Process Optimization of Pneumatic Separator Machine Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Pneumatic separator machine is one of the alternative methods used for the grain cleaning process. To obtain the efficient grain cleaning process, the design of a pneumatic separator should consider aerodynamic properties of the material such as terminal velocity value. Form of material, material density, water content are factors to determine the value of aerodynamic properties of material. This study attempts to design and optimize the process parameter of a pneumatic separation machine on cleaning paddy seeds from light impurities contaminants to achieve the optimal separation efficiency. A numerical approach was used to predict the minimum and maximum value of the air velocity required to optimally separate the impurities contaminant from grain product. An experimental design based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to evaluate the effect of variables, including air velocity, material feed rate and material moisture content on separation efficiency. Quadratic polynomial models were adjusted to the data to predict the behavior of the selected factors on the separation efficiency. The experiment confirmed that air velocity, water content and feeding rate are significant on separation efficiency while the interaction between factors were found to be insignificant. The statistical results confirmed that R2 of quadratic polynomial models was 0.83 for the separation efficiency. The increase in air velocity increased the separation efficiency, while there was curvature in the material feed rate factor. According to the response optimizer, the optimum separation efficiency was found at 5.39 m/s of air velocity, 2.18 kg/min of material feed rate and 10% of material moisture content. This approach enabled us to design and optimize the performance of pneumatic separator machine for different conditions of grain material.