DISCRETE AND CONTINUUM MODELLING OF GRANULAR FLOW

This paper analyses three popular methods simulating granular flow at different time and length scales： discrete element method （DEM）, averaging method and viscous, elastic-plastic continuum model. The theoretical models of these methods and their applications to hopper flows are discussed. It is shown that DEM is an effective method to study the fundamentals of granular flow at a particle or microscopic scale. By use of the continuum approach, granular flow can also be described at a continuum or macroscopic scale. Macroscopic quantities such as velocity and stress can be obtained by use of such computational method as FEM. However, this approach depends on the constitutive relationship of materials and ignores the effect of microscopic structure of granular flow. The combined approach of DEM and averaging method can overcome this problem. The approach takes into account the discrete nature of granular materials and does not require any global assumption and thus allows a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of granular flow. However, it is difficult to adapt this approach to process modelling because of the limited number of particles which can be handled with the present computational capacity, and the difficulty in handling non-spherical particles. Further work is needed to develoo an aoorooriate aooroach to overcome these problems.

DISCRETE AND CONTINUUM MODELLING OF GRANULAR FLOW

This paper analyses three popular methods simulating granular flow at different time and length scales: discrete element method (DEM), averaging method and viscous, elastic-plastic continuum model. The theoretical models of these methods and their applications to hopper flows are discussed. It is shown that DEM is an effective method to study the fundamentals of granular flow at a particle or microscopic scale. By use of the continuum approach, granular flow can also be described at a continuum or macroscopic scale. Macroscopic quantities such as velocity and stress can be obtained by use of such computational method as FEM. However, this approach depends on the constitutive relationship of materials and ignores the effect of microscopic structure of granular flow. The combined approach of DEM and averaging method can overcome this problem. The approach takes into account the discrete nature of granular materials and does not require any global assumption and thus allows a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of granular flow. However, it is difficult to adapt this approach to process modelling because of the limited number of particles which can be handled with the present computational capacity, and the difficulty in handling non-spherical particles. Further work is needed to develop an appropriate approach to overcome these problems.