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by LOK CHRIS
2010, Powder Technology
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2009, Physical Review E
We report a detailed comparison of a slow gravity-driven sheared granular flow with a discrete-element simulation performed in the same geometry. In the experiments, grains flow inside a silo with a rectangular cross section and are sheared by a rough boundary on one side and smooth boundaries on the other sides. Individual grain position and motion are measured using a particle index-matching imaging technique where a fluorescent dye is added to the interstitial liquid which has the same refractive index as the glass beads. The simulations use a Cundall-Strack contact model between the grains using contact parameters that have been used in many other previous studies and ignore the hydrodynamic effects of the interstitial liquid. Computations are performed to understand the effect of particle coefficient of friction, elasticity, contact model, and polydispersity on mean flow properties. We then perform a detailed comparison of the particle fluctuation properties as measured by the displacement probability distribution function and the mean square displacement. All in all, our study suggests a high level of quantitative agreement between the simulations and experiments.
2012, Nuclear Engineering and Design
2015, PhD Thesis
Geophysical hazards usually involve multiphase flow of dense granular solids and water. Understanding the mechanics of granular flow is of particular importance in predicting the run-out behaviour of debris flows. The dynamics of a homogeneous granular flow involve three distinct scales: the microscopic scale, the meso-scale, and the macroscopic scale. Conventionally, granular flows are modelled as a continuum because they exhibit many collective phenomena. ecent studies, however, suggest that a continuum law may be unable to capture the effect of inhomogeneities at the grain scale level, such as orientation of force chains, which are micro-structural effects. Discrete element methods (DEM) are capable of simulating these micro-structural effects, however they are computationally expensive. In the present study, a multi-scale approach is adopted, using both DEM and continuum techniques, to better understand the rheology of granular flows and the limitations of continuum models. The collapse of a granular column on a horizontal surface is a simple case of granular flow; however, a proper model that describes the flow dynamics is still lacking. In the present study, the generalised interpolation material point method (GIMPM), a hybrid Eulerian -- Lagrangian approach, is implemented with the Mohr-Coloumb failure criterion to describe the continuum behaviour of granular flows. The granular column collapse is also simulated using DEM to understand the micro-mechanics of the flow. The limitations of MPM in modelling the flow dynamics are studied by inspecting the energy dissipation mechanisms. The lack of collisional dissipation in the Mohr-Coloumb model results in longer run-out distances for granular flows in dilute regimes (where the mean pressure is low). However, the model is able to capture the rheology of dense granular flows, such as the run-out evolution of slopes subjected to lateral excitation, where the inertial number I < 0.1. The initiation and propagation of submarine flows depend mainly on the slope, density, and quantity of the material destabilised. Certain macroscopic models are able to capture simple mechanical behaviours, however the complex physical mechanisms that occur at the grain scale, such as hydrodynamic instabilities and formation of clusters, have largely been ignored. In order to describe the mechanism of submarine granular flows, it is important to consider both the dynamics of the solid phase and the role of the ambient fluid. In the present study, a two-dimensional coupled Lattice Boltzmann LBM -- DEM technique is developed to understand the micro-scale rheology of granular flows in fluid. Parametric analyses are performed to assess the influence of initial configuration, permeability, and slope of the inclined plane on the flow. The effect of hydrodynamic forces on the run-out evolution is analysed by comparing the energy dissipation and flow evolution between dry and immersed conditions.
2005, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
2014, Scientific reports
We study the packing of fine glass powders of mean particle diameter in the range (4-52) μm both experimentally and by numerical DEM simulations. We obtain quantitative agreement between the experimental and numerical results, if both types of attractive forces of particle interaction, adhesion and non-bonded van der Waals forces are taken into account. Our results suggest that considering only viscoelastic and adhesive forces in DEM simulations may lead to incorrect numerical predictions of the behavior of fine powders. Based on the results from simulations and experiments, we propose a mathematical expression to estimate the packing fraction of fine polydisperse powders as a function of the average particle size.
Granular materials, which are essentially large conglomerations of macroscopic solid particles, are relevant for many different areas of science and technology. Their study forms a wide interdisciplinary research field attracting the interest of physicists, applied mathematicians, geologists, as well as chemical, civil, mechanical, and agricultural engineers.
