Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Visual experimental study on residence time of particle in plate rotary

heat exchanger
Luanfang Duan, Zhengyu Cao, Guihuan Yao, Xiang Ling ⇑, Hao Peng ⇑
School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 Pu Zhu South Road, Nanjing 211816, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

A plate rotary heat exchanger applied in CMC was presented.

The effects of operating parameters on MRT were investigated.

Empirical correlations for MRT prediction were regressed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The plate rotary heat exchanger (PRHE) was developed as a new type of heat transfer equipment applied
Received 12 May 2016 in coal moisture control (CMC) industrial process. Being an important factor during the producing pro-
Revised 14 September 2016 cess, the mean residence time (MRT) of particles inside PRHE was investigated. Visual experiments on
Accepted 16 September 2016
MRT were carried out under identical filling degree (f = 10%), while the particle flow rate, rotating speed
Available online 16 September 2016
and inclination of PRHE were varied. A Perspex rotary drum was used with an inner diameter of 300 mm
and a length of 1000 mm. Eight rectangular plates were designed as the ‘‘heating plates”. Two different
Keywords:
types of particles were utilized as experimental materials. The results indicated that MRT decreased with
Rotary heat exchanger
Mean residence time
the increments of particle flow rates, rotating speed and inclination of PRHE. Compared with particle flow
Particle flow rate rate, the variable of MRT was sensitive to the increasing of rotating speed and PRHE slope, especially
Coal moisture control when the rotating speed was low. And the distribution of MRT was similar ideally normal. Then, based
on the experimental results two empirical correlations were regressed by least square method, both of
the two correlations were valid under most of the conditions and the mean deviations in MRT prediction
were 8.1% and 8.0% respectively.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As a result of population growth and rapid economic develop-
ment, great demands on energy are rising in the world. Coal was
the quickest consumption among globally increasing consuming
energy sources according to the international energy agency
(IEA) and BP PLC’s statistical review of world energy [1,2], and
the coal-fired power plants have been hovering at about 40%. The
source of coal used for power generation are complex and change-
able. High moisture coal becomes one main reason for the issues as
high energy consumption, heavy pollution and inefficiency in the
fossil power plants. Scientific researchers have developed a set of
effective technologies of coal process and application to improve
coal quality and comprehensive utilization. So far, the coal mois-
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: xling@njtech.edu.cn (X. Ling), phsight1@hotmail.com
(H. Peng).
ture control (CMC) has been concerned increasingly. The steam
tube rotary dryer is a suitable equipment in CMC technique, which
is an improved indirect dryer. Research on the steam tube rotary
dryer has a long time history and mainly focused on the applica-
tions of product design, operation and control program optimiza-
tions [3–7]. Restricted by the structures of the steam tube rotary
dryer, blockade to steam flow and inadequate draining of conden-
sate might occur as the steam and condensate channel inside the
steam tube was hard to be distinguished, so the performance of
the heat transfer met great degradation during the long duration
of the operation.
In this paper, a plate rotary heat exchanger (PRHE) was devel-
oped as a new type of heat transfer equipment in CMC technique.
As shown in Fig. 1, it is essentially a cylinder carried in a gently
slanting position on riding rings or tires and rotated slowly on roll-
ers affixed to a base. In appearance, PRHE resembles very closely
the rotary drum type. The material to be heated is fed continuously
at a uniform rate into PRHE at the top side and is transported to the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.09.087
1359-4311/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
214 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222
Nomenclature
D plate rotary heat exchanger diameter [mm]
dp average particle size [mm]
G particle feed rate [kg/s]
F filling degree
L plate rotary heat exchanger length [mm]
N speed of rotation [rpm]
s inclination of plate rotary heat exchanger [m/m]
X random sample variable
discharge end. As the name implies, the heating plates distributed
around the cylinder wall of PRHE are the energy suppliers, which
are hollow rectangular plates and steam inside the heating plate
