Segregation of granular materials is a critical phenomenon in various industries, such as food processing, pharmaceuticals, and mining. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is an effective tool for gaining insight into granular segregation by providing particle-level information and the freedom to model mixtures that are often difficult or impossible to achieve through experiments. To ensure realistic material behaviour and correct representation of segregation, it is essential to calibrate the model parameters systematically. However, in the context of multi-component segregation, it is extremely challenging and computationally expensive to consider all parameters in the calibration procedure since interaction parameters between components must also be considered. This work aims to identify the dominant DEM parameters for modelling multi-component segregation during hopper discharge, chute flow and heap formation in a mixture of pellet and sinter. Utilising a representative example of a multi-component mixture with different sizes, densities and shapes used in blast furnaces, the investigation is done for various initial configurations as well as various mass ratios of the mixture. Our findings revealed that, while only particle-geometry interaction parameters dominate the segregation after the hopper and chute flow, particle-particle parameters are also significant for segregation in the heap. We also demonstrated that the downstream segregation is significantly influenced by the segregation upstream. Moreover, we found that the effect of pellet-sinter interactions is negligible. This research provides insights into the dominant DEM parameters, facilitating more efficient and robust calibration of multi-component models in future research endeavours.

The constitutive relation of Skorohod and Olevsky for viscous sintering is utilized to model the shrinkage and relative density evolution during the sintering process of ceramics. A new implicit integration scheme is presented and implemented. The computational cost is drastically reduced by combining this integration scheme with a solid-like shell element formulation, which also enables a faster and more accurate description of shape distortions, especially for thin geometries. The characterization and identification of the material viscosity is also improved via the Aquilanti–Mundim deformed Arrhenius description. The model robustness is examined with a spectrum of benchmark tests: ZnO sintering experiments from previous studies, as well as new lanthanum tungstate sintering tests. The model predictions for both dimensional shrinkage and relative density evolution are very accurate using the newly proposed material viscosity functions. The model improvements offer the possibility to simulate long-time sintering processes with higher accuracy and significantly reduced computational efforts.

We introduce the open-source package MercuryDPM, which we have been developing over the last few years. MercuryDPM is a code for discrete particle simulations. It simulates the motion of particles by applying forces and torques that stem either from external body forces, (gravity, magnetic fields, etc.) or particle interactions. The code has been developed extensively for granular applications, and in this case these are typically (elastic, plastic, viscous, frictional) contact forces or (adhesive) short-range forces. However, it could be adapted to include long-range (molecular, self-gravity) interactions as well. MercuryDPM is an object-oriented algorithm with an easy-to-use user interface and a flexible core, allowing developers to quickly add new features. It is parallelised using MPI and released under the BSD 3-clause licence. Its open-source developers’ community has developed many features, including moving and curved walls; state-of-the-art granular contact models; specialised classes for common geometries; non-spherical particles; general interfaces; restarting; visualisation; a large self-test suite; extensive documentation; and numerous tutorials and demos. In addition, MercuryDPM has three major components that were originally invented and developed by its team: an advanced contact detection method, which allows for the first time large simulations with wide size distributions; curved (non-triangulated) walls; and multicomponent, spatial and temporal coarse-graining, a novel way to extract continuum fields from discrete particle systems. We illustrate these tools and a selection of other MercuryDPM features via various applications, including size-driven segregation down inclined planes, rotating drums, and dosing silos. Program summary: Program Title: MercuryDPM Program Files doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/n7jmdrdc52.1 Licensing provisions: BSD 3-Clause Programming language: C++, Fortran Supplementary material: http://mercurydpm.org Nature of problem: Simulation of granular materials, i.e. conglomerations of discrete, macroscopic particles. The interaction between individual grains is characterised by a loss of energy, making the behaviour of granular materials distinct from atomistic materials, i.e. solids, liquids and gases. Solution method: MercuryDPM (Thornton et al., 2013, 2019; Weinhart et al., 2016, 2017, 2019) is an implementation of the Discrete Particle Method (DPM), also known as the Discrete Element Method (DEM) (Cundall and Strack, 1979). It simulates the motion of individual particles by applying forces and torques that stem either from external forces (gravity, magnetic fields, etc.) or from particle-pair and particle–wall interactions (typically elastic, plastic, dissipative, frictional, and adhesive contact forces). DPM simulations have been successfully used to understand the many unique granular phenomena – sudden phase transitions, jamming, force localisation, etc. – that cannot be explained without considering the granular microstructure. Unusual features: MercuryDPM was designed ab initio with the aim of allowing the simulation of realistic geometries and materials found in industrial and geotechnical applications. It thus contains several bespoke features invented by the MercuryDPM team: (i) a neighbourhood detection algorithm (Krijgsman et al., 2014) that can efficiently simulate highly polydisperse packings, which are common in industry; (ii) curved walls (Weinhart et al., 2016) making it possible to model real industrial geometries exactly, without triangulation errors; and (iii) MercuryCG (Weinhart et al., 2012, 2013, 2016; Tunuguntla et al., 2016), a state-of-the-art analysis tool that extracts local continuum fields, providing accurate analytical/rheological information often not available from experiments or pilot plants. It further contains a large range of contact models to simulate complex interactions such as elasto-plastic deformation (Luding, 2008), sintering (Fuchs et al., 2017), melting (Weinhart et al., 2019), breaking, wet and dry cohesion (Roy et al., 2016, 2017), and liquid migration (Roy et al., 2018), all of which have important industrial applications.

