Particle dynamics simulations of triboelectric charging in granular insulator systems

Particle dynamics simulations are carried out to study triboelectric charging in granular systems composed of a single insulating material. The simulations implement a model in which electrons trapped in localized high energy states can be transferred during collisions to low energy states in the other particle. It is shown that this effect alone can generate electrostatic charging in the system, and cause net electron transfer from larger particles to smaller particles. The magnitude of charging is small for systems of a single particle size but becomes much greater for a system with polydispersal particle sizes, due to the net electron transfer from larger to smaller particles. The negative charge of smaller particles, and positive charge of larger particles has been observed in field studies and laboratory experiments of granular systems.     

Discrete element modeling of triboelectric charging of insulating materials in vibrated granular beds

The triboelectric charging of granular insulating materials is very difficult to predict because of the complex physical mechanism involved in this process. The aim of this paper is to describe in detail the implementation of a numerical model of the tribocharging process taking place in vertically-vibrated beds of granular plastics. The charge exchanged in granule-to-granule and granule-to-wall collisions is computed by taking into account some electrical properties of the respective materials, their area of contact and the effect of the electric field generated by a system of high-voltage electrodes and by the charges of the granules themselves. The electrical model is coupled with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) which undertakes the whole granular dynamics and allows to compute accurately the contact surface of two colliding particles which is involved in the triboelectric charging model.Beside the numerical simulations an experiment has been conducted with mixtures of mm-size polyamide and polycarbonate granules in a laboratory vibrated bed to validate the model. The numerical results have been found to be in good agreement with the experimental ones.     

Numerical simulation of particle size effects on contact electrification in granular systems

Based on the contact charge transfer model between two particles due to a single collision proposed by Apodaca, the contact charges carried on a particle is derived due to multiple collisions, including the repeat collisions between two particles and the collisions with different particles, in mixed-size granular system of identical material. The effect of the particle size on the charges carried on the particle is simulated. The results indicate that for a mixed-size granular system, due to multiple collisions among particles, there exists a threshold particle radius, the particles with radius higher than which and the particles with radius lower than which carry opposite charges. The threshold particle radius is equal to mean value of particle size in the mixed-size granular system. Basically, the polarity of the charges carried on the largest particle is same as the polarity of the transfer charge carrier, and in case of the positive charge transferred, the largest particle will be positively charged and the smallest particle will be negatively charged, and vice versa. In the same size region, the more dispersive the particle size is, the more the net charges can be produced. In normal-distributed granular system, the magnitude of contact charge is determined mainly by the particle size distribution, size region, total particle number and the relative impact velocity.     

Nonequilibrium accumulation of surface species and triboelectric charging in single component particulate systems

Triboelectric charging occurs in granular systems composed of chemically identical particles even though there is no apparent driving force for charge transfer. We show that such charging can result from nonequilibrium dynamics in which collision-induced electron transfer generates electron accumulation on a particle-size-dependent subset of the system. This idea rationalizes experimental results that suggest that smaller particles charge negatively while the large ones charge positively. This effect occurs generally when there are high energy electrons on a surface that cannot equilibrate to lower energy states on the same surface, but can transfer to lower energy states on other particles during collisions.     

颗粒密度对旋转筒内二元颗粒体系分离的影响

用分子动力学的方法研究了颗粒密度对旋转筒内二元颗粒体系混合与分离的影响. 当增大粒度较小的颗粒密度时, 颗粒体系表现为巴西果效应, 而增加粒度较大的颗粒密度时, 分离状态则会发生反转, 表现为反巴西果效应. 进一步的研究发现二元颗粒体系的分离指数与颗粒的密度比之间存在定量的关系, 并利用Hong的渗流与凝聚竞争机理理论对密度分离状态的反转现象给予了理论解释.     

颗粒介质的离散态特性研究

回顾了颗粒介质中应力的分布和传播模式以及物体在颗粒介质中运动所受阻力的研究进展，并报道了我们对颗粒体系中代表离散特性的颗粒尺寸效应对颗粒介质特性影响的研究.研究发现物体由于自身重量在颗粒介质中下沉的深度随着颗粒尺寸的增大单调减小；球体在下陷过程中受到的颗粒床的支撑力，除了在约1 mm范围的表面作用区域以外，与下陷深度之间满足很好的幂率关系，幂值在1.5—1.0之间，并且此幂值随着颗粒尺寸的增大而单调减小.颗粒床的支撑力与下陷深度的幂率关系可解释为颗粒介质内部应力结构重组的宏观反应结果. 关键词： 颗粒物质 离散介质力学     

Effect of particle size distribution and dynamics on the performance of two-dimensional packing

Extensive computer simulation is used to revisit and to generalize two classical problems: (i) the random car-parking dynamics of A. Rényi and (ii) the irreversible random sequential adsorption (RSA) of parallel squares of same size on a planar substrate of area L². In this paper, differently from the classical RSA, the squares obey the size distribution n(a)=n(1)a^−τ, where a=1,2,3,… is the area of the squares. Using this scaling distribution and three classes of packing dynamics we study the final packing fraction of particles, ?(τ,L), and in particular its thermodynamic limit L→∞. We show that the efficiency to attain a high/low packing density of particles on the substrate is strongly dependent on the value of the exponent τ and on the characteristics of the dynamics.     

Hydrodynamic model for particle size segregation in granular media

We present a hydrodynamic theoretical model for “Brazil nut” size segregation in granular materials. We give analytical solutions for the rise velocity of a large intruder particle immersed in a medium of monodisperse fluidized small particles. We propose a new mechanism for this particle size-segregation due to buoyant forces caused by density variations which come from differences in the local “granular temperature”. The mobility of the particles is modified by the energy dissipation due to inelastic collisions and this leads to a different behavior from what one would expect for an elastic system. Using our model we can explain the size ratio dependence of the upward velocity.     