is the heating medium and condenses in the form of droplets on
the inner wall. Heating plates arranged parallel to the axis of the
dryer cylinder and extending the entire length of PRHE, which have
some difference with the arrangement of flights installed in rotary
drums.
The heat transfer phenomenon in PRHE is relatively complex
and the mean residence time of particles is illustrated to be one
of the most crucial indexes [8–10]. The transportation of particles
inside PRHE has something in common with conventional inclined
drum, particles are lifted from the lower of the drum and then freely
dropped from the upper [11]. Residence time is defined as the total
time that the particles are inside the equipment [12]. Being an
important factor in the industrial process, mean resident time
was always attracted researchers’ attention. A series of experiments
on residence time distribution of particles were conducted in con-
ventional drums. Different kinds of solid materials such as sand,
soy meal and sawdust were tested [13]. The influence of operation
parameters and drum geometry on the residence time distribution
was investigated [14–17]. Wang et al. [16] presented the influence
of the factors such as rotation speed, angle of inclination, kiln inner
diameter and inlet-dam on the mean residence time by experimen-
tal measures. The results indicated that the residence time of solids
declined along with the increasing rotation speed, incline angle and
inner diameter of the kiln, however, the effect of the dam height
was more complex. Lou et al. [17] established a nonlinear transmis-
sion model between the mean residence time and various factors
(physical property parameters of the materials, rotary kiln speed
and so on) by a multi-layer BP neural network. And the results pre-
dicted by the model were in relatively good agreement with exper-
imental data. Mass hold up was observed to be directly related to
feed rate, inversely related to rotary speed and slightly inversely
proportional to angle of inclination.
Internal flights are usually installed to improve materials
mixing and increase their surface renewal. The configuration of
Parcles
Screw feeder
P-1
Motor
Fig. 1. Schematic of plate rotary heat exchanger.
X_ sample mean
S2 sample variance
Greek symbols
s mean residence time [s]
U angle of repose [°]
qb bulk density [kg/m3]
qp apparent particle density [kg/m3]
flights are arranged at a regular spacing of body length. Different
shapes of the flights in cross-section view (such as radial, rectangu-
lar, angled and circular) are available [18–20]. Many physical
models were developed the dispersion and transportation of
solids in the rotary drums [21,22]. In reality, the motion phe-
nomenon of particles is influenced by flights in a rotary drum
and the flights could ultimately affect the mean residence time of
particles.
For the complexity of the mathematic model, the empirical cor-
relation of mean residence time received widespread attention in
industry applications. A correlation that was firstly proposed by
Friedman and Marshall [23] is generally suitable for the industrial
design requirements and is widely used at present. Chatterjee
[24,25] derived a correlation formula on the basis of the experi-
mental results with dimensionless number group to calculate the
mean residence time in rotary kiln. Repose angle of the particles
as a significant parameter was first employed introduced into the
empirical equation.
As mentioned above, the energy transfer and heating efficiency
is obviously influenced by the mean resident time of the particles
in rotary dryers and the mean residence time is primarily gov-
erned by varies operational conditions. For instance, particle feed
rate, rotational speed and slop of the rotary drum, and the inter-
nals (such as the flights in the rotary drums). Compared with the
physical and analytical models, the empirical correlation of mean
residence time are widely used in many industrial processes.
Because of the difference on the internal structures, the residence
time model of the rotary drum cannot be used directly for the
plate rotary heat exchanger In our present work, a laboratory-
scale visual plate rotary exchanger (PRHE) under cold condition
was designed, the mean residence time of particles is investigated
experimentally in the PRHE cylinder and the affecting factors
(such as particle properties, feed rate, rotational speed and incli-
nation of the PRHE cylinder) are varied during the experimental
process. Based on the experimental data, two empirical correla-
tions for the prediction of particles’ mean residence time are
regressed.
Heang-plate
Steam chest
Vaper
Condensed water
Belt conveyor
 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222 215

