional opera- consists of calcium-silicate-hydrate, ettringit (a Portland cement mintions like backfilling, noise protection dams, etc. Reutilization without eral), calcium-aluminum carbonate hydrate, and calcite.
degradation requires an improved separation into sand, gravel, and ceFrom a chemical point of view the cement fraction is very similar
ment. Crushing the material with multistage jaw breakers or impact to cement. On a laboratory scale cement clinker has been produced by
mills cannot separate its constituents and produces a large fraction of baking it at high temperatures. Recycling the cement fraction has the
dust and small particles.
following attractive advantages:
Concrete is a composite heterogeneous material and therefore well
1. It saves raw material (clay, lime).
suited for separation into its original components by electrodynamic
2. Milling of the raw materials becomes unnecessary
fragmentation. Microcracks between the aggregates and the cement
3. No decarbonization of the milled raw material is required. (The baking
matrix already exist in the unstressed concrete. Alternation of loads exprocess consumes 80% of the energy investment.)
4. Reduction of COz-emission is possible. (7% of the world wide CO2
pedites the detachment of aggregates from the cement matrix. Since the
release is due to cement production.)
acoustic inhomogeneities are rather large in concrete, ideal conditions
5.
No waste disposal of the cement fraction is required.
exist for separation by pressure waves. Also the pressure impulse at
the discharge channel mainly creates tensile and shearing forces, conOf course energy is necessary to dehydrate the cement fraction. If
ditions at which the strength of concrete is low. Therefore cracks will 50% of the raw materials used for the cement production are replaced
originate and spread from the channel.
by the recycled cement fraction, a 10% saving of the energy costs for
Figure 10 demonstrates that pre-broken concrete indeed can be sep- the burn process can be expected.
arated completely into its components.
In Table 1 the specific productivity of concrete fragmentation is
Figure 11 shows the achieved grading curves after different treat- listed. These data have been achieved at the lab facility FRANKA 0.
ment times, together with the initial grading curve of the natural ag- This generator is able to produce pulses with an amplitude of 250 kV
gregates for the specific concrete (according to DIN) [16]. It is striking rising in 200 ns, and with an energy content of 750 J. Operating at 4 to
that no coarse fragments appear in the grading curve of the separated 5 Hz its power consumption is 3 to 4 kW. In these experiments 2 kg
N
631
200
16
1W
12
0
8
-1CQ
L
a
203
16
1W
12
0
8
-1W
Figure 10. Pre-broken concrete piece before (right) and after treatment
in the discharge vessel of FRANKA 0. Sand and gravel are recovered
without degradation. The cement fraction (aside of the steel pieces)
can be baked to produce cement clinker.
4
2
4llSlO
m~
...... .. ...
..
....
...~
......
24
[kVl
2w
015
2
4
Mesh-width [mm]
16
12
Figure 11. Grading curves of fragmented concrete after different numbers of pulses. DIN 1045 is the original grading curve of the aggregates. For comparison, the particle size distribution after heat treatment is shown also.
16
1CQ
0
0.2
-lW
4
2
Figure 9. Voltage u ( t )and current i(t) wave shapes and the derived
spark channel resistance RE for different conditions in the interelectrode gap. For this series of measurements an interelectrode distance
of 30 mm had been chosen. The voltage trace shown has not yet been
corrected for the inductive voltage drop.
Parameter
Productivity
AV. electric power
Value Unit
160
kg/h
632
Figure 13.
Figure 14. Comparison of heavy metal elution from treated and untreated fresh ashes. Also shown are the values of the German regulation LAGA 22.
5.3
REMOVAL OF SURFACE
LAYERS
bioteshnici
633
msti ated
The glass particles suspended in the process water were sucked off
continuously through a filter of suitable pore size. Iron contamination
from electrode burn was further reduced through magnetic separators
at the entrance to the sedimentation pit. Compared to the conventional
milling process not only the amount of contamination was reduced,
but also the grain size distribution was much smaller and thus the useful yield was increased. Another advantage is that a relatively small
fraction of the material came into contact with the hot channel products and became molten. Thus the porous structure on the surface of
the borosilicate grains, an important feature for biological applications,
was preserved for a larger fraction of particles than with conventional
milling.
