Numerical study on influence of particle shape and deformation on friction behavior of flexible cylindrical particle flows

AbstractA discrete element method (DEM) model for deformable particles is established and adopted to investigate the Jenike shear process of flexible cylindrical particles with different aspect ratios (4  <  Ar$$ Ar $$ <  6). The DEM model is firstly validated against both experimental data and analytic solutions. Then, numerical simulations are carried out and the effects of particles shape and deformation on their friction behavior are investigated through a particle-scale analysis on particle deformation, coord inate number, contact forces, orientation and internal friction angle. Comparative results between flexible and rigid particles under the same conditions show that the shear stress increases almost linearly with the normal load regardless of particle stiffness or shape. For both rigid and flexible p articles, the shear stress and internal friction angle increase with Ar$$ Ar $$. The shear stress and internal friction angle of the flexible particles are higher than those of the rigid ones especially when Ar$$ Ar $$ = 6. The latter has more inter-particle contacts but the former has stronger contact forces. When Ar$$ Ar $$ = 4 and 5, the flexible particles without many initial deformations will deform significantly during the shear process with a complex reconfiguration taking place. However, when Ar$$ Ar $$ = 6, the initial deformation and internal forces of the flexible partic les only change slightly during the shear process. It is thus be...

Source: AIChE Journal - November 20, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Yanping Zhu, Hao Zhang, Pengyue Guo, Xizhong An, Shengqiang Jiang Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research