2. Visual experimental apparatus

A schematic diagram of the experimental system was shown in

Fig. 2, and Fig. 3 was the photograph of the experimental appara-
tus, which included: visual rotating heat exchanger, particle feed-
ing system, inclination adjustment system and rotating power
transport system.
Visual rotating heat exchanger: For the visual experimental
investigation of the particle flow, a batch rotating drum was used
as PRHE in accordance with the schematic in Fig. 4. It consisted
of a Perspex shell with a thickness of 5 mm, an inner diameter of
300 mm, and a total length of 1000 mm. Eight rectangular plates
were used as the ‘‘heating plates” for our experiments, the geomet-
ric dimension of single plate was1000  45  6 mm. At each end of
the shell, a flange with 500 mm in diameter and 25 mm in thick-
ness was installed as a supporting point, the rotary drum body rid-
ded on the rotor wheels by the contact with the flange. The Fig. 3. Photograph of the experimental apparatus.
experimental materials were discharged discontinuously by four
outlet arranged uniformly in the circumferential direction of PRHE
as shown in Fig. 5. The particles were collected by the collecting Parcle flow outlet
box and weighed every fifteen seconds.
Particle feeding system: The feeding system included a hopper Heat exchanger cylinder
and a screw conveyor. The total internal volume of the hopper Heang plates
should be at least equal to ten-minute’s flux of the particles during
the experimental process. The particles were fed by the screw con-
veyor steadily, different mass flow rate of the particles were Ø120
obtained by adjusting the rotating speed of the screw conveyor Flange
leaves. Ø500
Inclination adjustment system: A lifting jack was equipped to
adjust the drum inclination angle, which can be freely adjusted
Parcle flow inlet
within the range: 0–8/1000, a measure ruler was used to read
the slope of the drum.
Rotating power transport system: It consists of two pairs of
rotor wheels (driving wheels and driven wheels), one stepless
speed regulating motor and a digital display tuner. The rotor Fig. 4. Geometry of visual rotating heat exchanger.

wheels that working in the style of rolling contact were the

important rotating driving components in rotating power trans-
port system. the geometric dimension of both the driving and dri-
ven wheels were U100  20 mm, and the space between the two
pairs of rotor wheels were 300 mm, as shown in Fig. 5. The
wheels were covered by 10 mm thick rubber layer to prevent
slipping between the flange of PRHE and the wheels. The power
was provided by the stepless speed regulating motor, the speed
adjustment of PRHE was achieved through the control of motor
speed by a digital display tuner. The rotate speed can be regu-
lated at the range from 0 to 20 rpm. The motor provided energy
for the driving wheels running, and then the driving wheels
leaded the driven wheels rotating simultaneously through the
rubber belt. Due to the action of gravity and friction, PRHE
rotated stability.
3. Experimental method and particles characterization
3.1. Experimental method
The movements of the particles inside PRHE are complex, the
operation parameters and particle characteristics are two influen-
tial factors. There are two possible motion inside PHRE, lifted and
discharged. Following the rotation of PRHE, the particles are lifted
firstly by the heating plates, and they begin to be discharged when
the particles reach a certain position. The particles fall along the
parabolic trajectories under axial component of their own gravity.
MRT was measured in experiments with different materials and
different operation parameters, such as feeding flow rate, rotating
speed and inclination of PRHE. Tracer particle method was applied

Hopper
Visual rotang heat exchanger Screw coveyor

Digital display tuner

Rotor wheels
motor

Hinges Adjustment of the inclinaon

Supprong frame Measured ruler

Collecng box Liing jack

Fig. 2. Schematic of experimental system.

216 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222

Heat exchanger cylinder
Flange Heang plates
Parcle flow outlet
Driving rotor Driven rotor
wheel wheel
300
Fig. 5. Cross-sectional representation of the experimental apparatus.
widely in experimental investigations on the distribution of parti-
cle residence time [26,27]. The same bulk particles were dyed as
tracers for each experimental material, and MRT was determined
by the elapsed time that tracer particles consumed from inlet of
PRHE to outlet. The axial dispersion was appeared during the
whole flowing process due to the non-continuous particles, so
the outlet time differs in the same batch of particles injected into
PRHE [14]. MRT of the particles were calculated by Eq. (1).
1Xn
s¼ sk
n 1
where sk was the resident time of trace particle k through the rotat-
ing heat exchanger, n was the number of the trace particles.
In the experimental procedure, particles should be fed at a
steady rate, and the discharged particles were collected and
weighed every minute. When the flow rate of discharged particles
was equal to the feeding rate, the flow of the particles inside PRHE
was considered to reach a stable state. Then add 12 tracing parti-
cles into the flow for each experimental run and turn on the timer
simultaneously. Both the time and numbers coming out from the
tracing particles will be logged for each of the stages. After all
the tracing particles flow out, the feeding could be stopped, and
the mean residence time was obtained.
The particle flow rate was adjusted by altering the use count of
outlets located on PRHE. There are two kinds of particle discharg-
ing manners as shown in Fig. 6, for the larger particle flow rate dis-
charging manner, all of the four outlets are opened, and for the
discharging manner, only two outlets separated by 180° (opposite
each other) are opened and the other two outlets are closed with
blinds.
At the beginning of each experimental run, the particle flow rate
should be measured under the given experimental conditions (fill-
ing degree, rotating speed and inclination of PRHE). Here are the
steps needed: firstly, a certain amount of particles was filled into
PRHE at a fix filling degree (defined by the ratio of the particles
covered area in the cross section to the total cross section area of
PRHE) and then the experimental particles were fed into PRHE at
a steady rate, thirdly, the particles discharged were collected and
weighed at one minute interval and recorded. by compared the
weighted difference between particle fed and discharged, both
the particle fed rate and filling amount were adjusted, i.e. if the
particle fed weight larger than discharged, reducing the particle
quantity inside PRHE and accordingly decreasing the particle fed
rate. On the contrary, add some particles into PRHE and increasing
ð1Þ
the particle fed rate, repeat these steps until the rate of particle dis-
charged was equal to the fed rate, and the particle flow rate was
obtained.
3.2. Particle characterization
The aim of the present trail is to evaluate the effects of varies
operating parameters on MRT under the structure of PRHE. The dis-