Powders are a special class of granular matter due to the important role of cohesive forces. Because the flow behavior of powders depends on both their flow states and confining stresses, it is difficult to measure/quantify with only one experiment. In this study, the most commonly used characterization tests that cover a wide range of states are compared: (static, free surface) angle of repose, the (quasi-static, confined) ring shear steady state angle of internal friction, and the (dynamic, free surface) rotating drum flow angle are considered for free flowing, moderately and strongly cohesive limestone powders. The free flowing powder gives good agreement of angles among all different situations (devices), while the moderately and strongly cohesive powders behave more interestingly. Starting from the flow angle in the rotating drum and going slower, one can extrapolate to the limit of zero rotation rate, but then observes that the angle of repose measured from the static heap is considerably larger, possibly due to its special history. When we stretch the ring shear test to its lowest confining stress limit, the steady state angle of internal friction of the cohesive powder becomes comparable with the flow angle (at free surface) in the zero rotation rate limit of the rotating drum test, by defining an appropriate effective stress.

Processability of powders in high load compaction constitutes a challenge due to particle rearrangement, compression and breakage occurring simultaneously. Although tableting is a central operation in pharmaceutical technology, a better understanding of the link between the macroscopic powder behaviour and its micro-mechanical properties is still required. In the present study, a dual focus on the powder compaction behaviour and the quality properties of final tablets using a compaction simulator is presented. Tableting has been performed for a wide size range of limestone powders from 10 to 400 MPa, in order to understand and compare the powder compaction behaviour at both low and high confining stresses. Compactibility of limestone, the relation between porosity and stress, has been assessed with both the classical (logarithmic) Heckel model and the newly proposed (double logarithmic) Wünsch model, confirming the improvement of the latter to enhance the description of the porosity change during compaction, as well as the model robustness towards non-pharmaceutical powders. The qualitative effect of particle size and thus cohesion on the bulk density at high pressure compaction is found to be very similar to the low pressure regime. However, the geometrical interlocking influence of large size powders found in a previous study becomes irrelevant at such high pressures. For d₅₀<10 μm, the tablet tensile strength remains almost insensitive to the size variation. However, for the coarsest grades, the tensile strength decreases with increasing d₅₀ at all compaction stresses. In addition, the tablet tensile strength is found to follow a non-monotonic trend with median particle size.

This paper aims to understand the effect of different particle/contact properties like friction, softness and cohesion on the compression/dilation of sheared granular materials. We focus on the local volume fraction in steady state of various non-cohesive, dry cohesive and moderate to strong wet cohesive, frictionless-to-frictional soft granular materials. The results from (1) an inhomogeneous, slowly sheared split-bottom ring shear cell and (2) a homogeneous, stress-controlled simple shear box with periodic boundaries are compared. The steady state volume fractions agree between the two geometries for a wide range of particle properties. While increasing inter-particle friction systematically leads to decreasing volume fractions, the inter-particle cohesion causes two opposing effects. With increasing strength of cohesion, we report an enhancement of the effect of contact friction i.e. even smaller volume fraction. However, for soft granular materials, strong cohesion causes an increase in volume fraction due to significant attractive forces causing larger deformations, not visible for stiff particles. This behaviour is condensed into a particle friction—Bond number phase diagram, which can be used to predict non-monotonic relative sample dilation/compression.

Measurement and prediction of cohesive powder behaviour related to flowability, flooding or arching in silos is found to be very challenging. Previous round robin [52] attempts with ring shear testers did not furnish reliable data and have shown considerable degrees of scatter and uncertainty in key measurements. Thus studies to build a reliable experimental database using reference materials are needed in order to evaluate the repeatability and effectiveness of shear testers and the adopted procedures. In this paper, we study the effect of particle size on the yield locus for different grades of limestone (calcium carbonate). We use the nonlinear Warren Spring equation to obtain the values of cohesion C, tensile strength T, and the shear index n. We recover linear (n = 1) yield loci for d₅₀>70 μm with respectively small C and T, with consistent, finite macroscopic friction C/T = 0.7. With particle size decreasing below 70 μm the response becomes more and more cohesive and non-linear (1<n<2). Then we compare the values of the parameters C,T and n obtained from two different shear testers (Schulze and Brookfield PFT). Both testers run at positive confining stresses (slightly different ranges) and give identical results for large fractions (weakly cohesive). For strongly cohesive samples, the PFT results are very similar to the ring shear tester, with slightly smaller values for T, C, and n. Further experiments with a variety of cohesive powders are needed to confirm or rebut this systematic difference the two testers display for cohesive powders. Finally, we compare the (extrapolated) values of T with a direct, transverse measurement running at negative stresses, using the Ajax tensile tester, and found a very good agreement, which validates the Warren Spring equation for negative stresses.

