Replicating cohesive and stress-history-dependent behavior of bulk solids: Feasibility and definiteness in DEM calibration procedure

This paper presents a multi-step DEM calibration procedure for cohesive solid materials, incorporating feasibility in finding a non-empty solution space and definiteness in capturing bulk responses independently of calibration targets. Our procedure follows four steps: (I) feasibility; (II) screening of DEM variables; (III) surrogate modeling...

A validated co-simulation of grab and moist iron ore cargo: Replicating the cohesive and stress-history dependent behaviour of bulk solids

The traditional design approach of grabs and other bulk handling equipment consists of manufacturing and testing physical prototypes. A novel design approach is to use a co-simulation of MultiBody Dynamics (MBD) and Discrete Element Method (DEM), in which the virtual prototype of a new concept interacts with bulk solids. Therefore, this study...

Technological and profitable analysis of airlifting in deep sea mining systems

Airlifting technology utilized in deep-sea mining (DSM) industry was proposed in the 70s of last century, which was triggered by the discovery of vast amounts of mineral resources on the seabed. The objective of this paper is to assess the technological feasibility and profitability analyses in terms of solid production rate, energy consumption...

A consolidation-penetration test for wedge-shaped penetration tools

Grabs are often used for unloading bulk carriers that deliver iron ore cargoes. The grabbing process starts with cutting the free surface of the bulk iron ore. For that reason, the initial penetration depth of the grabs' knives into the material is an important success factor in their filling ratio. The resistance to penetration is influenced...

Bulk properties variability and interdependency determination for cohesive iron ore

An ideal unit of bulk transport or storage equipment is able to handle cohesive iron ore with consistent productivity. In practice, however, uncontrollable bulk property variations affect the productivity. Therefore, it is important to understand the effect of uncontrollable variations on the process. This study quantifies variability and...

A hybrid particle-geometric scaling approach for elasto-plastic adhesive DEM contact models

The computation time of Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations increases exponentially when particle size is reduced or the number of particles increased. This critical challenge limits the use of DEM simulation for industrial applications, such as powder flow in silos. Scaling techniques can offer a solution to reduce computation time. In...