Closed with blind

¹
opened

Opened and
parcles discharged

Closed with blind

Heat exchanger cylinder
Heang plates
(b) parcle discharge manner with two outlets opened
Parcle flow outlet
opened
¹
opened
Parcles at a fixed
filling degree
Opened and
(a) the inial state Of the experiment parcles discharged

Opened and
parcles discharged

(c) parcle discharge manner with four outlets opened

Fig. 6. Schematic of particle discharging manner.
 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222
tribution of the coal particles is a complex and amorphous region,
which may bring some technical difficulties in the experimental
processes. Coal is a reactive fuel which tends to ignite sponta-
neously in storage tanks. And the dying process of coal particles
are quite difficult. For the reasons above, some of the common par-
ticle materials such as quartz sands and mung beans with well par-
ticle size distributions were used in order to obtain the related
dimensionless parameters. The characteristics of these materials
were measured such as average particle size, bulk density, appar-
ent particle density and static angle of repose. All the characteris-
tics of the samples were listed in Table 1.
Average particle size: Material sieving is one kind of traditional
method for determining particle size distribution by using differ-
ent pole size of the mesh. The sieve shakers were used to obtain
the needed particles in narrow size distribution. The size analysis
was conducted in accordance with standard procedures [28]. A ser-
ies of selected sieves were stacked together in descending order,
which meant the sieve with large pore size of the mesh was
installed upper while the sieve with small pore size of the mesh
was installed under layer. A cover was needed for the top sieve,
and the particles falling from the bottom sieve were gathered every
minutes and weighed. The sieving procedure were continued until
the total weight of the falling particles has been less than 5 g per
minute. The particles inside the bottom sieve were collected as
experimental samples.
Particle density: A one liter container with the diameter of
120 mm was utilized to measure the bulk density of the materials
in order to minimize wall effects [29]. Eight measurements of ran-
dom bulk densities were made for each material, and the averaged
results were taken. The apparent particle density is measured
using Archimedes principle.
Static angle of repose: A discharge method was used to mea-
sure particles’ static angle of repose. As shown in Fig. 7, a rectangu-
lar container filled with experimental particles was fastened on the
horizontal work-bench. The rectangular container was made of
transparent Plexiglas slide, and one of the sidewalls could be slide
up and down. Slide the sidewall slowly and let the particles dis-
charge freely and finally particles in the container would tend to
a steady state. The static angle of repose can be calculated by mea-
suring the length of exposed surface.
Table 1
Characteristics of experimental materials.
Apparent particle density qp (kg/m3) Bulk density qb (kg/m3)
Quartz sands 2650 1390
Mung beans 1428 790
Plexiglass container
Sliding wall
Fastener
Work-bench
Fig. 7. Method for measuring particles’ static angle of repose.
217
3.3. Experimental conditions
In the present study, a total of 48 conditions were carried out as
shown in Table 2, with a fixed filling degree of 10%. At least three
replicates were carried out for each experimental run. For each
experimental material, the main variables are particle flow rate,
rotating speed and the inclination of the PRHE.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. The influence of feed rate on MRT
The impacts of the feed rate on MRT are shown in Figs. 8 and 9.
Obviously feed rate increment reduced MRT. For quartz sands, the
MRT was shortened approximately 24–35% and for mung beans,
the ratios raised to 32–48% with the particle feed rate increased
by double. The reasons accounting for these phenomena may be
explained as follows. In general, motion characteristics of particles
are directly determined by the feed rate. At the feeding side of
PRHE, the fill level slightly increases suddenly with the particles
fall from the screw conveyor. The increased fill level limits the
position exchanger of particles and leads to a lower axial disper-
sion which results in a larger MRT. On other hand, the particles fall
down to the bed surface under the gravity. Following the rotation
of PRHE, the particles are lifted by the heating plates and then dis-
charged. During the ‘lifted-discharged’ process, the axial disper-
sion was appeared. Under the interaction between the particles’
feed rate and heating plates, the increase on MRT is indistinctive.
Compared with the increase of the rotating speed and inclination
of PRHE, the change in feed rate has little influence on MRT. For
example, under the experimental condition of feed rate at
0.007 kg/s, PRHE slope at 0.02 m/m, and rotating speed of PRHE
increasing from 5 rpm to 8 rpm, MRT decreases from 1460 s
to1045 s for mung beans, and the decreasing ratio is about
28.5%, when the change of rotating speed is 60%. Similarly, the
inclination of PRHE increasing from 0.02 m/m to 0.04 m/m, with
the feed rate is at 0.02 kg/s, rotating speed at 5 rpm, and MRT
decreases from 716 s to 550 s, and the decreasing rate is nearly
23% for MRT.
Average particle size dp (mm) Static angle of repose U (°)
2 33
4 28
Sliding up
Φ°
218 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222

