Abstract:
The transport of powder materials is an important aspect of process engineering. Various
industries such as the food, chemical, pharmaceutical, coating, information and
telecommunication industries have set a high demand on the performances of existing
plants, which are mainly for bulk powder transfer. Modern systems demand powder
transport systems which have a high quantitative accuracy. Therefore, the ultrasonic
material transport process technology has in the last few years developed into an attractive
alternative compared to the classical technologies. This technology involves transfer
of powder through a pipe in which the ultrasonic waves are transmitted. However, this
technology is not refined.
In this research, the traveling ultrasonic waves in an acrylic pipe were optimized by
investigating the optimal placement of the transducer on the pipe, the optimal length
and thickness of the pipe and the optimal frequency. The finite element analysis was
used in modeling, due to its ability to analyze a material in small cells and then combine
the results for the whole material. Thereafter, experiments were conducted in order to
validate the model.
An optimal ultrasonic traveling wave was obtained at the resonant frequency of 48.4kHz
at an optimal amplitude of 0.6mm can be used for powder transportation. The results
showed that the optimal position of placing the transducer was 3mm from the edge
of the acrylic pipe of optimal length of 500mm and internal and external diameter of
9mm and 14mm respectively. This optimization is important in developing new powder
feeding mechanisms which have simple design, consume low power and exhibit high
accuracy. Such a powder feeding device is useful where accurate control of powder in
small quantities is required in industries such as pharmaceutical, manufacturing and
chemical processing industries.
