Mass Flow Rate of Granular Material from an L-ValveWithout Aeration - Selected Topics of Computational and Experimental Fluid Mechanics - page 291

Mass Flow Rate of Granular Material
from an L-Valve Without Aeration

D.A. Serrano, G. Ruíz Chavarría, S. Álvarez and A. Medina

Abstract In this work we introduce a correlation to estimate the mass flow rate
from an L-valve, without aeration, but under gravity flow, of a non-cohesive granular
material. This criterion is based on the mass flow rate formula for vertical pipes and
the comparison among, the here termed L-valve angle, and the angle of repose of the
material. Experiments support this criterion.

1 Introduction

Solid flow control devices are necessary and important components in industrial
applications that handle solids transport. Non-mechanical devices (such as seal pots,
loop seals, J-valves, L-valves and V-valves) are used for solid flow control. Among
all the non-mechanical valves, an L-valve has been one of the most widely employed
types. Not only because it is suitable for operation at elevated temperatures and
pressures, but also because of its simple design and cost effectiveness with minimum
maintenance.