Vertical screw conveyors are used widely in industry for elevating bulk materials over relatively short distances, but the problem of insufficient feeding and low conveying efficiency always exist in the vertical conveying process. In this paper, a vertical screw conveyor with variable screw section is presented, and the characteristics of vertical screw conveyor are investigated under the variable screw sections using discrete element method (DEM). The results show that the particle volume fraction in the inlet and the mass flow rate increase in the condition of variable screw section, and the screw rotational speed has a significant influence on mass flow rate. It is evident that the design of variable screw section provides an effective way in improving the particle feeding rate and the conveying efficiency.
Keywords: DEM; Particle conveying; variable screw section.