The turbo air classifier is widely used powder classification equipment in a variety of fields. The flow field characteristics of the turbo air classifier are important basis for the improvement of the turbo air classifier＇s structural design. The flow field characteristics of the rotor cage in turbo air classifiers were investigated trader different operating conditions by laser Doppler velocimeter（LDV）, and a measure diminishing the axial velocity is proposed. The investigation results show that the tangential velocity of the air flow inside the rotor cage is different from the rotary speed of the rotor cage on the same measurement point due to the influences of both the negative pressure at the exit and the rotation of the rotor cage. The tangential velocity of the air flow likewise decreases as the radius decreases in the case of the rotor cage＇s low rotary speed. In contrast, the tangential velocity of the air flow increases as the radius decreases in the case of the rotor cage＇s high rotary speed. Meanwhile, the vortex inside the rotor cage is found to occur near the pressure side of the blade when the rotor cage＇s rotary speed is less than the tangential velocity of air flow. On the contrary, the vortex is found to occur near the blade suction side once the rotor cage＇s rotary speed is higher than the tangential velocity of air flow. Inside the rotor cage, the axial velocity could not be disregarded and is largely determined by the distances between the measurement point and the exit.
The effect of the structure of the rotors with openings in the bottom plate and without openings on the classification characteristics of a turbo air classifier was investigated.Ground calcium carbonate was used in the classification tests.The cut size of classified particles became smaller and the classification precision was reduced in the case with openings.The effect of wind speed on classification particles cut size decreased with increasing rotor speed in the classification process.On the other hand,the flow field of the annular regions in both cases was measured with laser Doppler velocimeter(LDV).The results demonstrated that the radial wind speed decreased in the case with openings due to split-flow,resulting in a smaller cut size.In the vicinity of the rotor without openings,the abrupt increase of tangential wind speed and especially intensified axial turbulence brought about adequate disagglomeration and higher classification precision.