5.5 RECYCLING OF
ELASTOPLASTIC MATERIALS
Electrodynamic fragmentation turned out to be less successful for
elastic or impact resistant materials. In an attempt to improve the performance of the method in this field of application, investigations were
launched at Tomsk Polytechnical University [NI, in which elastic materials (in particular rubber) were immersed into liquid nitrogen (LNz)
to increase their brittleness.
However, the success of this approach does not only depend on the
increased brittleness of the material but also on the dielectric properties
of LN2. A real drawback of LN2 as a dielectric liquid is its small permittivity of E, = 1.454. Thus field intensification inside a solid material
immersed in the liquid cannot be expected. On the contrary, since many
solid materials have a higher permittivity, a weak field enhancement in
the liquid may occur.
634
The removal of bubbles from the LN2 bath also can limit severely the
achievable repetition rate. If typically 125 J of energy are deposited in
the discharge channel and converted into heat, -0.5 1 of N2 gas must
be removed from the bath between shots. Although the viscosity of
LN2 is relatively small, O . 2 l ~ l O -Pas
~ at 77K, as opposed to lop3Pa
s for water at 20T,which facilitates bubble movement to the surface
Sample Thickness [mm]
under buoyancy force, corresponding experiments 119,201 have shown
that N2 gas bubbles in LN2 submitted to buoyancy force only, move
Figure 17. Dependence of the breakdown voltage in LN2 on sample
thickness and for different ramp rates. Also shown is the breakdown
upward with a speed of only 0.2 m/s. Given a depth of the LN2 bath
voltage of rubber at cryogenic temperatures. 1181.
of 20 cm, the pulse rate will be limited to <1Hz if complete removal of
bubbles between shots is required. Only practical experience will show
Although a considerable amount of information is found in the liter- however, what the real repetition rate limitations are.
ature on the breakdown characteristics of LN2, very little is of relevance
for the dynamic stress situation typical for electrodynamic fragmentation. A summary of the results obtained from experiments conducted
at Tomsk is shown in Figure 17 [lS]. Here the change of breakdown
voltage has been depicted as a function of sample thickness in the case
of LN2 for three different pulse rise times: 200 ns, 1ps and a 5 ms sine
wave, and for two different rubber samples: car tire rubber and vacuum
seal rubber. The risetimes always refer to a pulse amplitude of 250 kV
and thus can be expressed as ramp rates of 1.25 MV/ps, 250 k V / p and
50 V/ps. It was observed that the breakdown behavior of LN2 differs
significantly from that of other dielectric liquids, like transformer oil,
glycerol, ethanol, or water (at normal conditions).
Only for LN2 layer thicknesses (gap widths) 120 mm the breakdown
voltage rises linearly The increase becomes much slower, >20 mm. This
behavior probably is connected with a change of the breakdown mechanism from an area to a volume effect. The probability for the appearance of bubbles grows if the stressed volume increases. Such bubbles
promote the formation of streamers inside the volume and reduce the
macroscopic breakdown field strength. The formation of bubbles in
the LN2 bath is of particular relevance since the temperature of liquid
gases under atmospheric pressure stabilizes close to the boiling point.
