(54as) Simulation of Bulk Solids and Granular Systems By Using Combined Discrete Element Models

Granular materials can be found in many industrial processes from chemical to energy, agriculture, mining, pharmacy and many other fields. They are almost always opaque, making the acquisition of experimental data below the surface difficult. DEM (Discrete Element Method) simulations are an effective way to study the physics of granular materials because they can simulate the micro-dynamic behavior of granular material on an individual particle scale and the motion of every particle can be traced. Since DEM was first considered, many modified discrete element models have been developed. However, most existing DEM simulation are just for spherical particles or a specific type of non-spherical particles. In this work, a combination of several types of discrete element models including spherical models, super-ellipsoids, multi-sphere models (with no interaction and deformation between sub-spheres), and bonded-spheres models (with interaction and deformation between sub-spheres) were used to simulate the flow of granular materials with many different shapes. Several simulation cases including the flow of particles in tumblers, blenders, and other devices were performed to validate the modeling approaches. The simulation results show that it is practical and efficient to combine different discrete element models together for simulating both spherical and non-spherical particles in bulk solids and granular systems.