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Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Vol. 39, Nos.

56, 2003

INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

PRESSURE COMPACTING OF SOLID


HOUSEHOLD WASTES

L. G. Fedorov

In the recycling and disposal of solid household wastes (SHW) from cities, an important stage is the transportation
from the points of collection to the processing or transfer stations.
In the existing technology, small or medium-tonnage garbage vehicles ship the SHW from the premises to transfer sta-
tions [2], at which the wastes are consolidated for subsequent transportation by larger vehicles to disposal or recycling points.
Two methods are used to compact the SHW:
compaction in waste-handling containers;
briquetting by pressing on specialized mechanical or hydraulic presses [3].
These methods have advantages and shortcomings. For example, compaction directly in the vehicle is cheaper, but
the storage in marshaling areas is more expensive. The cost of compaction into dense briquettes is greater, but then they can
be transported by ordinary trucks, and stacking the briquettes on the area is much cheaper than compacting ordinary garbage
with special techniques. There is consequently a lower cost per unit in constructing the transfer stations, running the vehicles,
and operating the presses to briquette the SHW, as well as a reduction in the cost of the entire system for dumping the wastes.
The mean annual composition of the SHW briquettes in wt.% is as follows: paper and cardboard 37.5; food wastes
25.0; textiles 5.5; metals 5.5; ceramics and stones 5.0; wood chips and sawdust 4.5; plastics and polymers 4.0; glass 3.5;
leather and rubber 1.5; and other minor wastes 8.0. The pressed briquettes with that composition usually have adequate
strength and retain their shape during transportation and unloading. On the other hand, there is seasonal instability in the
SHW composition, with fluctuations in water content and environmental temperature often leading to the briquettes disinte-
grating during shipping.
This requires briquetting research to obtain working formulas, technical characteristics of the presses, methods of
evaluating briquette strength, and ways of determining the density and pressing pressure.
One can use data on the mechanics of such solid media used in processes in chemical engineering [4], including the
theory of powder pressing [5]. One needs to incorporate the aspects of SHW deformation related to the structure and links
between the components, as well as to the physicomechanial and rheological properties.
Qualitative Phenomena in Pressure Compaction. In the initial loose state, there are mainly adhesion interactions
between the components in this type of system due to mechanical forces, and also on account of the bonds due to bonding
and cementing materials.
There are several stages in the bonding between the components during mechanical compaction under pressure.
First (initial) stage: here there are mainly deformations in the structure due to the elimination of holes, the dis-
placement of gas, the behavior of any liquid components, and the transition of the solid parts into relatively dense packing.
As the pressure increases, the proportion of the structural deformations decreases, and instead shearing deformations begin
to predominate, which are accompanied by shape changes and disruption in the hard fragments and surrounding more plas-
tic materials. These deformations increase the number of surface contacts and produce conditions favorable to bonding
between the components in the subsequent stages. In the first stage, the individual components do not have time to form a

State Unitary Enterprise kotekhprom. Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftegazovoe Mashinostroenie, No. 6,
pp. 3942, June, 2003.

0009-2355/03/0506-0357$25.00 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation 357