Table 2
Parameters of experimental conditions.

Variables Values
Particle flow rate G (kg/s) 0.007, 0.014 for mung beans For each kind of particles:
0.02, 0.04 for quartz sands Number of particle flow rate: 2
Rotating speed of PRHE N (rpm) 5, 8, 10, 12 Number of rotating speed: 4
Inclination of PRHE s (m/m) 0, 0.02, 0.04 Number of inclination: 3
Total experimental conditions: 2  (2  4  3) = 48

1400 G=0.007Kg/s G=0.02Kg/s

G=0.014Kg/s 800 G=0.04Kg/s
1200

1000
600
800
τ (s)

τ (s)
600 400

400
200
200

0
5rpm 8rpm 10rpm 12rpm 0
5rpm 8rpm 10rpm 12rpm
N N
(a) s=0 m/m (a) s=0 m/m
1200 G=0.007Kg/s
G=0.014Kg/s 700 G=0.02Kg/s
1000 G=0.04Kg/s
600

800 500
τ (s)

600 400
τ (s)

300
400
200
200
100
0
5rpm 8rpm 10rpm 12rpm 0
N 5rpm 8rpm 10rpm 12rpm
N
(b) s=0.02 m/m
(b) s=0.02 m/m
800 G=0.007Kg/s
700 G=0.014Kg/s G=0.02Kg/s
500 G=0.04Kg/s
600

500 400
τ (s)

400
300
τ (s)

300

200 200

100 100
0
5rpm 8rpm 10rpm 12rpm 0
N 5rpm 8rpm 10rpm 12rpm
(c) s=0.04 m/m N
(c) s=0.04 m/m
Fig. 8. MRT vs. feed rate for mung beans.
Fig. 9. MRT vs. feed rate for quartz sands.

4.2. The influence of rotating speed on MRT
Rotating speed is an important factor which affects the heating
process of the particles inside the rotating heat exchanger. As can
be seen from Fig. 10, MRT of the experimental materials inside
PRHE reduces with the increase of the rotation speed, which
follows an inverse proportion with the rotation speed. It is more
pronounced when RHE has a low rotating speed. As shown in
Fig. 10(a), with the increment of rotating speed from 5 rpm to
8 rpm, the mean residence time of the mung beans inside the heat
exchanger reduces nearly 30%. However, with the further increase
of the rotating speed, the decrease of the mean residence time
 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222 219

Mung bean s=0.04 lifting-discharging process along with the rotation of RHE. The
1500 Mung bean s=0.02 axial transport of particles mainly occurs on the bed surface, which
Mung bean s=0
is the key ingredient that influences the MRT. As the rotating speed
1200 increases, less time will be taken in every circulation of lifting-
discharging. Thus the times of particles falling on the bed surface
τ (s)

