Simulation-based analytical design for aluminium recycling processing plant

Abstract

Indiscriminate disposal of beverage cans as waste poses a great threat to the environment, causing flooding, landfill, and blockage of drainages, leading to land pollution and sometimes accident. Hence, there is a need to design a system capable of converting these wastes into usable products. In this study, a simulation-based analytical design for aluminum recycling processing plant was carried out to ascertain the efficiency and reliability of the design before fabrication using finite element analysis (FEA) approach. The simulation results revealed a lesser maximum stress of 6.323 MPa for the furnace outer casing under the action of load with a displacement of 0.0795 mm. The stress of the machine components is less than the yield strength of the selected materials, making the machine fit and workable. The analytical results agree with the numerical analysis; hence the conceptual design is fit for fabrication based on the design analysis and evaluation. After the design analysis and simulation, the designed recycling process plant parts are found to be under negligible deflection and stress which is far below the yield strength of chosen materials.

Design and finite element method based structural analysis of a pet bottles-to-plastic flakes recycling plant

“…The conveyor belt weight (W belt ) per unit length is determined using Eq. ( 4) [34]. (4) where m belt is the mass of the belt which can be obtained using Eq.…”

“…(4) where m belt is the mass of the belt which can be obtained using Eq. ( 5) [34], and L is the length (5) where ρ belt , L belt , t belt , w belt are the density (7850 kg/m 3 ), length, thickness (0.03 m), and width (0.65 m) of the belt respectively.…”

“…The number of carrying idlers (I c6 ) for length L6 is determined with Eq. ( 6) [34]. (6) where d c is the pitch diameter (0.06 m) of the carrying idlers.…”

“…(8) The minimum diameter of the conveyor driver drum or pulley (d d.min ) was obtained using Eq. ( 9) [34]. (9) where F u is the effective belt pull, C 3 is a constant for drive drum selected to be 25 for steel drum in dry condition, b 0 is 0.65 m, and β is 180 o .…”

“…The area, mass of the shaft, and volume of a flight are obtained with Eq. ( 25) to ( 27) respectively [34]. (25) (26) (27) where A s is the surface area of the shaft, r is the radius of the shaft, M s is the mass of the shaft, ρ is the density of the shaft, v is the volume of the shaft, V flight is the volume of a flight, L is the length of a flight (700 mm), b is the breadth of a flight (70 mm), and t is the thickness of a flight (3 mm).…”