Abstract

This work presents a numerical study on the solid particles conveyance behavior of a shale shaker used in oil production. The particle flow is simulated by discrete element method based on Soft-Sphere model and Hertz-Mindlin contact model. Two important factors, conveyance velocity and filter ratio, are selected to describe the working performance of shale shaker. The influences on that of three important working parameters, vibration frequency, excitation directions, screen slope, are studied. The results show that conveyance velocity is approximately linearly related to the three factors. In addition, particle size has a great influence on conveyance velocity as well. Filter ratio decreases with the increase in vibration frequency, while the two other factors have little influence on it. So appropriately increasing vibration frequency on the premise of satisfying the structural strength of shale shaker can not only increase movement speed, but also reduce the filtering ratio.