PEPT investigation of particle separation in a novel vertically vibrated particle separator

Separation of particle mixtures in micron size range is of concern to many industrial processes. The experimental work presented in this article has looked into the operational assessment of a novel vertical vibration driven particle separator by using a positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) technique. In addition to PEPT, a smoke blanket visualization technique was used to track the intestinal air movements during the course of vibration induced particle separation. Three different finely sized glass and bronze particle mixtures that formed an average particle bed heights of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 mm in separation cells of thickness 20 and 40 mm were used to investigate the particle separation behavior. For a range of operating conditions, the results showed in favor of low particle bed heights (below 40 mm), lower vibration frequency (30 ± 10% Hz) and a small partition separation gap size of 5 mm for optimum separation of bronze particles in the presence of air.