09.00
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15.00
Porsgrunn
Mahesh Ediriweera, candidate in the PhD programme Process, Energy and Automation Engineering at at University of South-Eastern Norway, Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences and Maritime Sciences will be defending his thesis for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD).
Title of thesis: «Impact erosion by solid particles in gas-particle flows»
Trial lecture topic: «Modelling of wear (impact erosion, abrasion, etc.)»
All interested are welcome to follow the event on Zoom on June 18 from 0900 am (click on the link that becomes active when the program starts).
Summery
Pneumatic conveying is a well-known environmental friendly technology in powder transportation. Impact erosion by solid particles in industrial pneumatic conveying systems results in unplanned plant shutdowns and hazardous material leakages.
This study was aimed to overcome those challenges by reducing, controlling or predicting impact erosion in the pneumatic conveying systems of the industrial stakeholders through an experimental investigation. The study was conducted under the project of "Effective handling of bulk solids with focus on reduction of erosion and scale formation". The project was mainly funded by the Research Council of Norway together with Hydro Aluminium AS, GE Power Norway AS and Omya Hustadmarmor AS through the BIA program. Impact erosion is influenced by many variables, both surrounding conditions and the material properties.
The knowledge of influential variables related to industrial conditions can be utilized to control and predict the damage. The experiments were carried out at powder laboratory in SINTEF industries at Porsgrunn using a bench scale test rig. The materials were tested under the conditions as close as possible to the industrial environment. The development patterns of eroded profiles on the surface were identified accordance with the amount of transported particles. The significant influence of Impact angle, particle velocity, surface temperature and the particle size on erosion process were determined by a statistical model under multivariate conditions.
The approach suggested a systematic experimental procedure to address similar challenges of other particulate material handling processes. These findings will be utilized to reduce unplanned plant shutdowns while minimizing the particle contamination in the working environment.