Case studies of heat conduction in rotary drums with L-shaped lifters via DEM

Rotary drums are widely used in numerous processes in industry to handle granular materials. In present work, heat transfer processes in drums with L-shaped lifters have been investigated by coupling the discrete element method (DEM) with heat transfer model. Effects of both operational and structural parameters have been analyzed. It is found that increasing rotational speed could improve heat transfer to a certain extent, however, just in relatively low speed stage. When lifter number increases, the heat transfer speed slightly decreases. An increasing lifter height could promote heat transfer first and then reduces it, but the amplitude of variation keeps small. The heat transfer rate descends with increasing lifter width. The heat transfer mechanisms have also been discussed by comparing mixing rates, total contact areas for thermal conduction, time constants (TC) indicating apparent heat transfer rate and effective heat transfer coefficients(HTC). It is concluded that dynamic conduction due to particle flow is dominated in all cases. The L-shaped lifers are turned out not a good choice when heat conduction between particles is prominent.