Understanding bulk materials behaviour
20 Aug 2013
University of Greenwich professor Mike Bradley discusses the difficulties faced when monitoring, dispensing and managing bulk materials.
Powdered and bulk materials are commonplace amongst almost all manufactured goods and can therefore be found within the majority of process plants.
However, their control and management is not often a focus for companies because this is not a recognised academic discipline.
Statistics show us that the performance of solids handling systems generally is poor
University of Greenwich professor Mike Bradley
Problems can arise when controlling bulk solids as they do not readily flow like gases or liquids.
These problems can include hang-up when in vessels, irregular flow rates from feeders, difficulties with accurate dosing and elements of wear of the plant caused by hard particles – among others.
Moreover, statistics show us that the performance of solids handling systems generally is poor, with long commissioning times, substantial cost over-runs and high down-time being common due to the issues outlined above.
Engineers, managers, supervisors and maintenance personnel handling powders and bulk solids can benefit from specialist training in this area, the key being to understand that bulk solids are each unique and the design or selection of equipment for managing them needs to be selected according to the characteristics of the materials to be handled. What works for cement powder, for example, will not work for grain and vice versa.
A high standard of training must cover the fundamentals and discuss how we think about the behaviour of powders and bulk solids, the methods used to characterise their properties and the process models used to choose equipment design to aid good performance in view of the powder properties.
Due to the lack of this discipline in most engineering courses, people dealing with powders need to access quality, post-experience teaching on the matter.
