Proving the possibility to rationalize the process of seed materials separation with a vibro-pneumatic centrifugal separator using a theoretical model

Abstract

The object of research is the seed material and working bodies of a vibro-pneumatic centrifugal separator; the subject is their interaction. The established surfaces, which are the results of the simulation of the process of separation of seed materials in the vibro-pneumatic centrifugal separator, have a curve to the plane whose parameters are the speed of the air flow and the frequency of oscillations of the working surface. It is noted that this nature of the dependence of the purity of the «heavy» fraction of seeds on parameters of the separation process makes it possible to determine the rational ranges of these parameters, at which the maximum value of this characteristic is reached. Experimental simulation of the separation process in the vibro-pneumatic centrifugal separator of wheat, sunflower, and soybean seed materials under production conditions showed a high convergence of the results with the results of the simulation of the process under the same initial conditions. It was established that the correlation coefficients between the points obtained experimentally and obtained by simulation for the given results are in the range from 0.89 to 0.95. At the same time, the differences are the purity values of the «heavy» seed fraction, and not in the nature of its change due to changes in the parameters of the separation process. The expediency of using modeling when determining the rational values of the parameters of the separation process in the vibro-pneumatic centrifugal separator is noted. This will help increase the energy and resource efficiency of the equipment due to the absence of the need for experimental setup. The rational ranges of air flow speed and vibration frequency of the rotor of the vibro-pneumatic centrifugal separator for the separation of seed materials have been determined: wheat – 1.2...1.5 m/s; 4500...5100 cycles per minute; sunflower – 1.3...1.5 m/s; 4500...5000 cycles per minute; soybeans – 1.3...1.6 m/s; 5000...5500 cycles per minute