NON FREE FLOWING MATERIALS:

Problems, Prevention and Solutions

Prof Mike Bradley

Director
The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology
University of Greenwich
 Contents

Why are some materials free flowing and

others not?
The nature of non free flowing bulk materials
Role of material characterisation in design
How to use characterisation economically
Other risks
Interfacing
 Effect of FLOW PROBLEMS?
Risks the plant
Not working at all
Not achieving throughput
Not achieving satisfactory up-time
Not delivering the product quality required
Requiring excessive maintenance/troubleshooting
Requiring excessive manning
Consequences
Financial loss
Loss of customer confidence
Loss of staff morale
 How well do solids processing
plants work?

The Rand Report (1990)

60%
of solids processing plants
never achieve satisfactory
operation!
 How high is technical risk with
solids processing plants?

The Rand Report (1990)

Average cost over-run on novel
solids processing systems is

110%!
I.e. plants cost on average more than twice the
original estimate on which the business case for
building them was based!
 Why is a material not free flowing?
Nesting
Cohesive/adhesive
Extreme shape particles that
Wet materials entangle
Very fine materials Mostly biomass and waste
materials
Need special treatment see
2012 and 2013 presentations
by Bradley
Examples of non free flowing bulk solids
Nesting
Cohesive/adhesive
Chopped straw
Wet materials - examples:
Wood chips
Clay, sand, soil
Coal with fines Flake materials
Waste containing shredded
sheet
Fine powders - examples
Cement or gypsum powder
Fine lime

Fine and wet examples:

FGD gypsum,
 1826

Flow problems
 3036

Flow problems
1827
 Discharge pattern: Core-Flow
Most common in silos and hoppers

Central discharge channel

Material flows from top Flow from Top
surface into central flow of Static
Flow fromMaterial
top of
channel material
Static or dead regions of
product Static
Material
First in last out discharge, so
gives poor stock rotation
Erratic discharge caused by
product on product shear Discharge
during emptying Through
Central
Exaggerates segregation Core
effects of particles
Hopper half angle shallow
 Discharge pattern: Mass-Flow
Achieved only in specially-engineered hoppers

Steep hopper walls All Material in

All storage capacity is live Motion During
Discharge
First in, first out discharge
Consistent discharge rate
encouraged by the reduced
levels of shear generated as
the product discharges against Sliding on
relatively smooth wall material Wall of
Converging
- not static product Section
Degree of remixing during
discharge minimises
segregation effects
Determination of the Mass-flow Limit Conical
Hoppers
50

delta j =30 deg

delta j =40 deg

40

Angle of wall friction w [deg]

delta j =50 deg

delta j =60 deg

30 delta j =70 deg

Mass-flow Core-flow
20
B

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Hopper half angle [deg]
 Flow Stoppages Mechanical Arching

Problem for very large particles if outlets under sized (Outlet dim
>12x max pellet dimension
 Flow Stoppages Cohesive Arching

Problem with cohesive or nesting materials

 Flow Stoppages Rat-hole

Problem with cohesive or nesting materials

 Ash
Baghouse
Manual therapy to
persuade flow
Manual digging out
of half a tonne of
ash from each of
eight hoppers
Downtime of 40 MW
power plant = 0.5%
= 88,000 p.a.!
 0000

Caking of silo contents

Some materials SET HARD in time

special attention required
 Why is technical risk so high with
solids handling equipment?

Why do so many plants fail to satisfy?

Over-emphasis on capital cost
Limited knowledge of particulate properties
Reliance upon equipment designs or choices used
with similar products
The its always been done this way approach
What is CHARACTERISATION and
how can it help?
The First Rule of Warfare:
KNOW YOUR ENEMY!
(Sun Tzu, China, 600 BC)

All bulk solids are very different

To get the material to do what you want it to,
you have to understand how it behaves and
reacts to what effects you apply to it
E.g. does it flow readily, segregate easily,
fluidise with air, go hard in store, pick up
moisture etc
 The critical importance of
CHARACTERISATION
Information required on:
Often quoted properties:
Angle of repose
Median particle size
Neither of the above are of
any real use;
They do not relate to
flow properties of the
material
Misleading at best
Bulk density
Internal flow properties
Wall friction
Time dependency
Particle size distribution
Segregability, Friability
Caking tendencies
Susceptibility to moisture,
reaction, storage
temperature etc.
Pneumatic conveying
properties
etc
 Example of use of handling
properties for system design

HOPPER DESIGN
Objective: reliable discharge

(Failure of silos and hoppers to discharge

reliably is one of the most common practical
failures on bulk solids handling plants)
 What is bulk solid
FLOWABILITY and how is it
measured?
 0000

Flow function of a bulk solid

Idealised Flow Function Test

 Unconfined failure test

1 1=c Diagonal
failure plane

3=0

1. Consolidation 2. Failure stage Broken sample

stage
 3041

Flow functions for different products

 3044

Wall friction tester

 1835

Wall friction measurement

 1802

Mass flow limits

Brookfield Powder Flow Tester
Economically priced
~ 12,000
Software controlled
4 basic tests
2 30 minute test time
Powder volume
required
263cc standard cell
30cc pharma cell
Micro cell under
development
Brookfield Shear Cell
Wall friction lid Trough filling tools

Flow function lid Trough

Standard cell lid and trough, 150mm od
 3041

Flow functions for different products

Very cohesive

Cohesive

Free-flowing
Diagrammatic representation of the flow, no-flow criterion in a hopper
 3053

Flow / No Flow criteria

 3406

crit H ( )
bmin =
b g
Where
bmin = smallest outlet size for reliable discharge
crit = critical stress in arch from flow / no flow criterion
H() = dimensionless factor accounting for shape of
converging section
b = bulk density of bulk solid (kg/m3)

Calculation of hopper minimum outlet dimension

 0000

Parameters determined by design procedure

 1842

The importance of good interfacing

Good and bad practice in belt and screw interfacing

No hammer
marks!
 Key characterisations

Hoppers and silos:

Arching/rat-hole dimension (from Flow Function)
Wall friction

Time dependency of above

Caking tendency

Pneumatic conveying
Impact adhesion
Chutes
Impact adhesion and wall friction
Belt conveyors
Surface adhesion
 Key to successful design

Understand the need for measurements of

the bulk solids properties
Identify the properties which are likely to be
important in this application
Bulk solids are all different!
Measure properties (or get them measured)
Use sound design procedure
Understand the contractual problem:

Property measurements cost money!

Who pays?
At tender stage, no money for measurements;
Once contract let, price fixed so no opportunity for
changing design!
Many buyers look only at price
But design without proper information will lead to
expensive problems!
Need to educate buyer of value of proper design
Cost of bulk solid property measurements through
Separate contract for design
Factor costs of measurement into tender
 Conclusions (I)

All bulk solids are unique

Success must be based on knowing the
behaviour of the material
Need for knowledge of bulk solid
behaviour
 Conclusions (II)

Many solids handling projects have

substantial problems
Reasons are linked to buyers
procurement process and lack of
technical judgement
The above means even good suppliers are
often constrained to tender poor designs
Means of minimising technical risk

Key point 1:
Encourage the buyer to exercise close technical
judgement on suitability of design
Key point 2:
Contract must ensure the study of behaviour of
the materials to be handled and allow the final
spec to take account of this
 3017

Free flowing materials easy (???)

 THE WOLFSON CENTRE
for Bulk Solids Handling Technology
University of Greenwich

www.bulksolids.com