About:
The next KE Hub online Triage Workshop will be presented by Elkem.
Modelling the movement of fines through a heated reactor
Elkem is looking to gain insight into particle movement and residence time in upcoming experiments related to its silicon production process. We suggest a toy problem to represent this approach. A cylindrical reactor (~500mm height, ~100mm radius) is filled with a mixture of particles (~ 1 to 10mm). The reactor is heated up to a set temperature (~1750°C), which will promote chemical reactions between the raw materials to produce a product. The heating process will result in chemical transformation, sintering, volume expansion, and disintegration into smaller particles. During the process, the product is removed from the bottom of the reactor and additional particles are added to the top. The movement of the particles down the reactor is key to determining the residence time inside the reactor.
Elkem would like to use mathematical modelling to determine the movement of particles throughout the height of the reactor. We are also interested in the temperature of the materials inside the reactor and how solid velocity can impact this. The specifics of the materials have been excluded since modelling the chemical reactions between them is not of interest for this problem.
Academic mathematical scientists from KE Hub partner university departments are invited to take part in these workshops. If you would like to attend, please contact your local KE Champion to receive the meeting link or get in touch with the organisers, Lauren Hyndman and Diwei Zhou.
KE Hub Triage Workshops are informal discussion sessions where one B.I.G. Partner presents a challenge they are currently facing, with the aim of determining:
- What, if any, mathematical sciences approaches can be used to address the challenge?
- Who from the mathematical sciences community would like to take on the challenge?
- What mechanisms are most appropriate for driving the challenge forward?
The purpose of these workshops is to allow the B.I.G. Partner to engage directly with academic mathematical scientists to probe the scientific content of their proposed challenge. The environment is relaxed and interactive, and we encourage questions, clarifications and discussions throughout. You can find information on all upcoming and past workshops here.