900 increases per unite time, which will increase the particle axial
velocity and finally lead to the decrease of MRT.
600
4.3. The influence of PRHE inclination on MRT
300
4 6 8 10 12 It is obvious that the MRT decreases with an increase of PRHE
(rpm) slope. As appeared in Fig. 11, MRT of both quartz sand and mung
(a) Experimental material: Mung beans bean decrease approximately linearly with the inclination incre-
Feed rate: G=0.007Kg/s ment of PRHE while other operating parameters are fixed. As can
be seen from Fig. 11(a), in the condition of rotating speed
Mung bean s=0.04 N = 5 rpm, the inclination of PRHE increases 0.01 m/m, MRT
Mung bean s=0.02
Mung bean s=0 decreases about 11.5%, and the similar decrease trend can be found
900
in other cases. The reasons can be explained in following aspects.
Particles are transported by gravity and friction force during the
movement in PRHE. When they reach the angle of repose, particles
τ (s)

600
begin to slide and roll down along the surface with the impact of
gravity. Because of the inclination of PRHE, when the experimental
particle is sliding or discharging in the heating plate, the moving
300 direction of the particle and the vertical surface form an included
angle. This is the cause of the axial displacement of particles in
4 6 8 10 12
sliding and falling. With the further inclination of PRHE, particles
N (rpm)
obtain larger gravitational force component along the axial direc-
(b) Experimental material: Mung beans
tion to increase particles’ axial velocity and the time that particles
Feed rate: G=0.014Kg/s consumed during the flow from PRHE inlet to outlet is significantly
shortened. Thus, the MRT is reduced.
1000 Quartz sand s=0.04
Quartz sand s=0.02
Quartz sand s=0 4.4. The residence time distribution in rotary heat exchanger
800
The particle flow inside PRHE was consecutive in the experi-
τ (s)

ments. The normal probability density function is introduced to

600
analyze the residence time distribution for the experimental
particles.
400 2
1 
ðxXÞ
f ðxÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi e 2S2 ; 1 < x < 1 ð2Þ
4 6 8 10 12 2pS
N (rpm) The MRTs of the tracers are considered as the random variables
(c) Experimental material: Quartz sands T(X1, X2, . . ., Xm), and the formula of the sample mean and sample
Feed rate: G=0.02Kg/s variance are defined:

1X m

600
Quartz sand s=0.04
X¼ Xi ð3Þ
Quartz sand s=0.02 m i¼1
Quartz sand s=0

500 !
2 1 Xm
S ¼ X 2  mX 2 ð4Þ
τ (s)

m  1 i¼1 i
400
Fig. 12 shows the residence time distribution curves of the
300 quartz sands. Based on the experimental conditions that the PRHE
inclination is 0.02 and the particle feed rate is 0.04 kg/s, the distri-
bution of residence time of experimental materials is similar to
4 6 8 10 12
normal distribution. Fig. 13 shows the effect of rotational speed
N (rpm) of PRHE on variance of MRT of quartz sands. With the rotational
(d) Experimental material: Quartz sands speed increasing, both the variance of MRTs and the peak value
Feed rate: G=0.04Kg/s reduce gradually, but the distribution range of particle resident
time expands.
Fig. 10. MRT vs. rotation speed.

4.5. The correlation for particle mean residence time

becomes more slowly. The decrease trend of the MRT has the There are many factors that could influence particle mean resi-
similar way on quartz sand, compared with mung beans. The dence time. In order to regress the empirical correlation of MRT
motion of mung beans and quartz sand inside RHE is a periodic based on the experimental results, correlational analysis should
220 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222

Mung bean N=5 rpm 1.0

1500 Mung bean N=8 rpm N=12 rpm
Mung bean N=10 rpm
0.8 N=10 rpm
Mung bean N=12 rpm

Probability density
1200 N=8 rpm
N=5 rpm
0.6
τ (s)

900

0.4
600

300 0.2
0.00 0.02 0.04
s (m/m) 0.0
(a) Experimental material: Mung beans 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Feed rate: G=0.007Kg/s τ min

Fig. 12. Distribution of MRT.

