Impinging Fluid in Immersed Granular Material to Obtain Local Fluidization for Breaking Sedimentation

Granular material is the most abundant material type in industry. Efforts to improve the efficiency of handling of granular material are continually ongoing. Sedimentation is one of the problems in transporting this material; when sedimentation occurs, the flow of material is obstructed and requires significant energy to clean the pipelines. The problem of sedimentation in pipes is thus an issue that merits serious attention. To solve the sedimentation problem, it is proposed to use the impinging method, which is a shock flow that is inserted into the granular sediment. This experiment to impinge immersed granular material is proposed to solve this depositional problem. Shooting high-speed fluid in a short time is expected to be one of the methods of preventing sedimentation that occurs in handling granular material. The material used in this experiment varies in granule size: very fine, fine, and medium-sized granules. These experiments provide an overview of post-impinging granular behavior with fluidization movement. For very fine granular size, post-impinging fluid cavity expansion occurs, followed by slow fluidization. This fluidization movement occurs for a long time. For fine granules, fluid cavity formation happens much faster, and fluidization occurs immediately. For medium-sized granules, post-impinging fluidization occurs immediately. To measure the impinging process to produce fluidization, the Reynold Number of Impinging (Re*) is used. The fluidization process occurs at Re* < 4000. The internal fluidization movements occur mainly at Re* values 2000-4000 (i.e. transition regions).