Abstract:
To prevent tobacco buildup on the inner wall of a horizontal casing cylinder, the Hertz-Mindlin adhesion force model was introduced and simplified mechanical models were established for the tobacco adhesion phenomenon on the cylinder wall and the formation mechanism of the tobacco curtain inside the cylinder. Differential equations were also derived for the adhesion conditions and sliding/projecting movement of tobacco particles. Numerical simulations were conducted to analyze the impact of process parameters on tobacco adhesion conditions and the trajectories of tobacco sliding and projecting movement. Additionally, the atomization effects of casing spraying were simulated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The results showed that: 1) The adhesion of tobacco particles to the inner wall of the cylinder was closely correlated with factors such as the adhesive force, the static friction coefficient, and the rotational speed and inclination angle of the cylinder. 2) The static friction coefficient between tobacco particles and the cylinder, as well as the ratio of the adhesive force between a tobacco particle and the spiker surface versus that between a tobacco particle and the inner wall of the cylinder, significantly affected the minimum adhesive force required for tobacco particle adhesion. Meanwhile, the rotational speed of the cylinder substantially impacted the projecting trajectory of tobacco particles. 3) When the viscosity of the casing was randomly adjusted and increased from 0.001 to 0.700 kg/ms, the trajectory and mass fraction distribution of casing particles remained basically unchanged, though the average particle size of the casing decreased. 4) By adjusting the casing nozzle parameters, the amount of tobacco buildup on the inner wall of the cylinder could be reduced to ≤0.32 kg per batch. The findings in this research aid cigarette factories to reduce material loss and improve production efficiency.