Modeling of Purge Bins Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Removal of residual monomers from final product is extremely important in plastics industry from both the safety and the quality point of view. This is commonly achieved by purging the material in a silo with air in order to avoid extreme concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the product. Under certain conditions, poor distribution of purge air can favor the ignition of VOCs and lead to a fire. In this work, we present the effective computational fluid dynamics approach to model the release of volatiles from granular media and to predict the concentrations in the purge gas. This modeling approach helps in determining the effectiveness of the purge mechanisms.