Granular segregation is a common, yet still puzzling, phenomenon encountered in many natural and engineering processes. Here, we experimentally investigate the effect of particles cohesion on segregation in dry monodisperse and bidisperse systems using a rotating drum mixer. Chemical silanization, glass surface functionalization via a Silane coupling agent, is used to produce cohesive dry glass particles. The cohesive force between the particles is controlled by varying the reaction duration of the silanization process, and is measured using an in-house device specifically designed for this study. The effects of the cohesive force on flow and segregation are then explored and discussed. For monosized particulate systems, while cohesionless particles perfectly mix when tumbled, highly cohesive particles segregate. For bidisperse mixtures of particles, an adequate cohesion-tuning reduces segregation and enhances mixing. Based on these results, a simple scheme is proposed to describe the system’s mixing behaviour with important implications for the control of segregation or mixing in particulate industrial processes.

The bulk properties of powders depend on material characteristics and size of the primary particles. During storage and transportation processes in the powder processing industry, the material undergoes various modes of deformation and stress conditions, e.g., due to compression or shear. In many applications, it is important to know when powders are yielding, i.e. when they start to flow under shear; in other cases it is necessary to know how much stress is needed to keep them flowing. The measurement of powder yield and flow properties is still a challenge and will be addressed in this study. In the framework of the collaborative project T-MAPPP, a large set of shear experiments using different shear devices, namely the Jenike shear tester, the ELE direct shear tester, the Schulze ring shear tester and the FT4 powder rheometer, have been carried out on eight chemically-identical limestone powders of different particle sizes in a wide range of confining stresses. These experiments serve two goals: i) to test the reproducibility/ consistency among different shear devices and testing protocols; ii) to relate the bulk behaviour to microscopic particle properties, focusing on the effect of particle size and thus inter-particle cohesion. The experiments show high repeatability for all shear devices, though some of them show more fluctuations than others. All devices provide consistent results, where the FT4 powder rheometer gives lower yield/steady state stress values, due to a different pre-shearing protocol. As expected, the bulk cohesion decreases with increasing particle size (up to 150 μm), due to the decrease of inter-particle cohesion. The bulk friction, characterized in different ways, is following a similar decreasing trend, whereas the bulk density increases with particle size in this range. Interestingly, for samples with particle sizes larger than 150 μm, the bulk cohesion increases slightly, while the bulk friction increases considerably—presumably due to particle interlocking effects—up to magnitudes comparable to those of the finest powders. Furthermore, removing the fines from the coarse powder samples reduces the bulk cohesion and bulk density, but has a negligible effect on the bulk friction. In addition to providing useful insights into the role of microscopically attractive, van der Waals, gravitational and/or compressive forces for the macroscopic bulk powder flow behaviour, the experimental data provide a robust database of cohesive and frictional fine powders for industrially relevant designs such as silos, as well as for calibration and validation of models and computer simulations.

MercuryDPM is a particle-simulation software developed open-source by a global network of researchers. It was designed ab initio to simulate realistic geometries and materials, thus it contains several unique features not found in any other particle simulation software. These features have been discussed in a companion paper published in the DEM7 conference proceedings; here we present several challenging setups implemented in MercuryDPM . Via these setups, we demonstrate the unique capability of the code to simulate and analyse highly complex geotechnical and industrial applications. The setups implemented include complex geometries such as (i) a screw conveyor, (ii) steady-state inflow conditions for chute flows, (iii) a confined conveyor belt to simulate a steady-state breaking wave, and (iii) a quasi-2D cylindrical slice to efficiently study shear flows. MercuryDPM is also parallel, which we showcase via a multi-million particle simulations of a rotating drum. We further demonstrate how to simulate complex particle interactions, including: (i) deformable, charged clay particles; and (ii) liquid bridges and liquid migration in wet particulates, (iii) non-spherical particles implemented via superquadrics. Finally, we show how to analyse and complex systems using the unique micro-macro mapping (coarse-graining) tool MercuryCG.

Granular materials and particulate matter are ubiquitous in our daily life and they display interesting bulk behaviors from static to dynamic, solid to fluid or gas like states, or even all these states together. To understand how the micro structure and inter-particle forces influence the macroscopic bulk behavior is still a great challenge today. This short paper presents stress controlled homogeneous simple shear results in a 3D cuboidal box using MercuryDPM software. An improved rheological model is proposed for macroscopic friction, volume fraction and coordination number as a function of inertial number and pressure. In addition, the results are compared with the locally averaged data from steady state shear bands in a split bottom ring shear cell and very good agreement is observed in low to intermediate inertia regime at various confining pressure but not for high inertia collisional granular flow.