bonded porous body, and when the load is removed, they revert to the unbonded loose state. If the process ceases at that stage,
it is necessary to introduce binders into the initial material in order to obtain a monolithic porous product.
Second stage: here the pressure is raised further and elastoplastic compression occurs. The contact surfaces give rise
to bridges from interactions of autohesion and cohesion types. The pressure needed to produce these bridges is dependent to
a considerable extent on the plastic properties of the solid components. The lower the yield points of the components, the
lower the pressure at which contacts are formed between them.
Sintering and surface liquid films may arise at the contact surfaces of components capable of plastic strain if the
melting points are relatively low. Subsequent solidification results in bridges of crystallization type between the particles. If
the plasticity of the material is low, which is characteristic of bodies or materials such as paper and textiles, then the strength
of the consolidated material is usually low.
At the end of this stage, the density attained is such that the contacts between components are largely retained while
the unbonded liquid in the pores is lost.
Third stage: the contact stabilization raises the pressure considerably by comparison with the previous stage with
only a slight increase in the density. At this stage, the individual components are extensively broken up, while bridges devel-
op between the fragments and the contact areas increase. Consequently, the porous material acquires strength the maximum
possible for that structure. It is undesirable to continue the compaction further.
This division into three deformation stages is qualitative, since it is impossible to define rigorous boundaries
between the stages.
The seasonal temperature has a marked effect on this compaction by pressure. On the one hand, as the temperature
rises, the plasticity of some components improves, while on the other, in the winter there is extensive bridging by material
such as ice.
Sometimes, recrystallization accompanies the bonding between components due to diurnal temperature variation.
However, recrystallization is not a necessary condition for component bonding for any material, so it may be considered an
auxiliary process completing the autohesion and cohesion bonding between the components.
The basic mechanisms giving rise to a monolithic porous body under external pressure in an initially loose material are
thus increase in the number of bridges and links between components on plastic strain and the growth of these by diffusion.
Relation between Pressure and Density for SHW Briquettes. A basic purpose in pressing is to attain a density
producing mechanical strength, so it is important to relate the forces to the density in pressure compaction. The relationship
may be called the pressing curve.
I now consider graphical methods of representing pressing curves of two types.
True pressing curve: a graphical relationship between the pressure (force exerted on the pressing area of the plunger)
and density of the briquette in a die under pressure.
Technological pressing curve: the graphical relationship between the pressure and the density of the extracted bri-
quette. In this case, the volume of the briquette differs by the amount of the elastic volume expansion. For a given pressure,
the density measured from the true curve is somewhat higher than that measured from the technological one (usually not more
than 15%).
The technological compression curve is usually employed, and it is often derived without allowance for the pressure
loss due to external contact friction on the side of the die. Then the pressing curves for a given material but with various ratios
of height and diameter may differ substantially, since the proportion of the pressure loss in friction is different in each case.
This causes difficulty in using laboratory data for actual conditions or in comparing the data from different researchers.
There are considerable advantages in constructing the pressing curves in pure form, with the effects of external fric-
tion excluded. In experiments, the effects of external friction can be reduced by pressing the material in a thin layer and coat-
ing the inner surface of the die with antifriction materials.
Figure 1 shows a technological curve for pressing SHW in coordinates density against pressure p. To eliminate the
effects of external friction, the experiments were performed with cylindrical briquettes of relatively small height H and with
a H /D = 0.250.50 (here D is diameter). With such H/D, the frictional losses do not exceed 5%, and one can assume that p
and are uniformly distributed in the briquette.

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Fig. 1. Technological curve for SHW pressing.

Figure 1 shows that at first increases sharply from some initial value i, and then less rapidly; the density tends
asymptotically to a certain constant value max as the pressure increases.
This curve may be expressed in the form of the pressing equation.
Various researchers have derived pressing equations by treating experimental curves or deriving the results analyti-
cally from a physical basis [4]. In the latter case, the experiments are used to determine the constants in the equation and to
check their applicability and confirm the assumptions.
An empirical equation has been proposed to describe the pressing curve (Fig. 1) in order to calculate the density as
a function of pressure, which in dimensionless form is

k = a bexp(cp), (1)

where k = /i is the compression coefficient, a, b, and c are dimensionless constant coefficients; p = p0 /p1; p1 = 1 MPa; and
p0 is the pressing pressure.
The a, b, and c in (1) are derived from the experimental curve as follows.
With p0 = 0, = i and k = 1; and for p0 , = max and k = kmax = max/i; then a = kmax, b = kmax1.
If d /dp = tan for p0 = 0, then

d dk
dp p=0
dp p=0
c= = .
max min kmax 1

For p0 d /dp = dk /dp 0, which agrees with (1), which thus becomes

k = kmax (kmax 1)exp(cp). (2)

Experiment shows that kmax = 58; c = 0.080.10; i = 200300 kgf/m3.


Stress and Density Distributions in Briquette Pressing. When SHW are pressed in a closed die, the external fric-
tion causes the pressure to decrease from the plunger to the base. The material is subject not only to longitudinal forces but
also to transverse ones due to the restricted displacement of the material on the inner surface of the die and friction between
the components, as well as to the arching effects. The friction between the components hinders the displacement, and the pres-
sure at the side surface is less than in the axial compression direction.
There is thus a fairly complicated state of stress and strain. To determine the stress distribution over the height of the
briquette, one usually assumes that the stress and density are constant in a cross section (planar section hypothesis). On that
hypothesis, one considers the pressing of a powdery material in planes orthogonal to the vertical axis, which remain planar
to the end of the pressing.