We report on the results of extensive computer simulation of the effect of deformation on the morphology of a porous medium and its fluid flow properties. The porous medium is represented by packings of spherical particles. Both random and regular as well as dense and nondense packings are used. A quasistatic model based on Hertz's contact theory is used to model the mechanical deformation of the packings, while the evolution of the permeability with the deformation is computed by the lattice-Boltzmann approach. The evolution of the pore-size and pore-length distributions, the porosity, the particles' contacts, the permeability, and the distribution of the stresses that the fluid exerts in the pore space are all studied in detail. The distribution of the pores' lengths, the porosity, and the particles' connectivity change strongly with the application of an external strain to the porous media, whereas the pore-size distribution is not affected as strongly. The permeability of the porous media strongly reduces even when the applied strain is small. When the permeabilities and porosities of the random packings are normalized with respect to their predeformation values, they all collapse onto a single curve, independent of the particle-size distribution. The porosity reduces as a power law with the external strain. The fluid stresses in the pore space follow roughly a log-normal distribution, both before and after deformation.
2003
In this paper we review the simulation method of the non-smooth contact dynamics. This technique was designed to solve the unilateral and frictional contact problem for a large number of rigid bodies and has proved to be especially valuable in research of dense granular materials during the last decade. We present here the basic principles compared to other methods and
2011, Physical Review E
2007, The European Physical Journal E
2008, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
2010, Journal of Computational and Nonlinear …
2011, Powder Technology
2011, Icarus
2002, Physical Review E
We study by Monte Carlo simulation the compaction dynamics of hard dimers in 2D under the action of gravity, subjected to vertical and horizontal shaking, considering also the case in which a friction force acts for horizontal displacements of the dimers. These forces are modeled by introducing effective probabilities for all kinds of moves of the particles. We analyze the
2009, Journal of Testing and Evaluation
2011
The main subject of this thesis rests on the study ---at different levels of description--- of instabilities in systems which are driven, i.e., maintained far from equilibrium by an external forcing. We focus here on two main classes, namely, driven--diffusive fluids and driven granular gases. A particular driven-diffusive lattice model, prototype for nonequilibrium phase transitions, is investigated. A well-known disadvantage
2012, Physical Review E
2002
The objective of this study is to develop a simulation technique that enables to describe the interactions between snow and a moving surface. The develop- ments of this study are focused on the application of the interactions between a tire tread and a snow-covered road. Contrary to a continuum mechanics approach snow is considered to exist of discrete grains which are allowed to bond and collide with each other. There- fore, a discrete approach based on the extended Discrete Element Method is applied to the snow. Micro-mechanical models are developed to describe the deformational behaviour of snow. The micro-mechanical models describe the deformation and growth of the bonds between grains as well as the contact behaviour of snow grains on the grain-scale. Further, the age of a snow sample, the temperature and deformation rate applied are taken into account by the de- veloped models. The deformational behaviour of snow under brittle and ductile loading rates is validated with experimental data of common measurements in the field of snow mechanics. The simulation results successfully recapture the macro- and micro-scale deformation behaviour of snow and enable to identify the primary deformation mechanism in charge at the different loading rates, densities and temperatures. However, this approach allows treating individual snow grains during loading due to a rolling tire and predicting both position and orientation of grains. The micro-mechanical response of each snow grain in contact with the structure of the tire surface generates a global impact that defines the interaction forces be- tween the snow and the tire surface, which simultaneously indicate the strength of traction. In order to predict the elastic deformation of the tire surface the Finite Element Method is employed. A coupling method is developed between the discrete approach to characterise snow and the finite element description of the tire tread. The coupling method compensates quite naturally the shortages of both numerical methods. Further, a fast contact detection algorithm has been developed to spare valuable com- putation time. The coupling approach was successfully tested and validated with a small scale application but also with the large scale application of tire - soil interaction. The large-scale simulation results of tire - soil interactions showed to be accurate in comparison to similar traction measurements. Finally, the interaction of snow with rigid and deformable tread parts has been studied in accordance to friction measurements of the field of tire mechanics. The results show the ability of the simulation technique to describe the targeted interactions and give valuable insight into the underlying mechanisms.
2014, Chemical Engineering Journal
Particle size and shape are two important properties affecting the force structure in particle packings. By means of discrete element method, we investigate the force ratios, force network and force probability distribution in the three-dimensional packing of fine ellipsoids. The simulation results demonstrate that with particle size decreasing, the linear relationship between contact force ratio and bed depth fluctuates more significantly for ellipsoids. The force network for coarse particles demonstrates that the forces can propagate in long chains in the vertical direction for spheres; while they become more complex and zigzag for ellipsoids. Similar to spheres, exponential relationship also exists between porosity and inter-particle force ratio for ellipsoids, but it is also a function of particle shape. The probability distribution of contact force and total (normal) force are examined in details to quantify the force variation in the disordered packings of fine ellipsoidal particles.
