The impact of particle deposition on the vibration of a disk stack separator - development of a soft-sensor for determining the separation efficiency

The inline measurement of process parameters describing the separation process of disk stack separators is expensive and complex. An alternative method for assessing the current process parameters employing more accessible data is required. In this work, the separation efficiency during the operation is estimated using vibration measurements by determining characteristic vibration patterns due to the increasing load of the separation bowl. The disk stack separator used is an industry-scale laboratory model of a disk stack separator, equipped with three accelerometers for vibration measurements. The influence of different bowl geometries and particle systems on the vibration patterns and the separation efficiency has been investigated. The gathered data and knowledge about the inlet conditions (volume flow and solid concentration) are used to create a soft-sensor for the separation efficiency. A deviation of approx. 2% between direct measurements of the separation efficiency and the results of the soft-sensor is reached.