Investigation of screening performance of banana screens using LIGGGHTS DEM solver

•Using open-source software, screening performance of banana screens is numerically studied.•Industrial and laboratory banana screens by means of DEM are simulated.•Effect of design parameters on screening performance of banana screens is investigated.•To conduct DEM simulations, LIGGGHTS DEM solver is modified.•Simulation results are expressed in terms of applicable quantities for engineers.

Deeper understanding of screening performance of banana screens helps mineral processing engineers to control and optimize them. In this article, screening performance of banana screens using a DEM (Discrete Element Method) solver ‘LIGGGHTS’ is investigated. An industrial double-deck banana screen with five panels and two laboratory single-deck banana screens with three and five panels are simulated. Effects of design parameters including incline angle of each panel, vibration amplitude and vibration frequency on screening performance of both the industrial screen and laboratory screens are studied. Also, the effects of operational parameters including simulation time and feed particle size distribution on screening performance of the industrial screen are examined. Simulation results are expressed in terms of recognized and comprehensible quantities for engineers, i.e., screen efficiency and screening recovery. To validate simulation results, a parameter named partition number is defined. Comparison of the partition numbers of simulations related to the laboratory screens with those available in the literature demonstrates a good agreement which validates the DEM simulations and the used software. Also, the results indicate that the industrial and laboratory screens show a totally different behavior with respect to changes in design parameters.

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