Experimental and numerical structural performance assessment of a direct fired rotary kiln

D. D. Tyczynski, D. M. Madyira, W. Cieslakiewicz

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

Rotary kilns are advanced thermal processing systems, which are used to cause a chemical reaction or a physical change in a solid material through elevated temperatures. Due to the elevated operating temperatures, complex loading scenarios arise. These may lead to axial distortion, transverse distortion, blistering, necking, banana distortion, misalignment and kinks. These behaviours complicate structural performance assessments of rotary kilns. Furthermore, their sheer size and harsh operating environment make it difficult to take measurements. Therefore, numerical modelling tools can be applied to optimize the design of rotary kilns. The aim of this investigation was to develop a validated numerical model that can be used in the structural analysis of rotary kilns, and validating the model with experimentally measured data. Experimental data was obtained on a direct fired rotary kiln pilot plant at Drytech International for three different scenarios, i.e. (1) rotation, (2) rotation and loading and (3) rotation, loading and heating. Through real time strain measurements, transient response data was obtained. A transient finite element numerical model was then developed using Abaqus. A model was first developed for scenario (2). The final model, scenario (3), was then developed and used for the validation process. It was determined that the stress behaviour of the kiln is a function of the percentage fill in the kiln and temperature i.e. the strain and stress variation is directly dependent on the percentage fill and temperature fluctuations. Further work is required on a full-scale direct-fired rotary kiln.

Original languageEnglish
Pages799-810
Number of pages12
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Event11th South African Conference on Computational and Applied Mechanics, SACAM 2018 - Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
Duration: 17 Sept 201819 Sept 2018

Conference

Conference11th South African Conference on Computational and Applied Mechanics, SACAM 2018
Country/TerritorySouth Africa
CityVanderbijlpark
Period17/09/1819/09/18

Keywords

  • Direct fired rotary kiln
  • Finite element analysis
  • Structural analysis
  • Transient numerical simulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computational Mechanics

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