Separation performance of double deck banana screens – Part 1: Flow and separation for different accelerations

Banana screens are often used for high capacity separation of iron ore, coal and aggregates into different size fractions. They consist of one or more curved decks that are fitted with screen panels with arrays of square or rectangular holes. The screen structure is vibrated at high frequency to generate peak accelerations of around 4–6g which separates particles flowing over each screen according to their size. Screens are often used to close comminution circuits and return specific size fractions of rock to different destinations such as pebble mills, crushers and back into the mills. All multi-deck screens are difficult to sample for intermediate products which makes measurement and optimization very difficult. Banana screens are even more difficult because the screen cut size varies with the varying slope of the decks. In this paper, the discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate a full industrial scale double deck banana screen for a range of accelerations. The nature of the particle flow through this complex machine is explored for a range of peak accelerations. Critical aspects of the flow are linked to the separation performance.