Study on the deformation of plastic films by virtual particle method

Sorting of waste plastics by wind is a kind of high-efficient and energy-saving processing method. However, the deformation of plastic films in the wind sorting process seriously affects the theoretical analysis accuracy. A novel virtual mass method has been introduced in this paper. The mathematical model for film deformation has been created and the line unit equation has been deduced. Based on the method, the deformation values at the wind speeds of 0.2 m/s and 0.35 m/s have been obtained. It coincides well with the analytical results from dynamic meshes and fluid solid coupling by the Ansys Fluent software. The wind sorting accuracy can be improved by achieving the deformation rules of plastic films. It can be used to guide the optimization of wind sorting machines for plastic films.