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Design of a Variable-Pitch Screw Feeder for Ultrafine Calcium Carbonate Powder based on EDEM Simulation

Saiyu Tang, Liang Guo
Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 239-252, 2026 DOI: 10.54691/s6h1jm78 March 22, 2026
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Abstract.Addressing the problems of insufficient powder feeding accuracy and significant flow fluctuations during the automated preparation of drilling fluids in laboratory environments, a screw feeding mechanism based on a variable-pitch screw was designed. Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations were performed using EDEM to investigate the powder conveying characteristics under different structural parameters. A comparative analysis of the mass flow rate and flow fluctuation was conducted. Under the same operating conditions, the mass flow rate of the variable-pitch screw was 0.373 g/s with a fluctuation rate of 13.3%. In comparison, the constant-pitch screw with an outlet pitch of 9.6 mm achieved a mass flow rate of 0.357 g/s with a fluctuation rate of 18.1%. The conveying capacities of the two structures were comparable, while the variable-pitch screw significantly reduced the flow fluctuations. The results demonstrate the structural advantages of the variable-pitch screw in high-precision continuous powder feeding, providing a reference for the structural design of precision feeding devices.
Keywords. Spiral Parameters; Transport Performance; Screw Conveyance; EDEM.
APA Citation Saiyu Tang, Liang Guo (2026). Design of a Variable-Pitch Screw Feeder for Ultrafine Calcium Carbonate Powder based on EDEM Simulation. Scientific Journal of Technology, 8(3), 239-252. https://doi.org/10.54691/s6h1jm78

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