Metastability, disorder and jamming are the typical characteristics of amorphous systems, while the related structure changes remain unclear. Sphere packing is often used as a structure model for amorphous and crystalline states. In this article, sphere packing systems with packing densities ranging from 0.50 to 0.74 were simulated by using Discrete Element Method (DEM), and the obtained packing structures were assessed to investigate the densification process and jamming properties. An order parameter that can effectively distinguish the order and disorder of packing structures was proposed based on the distribution characteristics of jamming angles. Then the evolution of jamming characteristics during the transition from Random Loose Packing (RLP) to Random Close Packing (RCP) and the jamming-jamming relations of different packing structures were demonstrated. On this basis, a correlation between order-jamming-metastable states from the microscopic structural perspective was established, which is of valuable theoretical and practical implications for the characterization and synthesis of crystalline and amorphous materials.

The packing of multi-sized wet spheres is highly intricate, shaped by the interplay of interparticle forces induced by the presence of liquid. This study presents a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the microscopic particle arrangement within a multi-sized wet sphere packing. To achieve this, a multi-sized wet sphere packing is obtained experimentally and is then characterized by various analytical techniques, in terms of coordination number (CN), pair correlation function (PCF), topological and metric properties of the Voronoi-Delaunay tessellation. Through CN and PCF analysis, distinctive packing features such as agglomerates and particle chains are identified and characterized. Furthermore, the application of the Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation techniques uncovers the existence of heterogeneous clusters of particles in contact and non-contact states. These tessellation methods also shed light on the distorted pore structure that emerges within the packing. The insights gained from this study may serve to enhance the assessment and development of innovative simulation methods where capillary and liquid-related forces acting on wet particles with a size distribution are considered.

The agglomeration of cohesive particles can deteriorate fluidization quality and cause the defluidization of a bed, which is a common issue found in the applications of fluidized beds. This study aims to gain a better understanding of particle cohesion on agglomeration/fluidization behaviors and the effective methods for achieving a better fluidization quality, through numerical simulations based on the coupled approach of computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM). The effects of particle cohesion, gas velocities or flow conditions, and the bed geometry on the agglomeration and fluidization behaviors are analyzed. It is shown that the increase of particle cohesion can lead to deteriorated particle mixing, significant agglomeration of particles, and defluidization of the bed; the agglomeration-induced defluidization of highly cohesive particles is difficult to mitigate in a conventional flat-bottom fluidized bed. As large-sized agglomerates are more frequently found in the bottom of the bed, the spouted gas flow is then utilized and demonstrated to be effective in assisting the deagglomeration and fluidization of highly cohesive particles. Through the comparison of various spouted beds and spouted fluidized beds, the effective design of the bed bottom is identified for achieving a higher fluidization quality. Corresponding mechanisms underlying spout-assisted deagglomeration and fluidization are found to be much related to not only the enhanced particle-fluid but also particle-wall interactions in the confined space of a conical bed bottom, thus explaining the effectiveness and the importance of the bottom conical geometry of spouted beds. The obtained findings may help to understand the agglomeration-induced defluidization of fluidized beds and assist the fluidization of highly cohesive particles by the effective design of spouted beds.