MOVEMENTS OF CONDUCTIVE PARTICLES IN A HIGH-TENSION SEPARATOR FOR GRANULAR-MATERIALS

Electric field computation by means of the finite element method was employed for the numerical simulation of particle trajectories in the electroseparators for granular materials. The experiments, carried out on a laboratory electroseparator, partially confirmed the computational hypothesis. At the same time, they pointed out the necessity of improving the mathematical model. In order to reveal the specific physical phenomena, the preliminary researches presented in this paper were done on several simplified electric field configurations. Particle movement equations were written for a uniform mono-ionised electric field. The ''lift-off'' field of spherical and cylindrical particles was experimentally evaluated for different conditions: harmonic field, corona discharge between point-plate electrodes, mono-ionised field between coaxial cylindrical electrodes. The theoretical analysis and the experimental data pointed out the multitude of factors which determine the movements of conductive particles in corona-electrostatic fields of the electroseparators for mixed granular materials.