International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163 Issue 04, Volume 4 (April 2017) www.ijirae.com ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ IJIRAE: Impact Factor Value – SJIF: Innospace, Morocco (2016): 3.916 | PIF: 2.469 | Jour Info: 4.085 | ISRAJIF (2016): 3.715 | Indexcopernicus: (ICV 2015): 47.91 IJIRAE © 2014- 17, All Rights Reserved Page -42 Investigation of mass flow properties of particles in Silodryers Attila Varga István Keppler László Fenyvesi Mechanics and Machinery Department Mechanics and Machinery Department Mechanics and Machinery Department Szent István University,Hungary Szent István University, Hungary Szent István University, Hungary attilavarga.tdk@freemail.hu keppler.istvan@gmail.com fenyvesi.laszlo@gek.szie.hu Abstract — The most relevant question of the mixing systems used in silo dryers is the mixing efficiency of screw augers. The aim of design is that the construction stirs the granular assembly on an optimal level i.e. mixing should be uniform and the mixed amount should as much as possible. Although the mixing process appears unsophisticated, it is a very complex phenomenon. Engineers and researchers work on this field, use mostly experimental data for designing and development because there not too much is known about what happens around the rotating mixing screw. In our prior work, the mixing efficiency and effective radius were determined [3]. In the present article, we investigate the mixing process with a mass flow rate, which determined with cylindrical volumes along the vertical axis. To model this phenomenon, we used the EDEM Academic 2.7. discrete element software. Keywords — silo dryer discrete element method, granular material I. INTRODUCTION In case of convectional dryers, the flowing air is responsible for the product’s drying. Due to it’s dehydrationability, hot air is used. The product which flow against the drying air is actuated by gravity. In the thin layer dryers the required drying rate appears before the loadout system and it can causes over drying rate. To increase the drying efficiency, the thick layer dryers were worked up (belt and band dryers). In the most cases, these dryers are used where the temperature and the velocity of drying air are low (herbs and leafy vegetables). For most of the listed dryers, the motion of the grain is unidirectional, and the relative (mixed) motion inside the granular assembly is not significant. This fact would be disadvantageous, if the moisture distribution of the granular assembly is not homogeneous. To reduce this inhomogenity and reach uniform, good efficiency drying rate, mixing systems are used. Mixing is a common task in agricultural and pharmaceutical industry. Design of mixing process and operation is very difficult, being largely based on judgment rather than science [1]. The guidelines for the selection of particle mixers are still not fully developed and predictions of the mixture quality after mixing operations are still not possible [2]. There are cases, when the mixing process can only be performed by using open mixing screws, for example in case of silos or silo dryers. During mixing – in most of the cases – we would like to reach the optimal level of mixing during the shortest possible time. Fig. 1 Parts of mixing system