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Transition of granular flow patterns in a conical hopper based on superquadric DEM simulations

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Abstract

Granular flow exists widely in nature or industrial production, and particle shape is a crucial factor affecting the flow characteristics of granular materials. In this study, spherical and cylindrical particles are constructed by superquadric equations, and the discharging processes of granular materials in the conical silo are simulated by the discrete element method. Subsequently, the effects of blockiness, aspect ratio and hopper angle on the flow characteristics are investigated. The results show that the discharge rates of cylindrical particles increase and flow fluctuation decreases as the blockiness parameters and aspect ratios decrease or the hopper angles increase. Compared with spherical particles, cylindrical particles are more likely to cause interlocking and hinder sliding or rotation between particles, which results in intermittent granular flow. Furthermore, the flow pattern transition is dominated by the particle shape and hopper angle. The critical height between the mass and funnel flows decreases as the blockiness parameter decreases or the aspect ratio and hopper angle increase and reaches a steady state. However, the effect of particle shape on the flow pattern transition becomes negligible for a larger hopper angle. When the hopper angle is larger than 60°, the granular system basically has a uniform vertical velocity and all particles are in the mass flow. On the microscopic scale, cylindrical particles have a larger average coordination number and greater possibility of strong contact force than spherical particles, which may further cause the flow pattern transition of granular materials on the macroscopic scale.

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Acknowledgements

This study is financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2018YFA0605902, 2016YFC1401505 and 2016YFC1402706), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11872136 and 11772085) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. DUT19GJ206 and DUT19ZD207).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

    Siqiang Wang & Shunying Ji

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian, 116028, China

    Ying Yan

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This article is part of the Topical Collection: Flow regimes and phase transitions in granular matter: multiscale modeling from micromechanics to continuum.

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Wang, S., Yan, Y. & Ji, S. Transition of granular flow patterns in a conical hopper based on superquadric DEM simulations. Granular Matter 22, 79 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-020-01051-9

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