Abstract
This paper describes performance evaluation of design parameters, air velocity inside a pipeline and pressure along a pipeline, using experimental measurements in an automated vacuum waste collection system. Automatic robot having six cameras is introduced to analyze the internal pipeline conditions whether waste accumulates at the bottom of the pipeline or not. Throughout the experimental measurements of the pipeline having the various shapes, it is found that pressure and internal air velocity linearly increase along the pipeline from a waste inlet to a waste collection station while air density decreases due to the air compression effect with high pressure. Although air velocity inside the pipeline at a waste inlet keeps design velocity range between 20 m/s and 30 m/s, it is noted that air velocity near the waste collection station exceeds maximum design velocity of 30 m/s. Pressure increase per unit length is changed from 17.6 Pa/m to 18.9 Pa/m, which depends on the air velocity inside the pipeline. From the investigation inside the pipeline with CCTV loaded on an automated robot, waste accumulated at the bottom of the pipeline is mainly found at the downstream of a circular curved pipe, an inclined pipe and a bended pipe.