Effect of charging energy on transition temperature of granular superconductors

The effect of the zero-point fluctuations of the phase on the transition temperature T_c of a granular superconductor is calculated using a model which takes into account the short-range part of the charging energy. A self-consistent mean field theory predicts a critical value of the ratio of the Josephson coupling constant to the charging energy and the existence of two values of T_c, indicating the possibility of reentrance into normal state at the lower one.     

Discrete particle size distribution in ferrofluids

We present a method to obtain stable discrete particle size distributions from the room temperature magnetization curves of ferrofluids. This method has been successfully applied to a hydrocarbon base magnetite ferrofluid.     

Effect of particle size distribution on magnetic behavior of nanoparticles with uniaxial anisotropy

The effect of particle size distribution on the field and temperature dependence of the hysteresis loop features like coercivity(H_C), remanence(M_R), and blocking temperature(T_B) is simulated for an ensemble of single domain ferromagnetic nanoparticles with uniaxial anisotropy. Our simulations are based on the two-state model for T T_B and the metropolis Monte-Carlo method for T T_B. It is found that the increase in the grain size significantly enhances H_C and T_B. The presence of interparticle exchange interaction in the system suppresses H_C but causes MRto significantly increase.Our results show that the parameters associated with the particle size distribution(D_(d,δ)) such as the mean particle size d and standard-deviation δ play key roles in the magnetic behavior of the system.     

Size-dependent electron chemical potential: Effect on particle charging

Electrostatic charging of particles of identical composition, but different sizes, is a poorly understood phenomenon that may be of importance in dust storms, generation of lightning, numerous technological applications involving solid particulates, and in the agglomeration of lunar dust and inter-stellar dust clouds. We show that under optical excitation, the relative magnitude of surface to volume de-excitation gives size-dependent electron and hole concentrations. The consequent differences in chemical potentials can lead to charge transfer between particles of different size. The direction of charge transfer, from large to small or vice versa, depends critically on the properties of the materials.     

Effects of material strain on triboelectric charging: Influence of material properties

We address electrostatic charging of unstrained and strained latex rubber sheets contacted with a series of materials: polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyurethane (PU) and stainless steel (SS). For PTFE, strain causes a reversal in the direction of charge transfer. For PU, the direction of charge transfer is reversed after repeated contacts due to material transfer, and strain increases the number of contacts needed for this reversal. For SS, strain reduces the frequency of electrical discharges occurring. These effects may be explained by strain either changing material properties relevant to triboelectric charging, or changing the nature of contact between the surfaces.     

Effect of granular size on the angle of repose in the chute

Avalanche in the chute has been studied to examine how the sizes of granules affect the angle of repose θ _r when the width of the chute is fixed. The results show that the angle of repose in the chute has exponential decay with λ, which is the reciprocal of granular diameter d. The fluctuation of the angle of repose is also studied during the chute being tilted, and the results indicate that the fluctuation of the angle of repose increases with the increase of granular diameter d. Supported by the Youth Project Foundation of Taizhou University (Grant No. 06QN08)     

Analysis on surface charging of insulator prior to flashover in vacuum

Prior to the flashover across an insulator in vacuum, the insulator surface is usually charged. It is of great importance to investigate the charging phenomena for better understanding the flashover characteristics. It is considered that there are two kinds of mechanisms closely related to the surface charging of insulator i.e., the secondary electron emission occurred over an insulator, and while employing a perfect electrode contact ahead of electron emission into vacuum, the charge injection and accumulation occurred inside the surface layer of an insulator. Based on the rigorous analysis of the kinetic processes of both primary and secondary electrons, the related surface charges were theoretically deduced. Involving the detrapping of charges trapped and the recombination of charges injected, the charging process due to charge injection and accumulation was analyzed. Some formulas were given to express the density of surface charges.     

Influence of the particle size distribution on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids

In a previous study, we have obtained an equation to predict the thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing nanoparticles with conductive interface. The model is maximal particle packing dependent. In this study, the maximal packing is obtained as a function of the particle size distribution, which is the Gamma distribution. The thermal conductivity enhancement depends on the averaged particle size. Discussion concerning the influence of the suspension pH on the particle packing is made. The proposed model is evaluated using number of sets from the published experimental data to the thermal conductivity enhancement for different nanofluids.     

Application of multi-phase particle swarm optimization technique to retrieve the particle size distribution

The multi-phase particle swarm optimization (MPPSO) technique is applied to retrieve the particle size distribution (PSD) under dependent model.Based on the Mie theory and the Lambert-Beer theory, three PSDs, i.e., the Rosin-Rammer (R-R) distribution, the normal distribution, and the logarithmic normal distribution, are estimated by MPPSO algorithm.The results confirm the potential of the proposed approach and show its effectiveness.It may provide a new technique to improve the accuracy and reliability of the PSD inverse calculation.     

Ultrasonic determination of the particle size distribution in water-based magnetic liquid

Magnetic liquids are stable colloidal suspensions of nano-sized magnetic particles in a carrier liquid medium. In the present paper the determination of the particle size distribution function using ultrasonic spectroscopy is described. The ultrasonic spectra of water-based magnetic fluid measured in the 3.5-50 MHz frequency range are analyzed using formulas for the velocity and absorption of sound in dispersion media obtained by Vinogradov. The results of the ultrasonic studies are compared with the particles size distribution function evaluated from the processing of the magnetic susceptibility data.