Mung bean N=5 rpm
Mung bean N=8 rpm
Mung bean N=12 rpm
900 Mung bean N=10 rpm

3
Quartz sand
τ (s)

600 F=0.02 Kg/s

s=0.02 m/m
2

S2
300

0.00 0.02 0.04 1

s (m/m)
(b) Experimental material: Mung beans
Feed rate: G=0.014Kg/s 0
4 6 8 10 12
Quartz sand N=5 rpm
N (rpm)
Quartz sand N=8 rpm
900
Quartz sand N=10 rpm Fig. 13. Effect of rotational speed of PRHE on variance of MRT.
Quartz sand N=12 rpm

the experimental data, the indexes are 0.479, 0.519 and 0.517.
As a result, the value of the mean residence time increases by
τ (s)

600
decreasing one of the operating conditions. The scattered plots
show the (s/qp) changes with the inverse of the product (G  N)
under different inclination of the PRHE in Fig. 14. It is very clear
that there exists a strong relativity between the two groups of vari-
300
0.00 0.02 0.04 ables for different slopes of PRHE in the experiments, and the slope
s (m/m) of PRHE is also confirmed to be an important factor for the mean
residence time [30]. Based on the analysis above, a new model in
(c) Experimental material: Quartz sand
predicting the mean residence time of the particle inside the PRHE
Feed rate: G=0.02Kg/s
is proposed:

600 Quartz sand N=5 rpm

s ¼ qp f 1 ð1=G  NÞf 2 ðsÞ ð5Þ
Quartz sand N=8 rpm
Quartz sand N=10 rpm where f1 is a second order polynomial function with the inverse
Quartz sand N=12 rpm
of (G  N), f2 is a first-order function for inclination(s). Two empiri-
cal models for MRT are established by regressing experimental
τ (s)

400 data with least square method:

!
0:04665 0:000395
s ¼ qp 0:032 þ  ð1  11:18sÞ ð6Þ
GN ðG  NÞ2
200  
0.00 0.02 0.04 0:055
s (m/m)
s ¼ qp 0:836 0:745
ð1  11:17sÞ ð7Þ
G N
(d) Experimental material: Quartz sand
Feed rate: G=0.04Kg/s The mean deviations in the MRT prediction are 8.1% for Eq. (6)
and 8.0% for Eq. (7), while the maximum deviation are 22.1% for Eq.
Fig. 11. MRT vs. inclination of PRHE. (6) and 19.3% for Eq. (7).
As presented in Fig. 15, the obtained experimental results are
plotted versus the predictions using Eqs. (6) and (7). Obviously,
be conducted to find out the highly sensitive related parameters. the nearer the plot approaches the diagonal line, the smaller the
Through quantitative analysis, the mean residence time follows mean deviation is, which indicate that the predictive results of
an inverse power law with the operating conditions such as incli- the empirical mathematical model agree properly with the data
nation, rotating speed of PRHE and the particle feed rate. By fitting obtained from the experiments. The plots lay on the dotted lines
 L. Duan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 111 (2017) 213–222 221

0.8 with continuous heating plates. The influences of operational

s=0.00 m/m parameters on MRT were presented, and average residence time
s=0.02 m/m correlations was developed. The conclusions are drawn as follows:
0.6
s=0.04 m/m
(1) Feed rate increment reduces particles’ MRT, but the influ-
τ/ρp(s⋅m3/kg)

0.4 ence is not remarkable compared with the variation of rotat-

ing speed and inclination of PRHE.
(2) The variable of MRT follows an inverse proportion with rota-
0.2
tion speed of PRHE. With the increase of rotating speed, MRT
of the particles inside PRHE decreases. As the PRHE runs at
0.0 lower rotating speed, MRT of the particles reduces remark-
0 4 8 12 16 20
ably. While the rotating speed increases higher, the reduc-
(G ⋅N) -1 (min⋅s/kg) tion of MRT is not apparent.
(3) MRT of the particles decreases approximately linearly with
Fig. 14. Plot of (s/qp) versus (G  N)1 for different inclinations.
the increasing inclination of PRHE.
(4) The residence time distribution of the particles is similar to
normal distribution, which is similar to conventional rotary
Predicted mean residence me using Eq.3 (s)

+20%
1200 drum.
(5) On the basis of experimental data, two empirical correla-
1000 tions are regressed to predict the MRT, and the mean devia-
-20%
tions are 8.1% and 8.0% respectively.
800

600 Acknowledgement

400 The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by

National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
200 51576095), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 51406077) and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
0 (Grant No. BK20151539).
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
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