(270e) DEM Study of Non-Spherical Ellipsoidal Particles in a Vertically Vibrated Packed Bed System

Uniform mixing is one of the important aspects in many industrial applications such as food, pharmaceutical, chemical, and fertilizer industries. Most of the granular materials found in the industries are non-spherical, among which an important variation from the spherical shape is an ellipsoidal (Oblate and Prolate). In the current study, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is employed to investigate the mixing behavior of the ellipsoidal particles in the vibrated packed bed system at a fixed amplitude and frequency. The study is carried out with the bidisperse particle by fixing one particle to be a sphere, and varying the aspect ratio (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0) of another ellipsoidal particle. The velocity fluctuation is observed maximum in the vertical direction. The generation of convection rolls plays an important role in mixing within the vibrated bed. The result shows that the non-sphericity and size of the particle have a significant effect on the mixing behavior. The extent of mixing (SMI) is calculated and observed that non-sphericity improves mixing. The observed simulation result is validated with the experimental result which shows good agreement.