DEM investigation of the conveyor belt sorting system for coated fuel particles with a large feeding rate

Coated fuel particles are used in the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) and the sphericities of fuel particles are important for the safety of the entire system. What's more, the number of the coated fuel particles is very huge in one reactor core. As a result, the accuracy and efficiency of the separation of coated fuel particles with various sphericities are both important. In this study, the conveyor belt sorting system is applied for the separation of coated fuel particles which can deal with the sorting process with large feeding rates. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is employed to investigate the belt sorting system and the effects of different parameters are also studied, such as the belt velocity, the inclination angle, the physical parameters, and the feeding rate. For the sorting process with a large feeding rate, the efficient length and the productivity are used to evaluate the efficiency of the sorting system. At last, a set of optimal parameters is proposed, which can provide guidance for the design and optimization of the belt sorting system.