359
Fig. 2. Working scheme.

The following assumptions are made to solve the problem:


inertial and mass forces are neglected because they are very small by comparison with the pressure forces;
the walls of the die are absolutely rigid by comparison with the material, while the strain in the material along the
vertical z axis is considerably greater than that along the other two orthogonal directions x and y (a rectangular coordinate
system is used), so approximately
x = y = z = p, (3)

where x, y, and z are the normal components of the stress tensor, with the lateral pressure coefficient;
no allowance is made for the effects of the air in the material and possible temperature changes.
With these assumptions, the working scheme is as in Fig. 2; consider the equilibrium of an elementary layer of the
material. The forces acting on it produce an equation for equilibrium along the z axis as

pBL (p + dp)BL 21fr Ldz 22fr Bdz = 0, (4)

where B and L are the dimensions in the xOy plane orthogonal to the z axis, while 1fr and 2fr are the external friction stress-
es at the walls of the matrix respectively in the yOz and xOz planes.
The material slides over the die during the pressing, and the contacts frictional stresses obey the law of dry friction
(Coulomb law), so
1fr = 1y2fr = 2x, (5)

where 1 and 2 are the coefficients of external friction at the surfaces correspondingly of the die and the piston.
If 1 = 2 = fr, we have from (3) and (5) that

1fr = 2fr = fr = fr p. (6)

Solving (4) and (6) together gives

dp 2ffr ( L + B)
= dz . (7)
p LB

360
The right-hand side in (7) contains the product of ffr and , each of which is a variable dependent not only on the prop-
erties of the material but also on the pressure or density. As the pressure increases, fr falls, while increases. Then one can
assume that the product fr is constant within the pressure range used in the material. For SHW, fr is usually 0.100.25.
We integrate (7) and use the boundary condition p = p0 at z = 0 to get

2 f ( L + B)
p = p0 exp fr z , (8)
LB

where p0 = P(t)/LB and P(t) is the pressing force at time t.


Equation (8) enables one to determine the actual stresses (pressures) at any distances from the plunger surface.
The pressure is least in the material at the bottom level z = H:

2 f ( L + B) H
pb = p0 exp fr , (9)
LB

where H is the height of the pressing.


If the briquettes are square (L = B), (8) becomes

z
p = p0 exp 4 ffr . (10)
B

Then (2) and (8) allow one to determine the density as a function of height from the pressing equation:

L + B
k = kmax ( kmax 1) exp cp0 exp 2 ffr z . (11)
LB

In (11), p0 is expressed in MPa.


One can use either the true pressing curve or the technological one to derive kmax and c, from which the density in
any section can be calculated (under load or in the free state). These constants kmax and c should be derived for conditions
where the frictional forces are eliminated or minimized. Otherwise, when the density is determined from (11), the friction
will be incorporated twice, and the calculations will be unreliable. The lateral pressure coefficient is determined by exper-
iment by the methods given in [5].
The qualitative picture for SHW compaction in a closed mold of rectangular cross section has given rise to a work-
ing scheme and a solution for the stress distribution on one-sided loading.
These analytic expressions for the pressure and density distributions incorporate the forces used in the pressing, the
geometrical dimensions of the briquette, and the physicomechanical properties of the solid household wastes.

REFERENCES

1. N. F. Abramov and A. D. Sokolov, Performance of garbage-handling stations in the Moscow public cleansing sys-
tem, Chistyi Gorod, No. 1, 26 (2003).
2. L. G. Fedorov, Trends in the garbage-handling stations in Moscow region, Chistyi Gorod, No. 2, 610 (1998).
3. L. G. Fedorov, Managing Solid Household Wastes in Large Cities and Processing Systems in the Latter [in Russian],
Izd. Prima-Press, Moscow (1999).
4. G. M. Zhdanovich, Metal Powder Pressing Theory [in Russian], Metallurgiya, Moscow (1969).
5. M. B. Generalov, Mechanics of Solid Dispersed Media in Chemical Engineering Processes [in Russian], Izd.
Bochkarevoi, Kaluga (2002).

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