Investigation of influencing factors of wear in a sandblasting machine by CFD-DEM coupling

In order to study the effect of particle characteristics and operating conditions (particle diameter, density, shear modulus, initial stacking height and inlet pressure) on the wear of the sandblasting machine, the gas-solid two-phase flow inside a sandblasting machine under different operating conditions was simulated by coupling the CFD and DEM methods in this work. Combining with the Archard wear model, the erosion was calculated and the erosion distributions were obtained in different sandblasting machine parts, including the top cover, inlet pipe, cylindrical part, conical part and lower pipe. The simulation results demonstrate that severe erosion in the sandblasting machine occurs at the lower pipe near the outlet, the conical part and the joints between different parts. The erosion volume order for different parts from high to low is: the lower pipe, conical part, cylindrical part, inlet pipe and top cover. The erosion volume of the sandblasting machine increases with the increase of particle diameter, density, shear modulus, stacking height and inlet pressure. Comparatively, the initial stacking height and inlet pressure have more influence on the erosion, while the particle density and shear modulus have less influence.