Study of the Design of a Drum Separator Using Halbach Array Magnets for the Removal of Fine Iron Particles

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the possibility of use of the Halbach array magnets in the design of a magnetic drum separator and to address their performance and efficiency in removing fine iron particles transported by conveyor belt. Such a study is based on the estimation and comparison between the particle capture efficiencies of two configurations of the drum separator, one designed by using conventional arrangement of magnets and other based on the use of Halbach array magnets. To check the capture efficiency, we computed the particle trajectory. For this, we solved numerically the magnetic and particle dynamic governing equations by coupling the finite element (FE) and Runge-Kutta (RK4) methods. The obtained results show that the Halbach configuration can give better capture performance.