Micromechanic modeling and analysis of unsteady-state granular flow in a cylindrical hopper

H. P. Zhu, A. B. Yu

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    Abstract

    This paper presents a numerical study of the micro- and macro-dynamic behavior of the unsteady-state granular flow in a cylindrical hopper with flat bottom by means of a modified discrete-element method (DEM) and an averaging method. The results show that the trends of the distributions of the microscopic properties such as the velocity and forces, and the macroscopic properties such as the velocity, mass density, stress and couple stress of the unsteady-state hopper flow are similar to those of steady-state hopper flow, and do not change much with the discharge of particles. However, the magnitudes of the macroscopic properties in different regions have different rates of variation. In particular, the magnitudes of the two normal stresses vary little with time in the orifice region, but decrease in other regions. The magnitude of the shear stress decreases with time when far from the bottom wall and central axis of the hopper. The results also indicate that DEM can capture the key features of the granular flow, and facilitated with a proper averaging method, can also generate information helpful to the test and development of an appropriate continuum model for granular flow.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)307-320
    Number of pages14
    JournalJournal of Engineering Mathematics
    Volume52
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2005

    Keywords

    • granular materials
    • mathematical models

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Micromechanic modeling and analysis of unsteady-state granular flow in a cylindrical hopper'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this