A DEM study of silo discharge of a cohesive solid

John P. Morrissey, Jin Y. Ooi, Jian Fei Chen, K. Tano, G Horrigmoe

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Bulk handling of powders and granular solids is common in many industries and often gives rise to handling difficulties especially when the material exhibits complex cohesive behaviour. For example, high storage stresses in a silo can lead to high cohesive strength of the stored solid, which may in turn cause blockages such as ratholing or arching near the outlet during discharge. This paper presents a Discrete Element Method study of discharge of a granular solid with varying levels of cohesion from a flat-bottomed silo. The DEM simulations were conducted using the commercial EDEM code with a recently developed DEM contact model for cohesive solids implemented through an API. The contact model is based on an elasto-plastic contact with adhesion and uses hysteretic non-linear loading and unloading paths to model the elastic-plastic contact deformation. The adhesion parameter is a function of the maximum contact overlap. The model has been shown to be able to predict the stress history dependent behaviour depicted by a flow function of the material. The effects of cohesion on the discharge rate and flow pattern in the silo are investigated. The predicted discharge rates are compared for the varying levels of cohesion and the effect of adhesion is evaluated. The ability of the contact model to qualitatively predict the phenomena that are present in the discharge of a silo has been shown with the salient feature of mixed flow from a flat bottomed hopper identified in the simulation.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationParticle-Based Methods III: Fundamentals and Applications - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Particle-based MethodsFundamentals and Applications, Particles 2013
    Pages298-309
    Number of pages12
    Publication statusPublished - 2013
    Event3rd International Conference on Particle-Based Methods Fundamentals and Applications, Particles 2013 - Stuttgart, Germany
    Duration: 18 Sept 201320 Sept 2013

    Conference

    Conference3rd International Conference on Particle-Based Methods Fundamentals and Applications, Particles 2013
    Country/TerritoryGermany
    CityStuttgart
    Period18/09/201320/09/2013

    Bibliographical note

    Morrissey, J.P., Ooi, J.Y., Chen, J.F., Tano, K. and Horrigmoe, G. (2013), “A DEM study of silo discharge of a cohesive solid”, III International Conference on Particle-based Methods – Fundamentals and Applications (PARTICLES 2013), 18-20 September, Stuttgart, Germany, 12pp.

    Keywords

    • Cohesion
    • DEM
    • Granular materials
    • Silo discharge

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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