Modeling and Simulation of Heat Transfer Phenomenon in Steel Belt Conveyer Sulfur Granulating Process

Complex heat transfer phenomena (including unsteady state conduction, convection and solidification processes) occur in steel belt conveyer sulfur granulating method. Numerical simulation of this technique is performed via a comprehensive and multifaceted one dimensional model. Since the air situated between the adjacent sulfur pastilles is essentially stagnant, therefore, the surface temperatures of neighboring pastilles are actually the same during cooling process and the radial heat transfer can be entirely ignored. Knowing this issue, the axial heat flow is the only remaining mechanism of heat transfer and the one dimensional model would be valid. After solving the partial differential equation of the model, the effects of various operating conditions (such as ambient air temperature, inlet cooling water flow rate and its temperature, initial temperature of the liquid sulfur droplet and steel belt conveyer speed) are studied on the performance of the entire granulation process. According to results, with increasing the cooling water flow rate and steel belt conveyer speed, solidification rate of the liquid sulfur droplet is increased. Furthermore, the solidification process of the sulfur droplet occurs more rapidly when the ambient air temperature, initial liquid sulfur temperature and inlet water temperature are reduced. To the best our knowledge, simulation of steel belt conveyer sulfur granulating process has not been addressed previously.