A reproducible test to characterise the triboelectric charging of powders during their pneumatic transport

Although several investigations had been carried out to explore the triboelectrification of powders, only few data are available on the experimental procedures and set-ups required to obtain reliable data. The present study deals with the development of a pneumatic test to characterise the tribocharging of fine powders. An experimental device was set up allowing on-line monitoring of the charge of both particles and transport pipes. Experiments were carried out using two types of powder (fine sugar and PVC) coupled with two types of pipe materials (Teflon and nylon). Results showed the extreme importance of the control of the relative humidity, the initial charge of particles and the charge dissipation of the walls to obtain pertinent data. Furthermore, the results showed that solids loadings higher than 1 (kg of solids/kg of air) are not proper to achieve reliable measurements. However, at very dilute solids loading (∼0.001) the time evolutions of the electrostatic charge and the mass of the powder follow similar trends so that the tribocharging becomes independent of the solids mass flowrate. This allows accurate assessment of the tribocharging of cohesive powders for which a regular flow cannot be guaranteed.