Student practical training / Bachelor theses / Master theses / Diploma theses / Compulsory internship / Volunteer internship

Background:

Granular mixing is an important industrial process. In the pharmaceutical industry for instance, the powder that is pressed to make tablets is produced by mixing precise quantities of active substances and excipients in granular state. The mixing needs to be done in such a way that the final powder has a homogeneous composition. Tablets may also need to be coated in a pan coater. Granular mixing also plays a crucial role there, as it greatly affects the thickness of the coating. Granular mixing is also often coupled with heat exchanging and solid-gas or solid-solid reactions, as is the case of rotary kilns in the cement, ceramics and metallurgical industries. The quality of the mixing is then a crucial factor to the efficiency of the overall process.

Objectives:

The objective of the work is to experimentally study the mixing process of two different types of granular particles inside a rotating drum under various operating conditions. More specifically, the mixing process is to be captured with a high-speed camera. The videos are then to be post-processed in order to extract characteristics of the particle velocity fields and mixing efficiency. The mixing facility is already available.

Tasks:

• Literature survey
• Mixing experiments under various operating conditions
• Post-processing of the results with MATLAB

• Student of natural sciences or engineering
• Willingness to conduct experimental work

Duration: 6 months
Remuneration: available