Experimental and Numerical Failure Analysis of a Rotary Vacuum Disc Lime Filter - Part 1: Fluid Flow Study of Filtration Process

The mechanical separation of solids from liquids (filtration) is a critical process in many chemical process industries. The rotary drum filter can be considered a work-horse device which is one of the oldest filtration devices that has been used for centuries. Its reliability is affected by several process parameters leading to reduced life and poor separation effectiveness. Common problems include breakage of filtration medium, wear of filtration holes and breakage of the backing plates. In this work, a study is conducted to understand the causes of significant wear exhibited in one rotary drum vacuum filter to understand the process parameters that led to this failure. A record of the process parameters was recorded and used to validate a CFD (CCM+) model that was used to conduct a parametric study of the systems.