In such liquids, even the minute heat production inferred by prebreakdown currents can lead to the appearance of bubble chains, along which
premature breakdown can occur, before a discharge path through the
Figure 18. FRANKA 3 built to explore the applicability of electrodysolid material has been established.
namic fragmentation under LN2. The Marx-generatoris located in the
It can be concluded also from Figure 17 that the variation of breakbarrel hanging from the roof.
down strength with pulse rise time is much less pronounced than for
water. While in water, the breakdown strength increases by a factor of
To explore the applicability of electrodynamic fragmentation under
10when passing from a pulse rise time of 1ps to 200 ns, the correspond- LN2 for industrial processes the facility FRANKA 3, shown in Figure 18,
ing increase in LN2 is merely 25%. On the other hand the investigated was built. A Marx generator of similar design as for the other FRANKA
rubber materials showed a linear increase of breakdown voltage with facilities allowed to produce pulses of 300 kV with a ramp of 2 MV/ps
sample thickness.
and an energy content of 440 J. It was contained in a barrel hanging
From these results, the authors of I181 concluded that to induce the from the roof above the LN2 process vessel and was isolated with SF6.
discharge in a solid material like rubber with greater probability than The electrode gap was adjusted at 30 to 40 mm. The stainless steel LN2
in LN2, one should apply pulses with risetimes of (0.2 to 0 . 5 ) ~ 1 0 -s ~ process vessel is presented in Figure 19. It was placed on a scissors-type
elevating platform below the Marx generator. Using this facility, a large
and pulse amplitudes of 200 kV for samples to 30 mm thick.
635
parts,
Optical fiber wave guides,
Printed circuit boards,
Laminated plastics, and
Pressure tubing, vacuum seals, etc.
The economy of any recycling technique is determined by the machine price, the specific energy consumption, operating and maintenance costs and by the number and quality of personal to run the facility. Most industrial applications need large throughput to become
economical and therefore considerable extrapolations from present laboratory type electrodynamic fragmentation devices to industrial size
facilities are necessary, leading to big uncertainties in cost estimates.
It is obvious that the quantity of material that can be treated per
arc channel is limited and cannot be increased much above that of an
optimized laboratory device. The repetition rate must stay 5 15 Hz to
remove the gas bubbles between pulses. Also it does not seem reasonable to raise the pulse amplitude appreciably above 500 kV, since the
expenditure for insulation may become prohibitive. The pulse amplitude determines the possible length of the discharge channel and thus
the accessible volume in the treated material. Other parameters that
have an influence on productivity are the power of the pulse and its
energy, Augmenting the energy per pulse is however counteracted by
a reduction of the discharge channel resistance leading to smaller efficiencies. Nevertheless, raising the power may lead to a certain gain in
productivity, especially if milling is the main task of the device. The
achievable increment in productivity will of course depend on the specific product. A systematic study on the disintegration of granite samples has been carried out in [21]where an optimum set of parameters
in an energy-field plane was derived. However, the term 'disintegration' was not specified and therefore it is difficult to relate these data to
specific productivity Considering concrete fragmentation for complete
separation of the aggregates, we expect that a factor of 3 to 5 increase
in throughput over that of our FRANKA facility can be achieved for an
optimized discharge channel, i.e. a throughput of 1000 to 3000 kg/h
of completely separated concrete may be produced per channel with an
average power of 30 kW and a pulse energy of 2 kJ operating at 15 Hz.
Thus to realize an industrial facility with lo5 kg/h, 100 arcs operating
simultaneously are required. Every arc needs a certain process space
so that it does not interfere with its neighbors. Either parallel or serial
arrangements of the active arc zones are conceivable.
To produce 100 arcs simultaneously does not necessarily mean that
all components need to be multiplied by this number, e.g. the Marx
generator can run at a higher frequency and distribute its pulses alternately to different discharge sections. Also a capacitor charging unit of
sufficient power can supply several units in parallel. Since the price of
a power supply does not increase proportional to the power there is a
large saving potential in the scale-up of a facility
Component wear and lifetime are further important economic factors. The components with the largest wear are the HV electrodes in
contact with the material to be fragmented and the switch electrodes.
We have found that the material loss from the steel electrode used for
concrete fragmentation amounted to 10 pg per shot. Consequently an
electrode with 1 cm cross section consumes z
lcm of its length per
week of full operation (8h working day). Therefore, provisions must be
made to adjust the electrode, and replacement becomes necessary from
time to time. However the wear is sufficiently small to be economically
N
636
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