Solid-fluid separation in the gravitational field: Courseware generation using computational fluid dynamics simulation

The growth of the Brazilian economy has resulted in an increased demand for engineers and the expansion of Brazilian Universities. As for the teaching of unit operations, a lack of interactive and illustrative courseware was observed. The modeling and simulation tools are excellent alternatives to predict the particle and fluid dynamics and have been used in the design and optimization of industry equipment, providing information in areas where it is difficult to acquire experimental measurements. This paper shows simulations using the computational fluid dynamics technique of the exercises presented in a course on solid-fluid separation in the gravitational field, such as sand chambers, dust chamber, horizontal and vertical elutriators. The effect of size, shape, and density of particles on the collection efficiency was evaluated. Figures and videos generated in this study will facilitate students' understanding of the phenomena involved in the particle collection inside those separation devices.