Effects of hammer configurations on pearl millet grinding system with a hammer mill: theory and experiment

Abstract

In grinding processes using hammer mills, the configuration, number and speed of hammers are some of the main factors that can affect system performance. This paper aims to investigate the effects of hammer configurations in terms of specific energy consumption (SEC), grinding mass efficiency, and productivity. These effects were studied theoretically on the basis of classical grinding laws and experimentally with four different hammer configurations. From theoretical studies, a decreasing power model of SEC versus hammer configurations was developed, which was then validated with a determination coefficient of 0.99 in experiments using a 2 HP-DC hammer mill. The good agreement between theoretical and experimental results confirms that the specific energy consumption and the productivity are directly dependent on hammer configurations, but the effects are not significant for grinding mass efficiency.