A class of particulate problems suited to FDEM requiring accurate simulation of shape effects in packed granular structu
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A class of particulate problems suited to FDEM requiring accurate simulation of shape effects in packed granular structures John‑Paul Latham1 · J. Xiang1 · A. Farsi1 · C. Joulin1 · N. Karantzoulis1 Received: 19 June 2019 / Accepted: 14 October 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract In many granular material simulation applications, DEM capability is focused on the dynamic solid particulate flow properties and on systems in which millions of particles are involved. The time of relevance is many seconds or even minutes of real time. Simplifying assumptions are made to achieve run completion in practical timescales. There are certain applications, typically involving manufactured particles, where a representative pack is of the order of a thousand particles. More accurate capturing of the influence of complex shape is then often possible. Higher accuracies are necessary to model the topology of the void space, for example, for further CFD simulation and optimisation of fluid flow properties. Alternatively, the accuracy may be critical for structural performance and the force or stress transmission through the contact points is to be controlled to avoid material damage and poor function. This paper briefly summarises methods for simulation of shape effects on packing structures in the granular community and narrows the scope to problems where shape effects are of overriding concern. Two applications of mono-sized, mono-shaped packing problems are highlighted: catalyst support pellets in gas reforming and concrete armour units in breakwater structures. The clear advantages of FDEM for complex-shaped particle interactions in packed systems with relatively few particles are discussed. A class of particulate problems, ‘FDEM-suited’ problems, ones that are ideal to be solved by FDEM rather than by DEM, is proposed for science and engineering use. Keywords FDEM · Numerical simulation · Particle packing · Catalyst pellets · Concrete armour units · Concave shape · Non-spherical shape
1 Introduction In industry, the purpose of applying DEM is commonly to gain a better understanding of how to optimise a manufacturing process, one which invariably includes dynamic granular flows. To be representative, the simulated particle numbers involved are typically many (tens or hundreds of) millions and the granular flow process of interest for simulation may have a duration of many seconds or minutes, e.g. sieving/ screening, hopper/chute/belt conveying, crushing, milling, mixing, coating, tableting, etc. In such cases, even with massively parallelised computer hardware, accuracy of the particle geometry and hence particle-to-particle interaction often must be forfeited. Indeed, sometimes the governing physics is highly complex, especially for fine particles dominated * John‑Paul Latham [email protected] 1
AMCG, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
by adhesive forces, so that non-spherical particle geometry is considered only of second-order importance and spherical shape app
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