Abstract
In order to suppress the irregular diffusion of dust in the unloading process of grab ship unloaders, an air curtain soft-sealing system was designed that can effectively block the air flow and restrict the diffusion of pollutants and reduce the average mass fraction of pollutants outside the air curtain plane by 70.02%. The grab unloading model was constructed using the Computational Fluid Dynamics−Discrete Element Method (CFD-DEM) coupling method, and the diffusion law of the gas−solid two-phase flow field of the falling bulk material was studied. Moreover, the motion trajectory and velocity distribution of the particle flow field and air flow field were obtained, as well as the maximum air flow field velocity of five planes above the hopper. The three-dimensional model of the air curtain jet was used and simplified, and the air curtain parameters were set based on the maximum air flow field velocity. The barrier performance of the air curtain under different air curtain jet modes, jet widths, jet velocities and induced wind velocities was simulated by the control variable method. The results show that selecting the appropriate jet widths and jet velocities can significantly reduce dust diffusion; under different jet modes, the order of influence was blow and suction, unilateral blowing and bilateral blowing; under a certain range of induced wind velocities, the air curtain had an obvious blocking effect. These results can provide a reference for the design and improvement of dust suppression of the air curtain soft-sealing system.