A world class paper plant was changing their processing area and improving their material handling process at the plant. The material handling equipment around the wood chip and sawdust stockpiles would be completely enclosed, but the stockpile was open and susceptible to wind impact. The plant sits right on a river and near neighboring communities. Upon studying the open stockpiles, it was deemed that dust would be generated by wind coming off the river and impact the local communities.
Dust Solutions was contacted to do a CFD (Computation Fluid Dynamic) study of the wind impacting the new stockpiles and dust generation from the stockpiles. Through this process a wind fence simulation was constructed looking at the impact of a fence on reducing dust generation across the area. An 80’ tall fence surrounding the prevailing wind directions was constructed around the two stockpiles and successfully reduced the wind impact across the piles generating the dust.