Granular materials have numerous industrial and geophysical applications. However, many phenomenon exhibited by granular media are not yet fully explained. Nowadays simulation has emerged as an important tool to investigate the complex properties exhibited by granular media. The influence of side walls movement of a granular column is investigated by discrete element, molecular dynamics simulations. The evolution of stress profile and deflection of vertical stresses is due to different bead sizes, coefficient of friction between grains and confining wall is investigated by using large-scale discrete element MD simulations in 3D. In such a configuration, it is found that apparent mass systemically increases with the increase in diameter of granules. As soon as the wall stops moving, the column attains equilibrium. The stress profiles are in good agreement with the Janssen form for high friction coefficient, while some deviations remain for smaller values of friction coefficient. The wall movement augments the number of particle-wall and particle-particle forces at the Coulomb criterion. The results indicate the variation in shielding of vertical stresses in granular column; it can be attributed to the fiction between the beads and the confining walls of the container.
2009, International Journal of Modern Physics C
The contact dynamics (CD) method is an efficient simulation technique of dense granular media where unilateral and frictional contact problems for a large number of rigid bodies have to be solved. In this paper, we present a modified version of the CD to generate homogeneous random packings of rigid grains. CD simulations are performed at constant external pressure, which allows the variation of the size of a periodically repeated cell. We follow the concept of the Andersen dynamics and show how it can be applied within the ...
2010, Physical Review E
Many natural and man-made materials, such as sand, rock, concrete and bone, are multi-constituent, fluid-infiltrated porous solids. The failure of such materials is important for various engineering applications, such as CO2 sequestration, energy storage and retrieval and aquifer management as well as many other geotechnical engineering problems aimed to prevent catastrophic failures due to pore pressure build-up. This dissertation investigates two mechanical aspects of fluid infiltrated porous media, i.e., the predictions of diffuse and localized failures of porous media and the heterogeneous microstructures developed after failures. We define failures as material conditions in which homogeneous deformation becomes unattainable. To detect instabilities, a critical state plasticity model for sand is implemented. By seeking bifurcation points of the incremental, linearized constitutive responses, we establish local criteria that detect onsets of drained soil collapse, static liquefaction and formation of deformation bands under locally drained and undrained conditions. Fully undrained and drained triaxial compression simulations are conducted and the stability of the numerical specimens are assessed via a perturbation method. To characterize deformation modes after failures, a multi-scale framework is designed to determine microstructural attributes from pore space extracted from X-ray tomographic images and improve the accuracy and speed of a multi-scale lattice Boltzmann/finite element hierarchical flow simulation algorithm. By comparing the microstructural attributes and macroscopic permeabilities inside and outside a compaction band formed in Aztec Sandstone, our numerical study reveals that elimination of connected pore space and increased tortuosity are the main causes that compaction bands are flow barriers.
2012, Physica A: Statistical …
2011, International Journal of Multiphase Flow
2009, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science
The hidden order of atomic packing in amorphous structures and how this may provide the origin of plastic events have long been a goal in the understanding of plastic deformation in metallic glasses. To pursue this issue, we employ here molecular dynamic simulations to create three-dimensional models for a few metallic glasses where, based on the geometrical frustration of the coordination polyhedra, we classify the atoms in the amorphous structure into six distinct species, where " gradient atomic packing structure " exists. The local structure in the amorphous state can display a gradual transition from loose stacking to dense stacking of atoms, followed by a gradient evolution of atomic performance. As such, the amorphous alloy specifically comprises three discernible regions: solid-like, transition, and liquid-like regions, each one possessing different types of atoms. We also demonstrate that the liquid-like atoms correlate most strongly with fertile sites for shear transformation, the transition atoms take second place, whereas the solid-like atoms contribute the least because of their lowest correlation level with the liquid-like atoms. Unlike the " geometrically unfavored motifs " model which fails to consider the role of medium-range order, our model gives a definite structure for the so-called " soft spots " , that is, a combination of liquid-like atoms and their neighbors, in favor of quantifying and comparing their number between different metallic glasses, which can provide a rational explanation for the unique mechanical behavior of metallic glasses.
2006, Springer proceedings in physics
2007, Physical Review E
The structure and mechanical properties of a simple two-dimensional model of a cohesive powder are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Micromechanical ingredients involve elasticity, friction, a short range attraction and, possibly, rolling resistance (RR) in contacts. The microstructure of the cohesive packing varies according to the assembling procedure, from rather densely packed if isolated particles are directly compressed to much looser if the formation of large aggregates is allowed prior to compression. A crucial parameter is the ratio P*= Pa/F0 of applied pressure P, acting on grains of diameter $a$, to maximum tensile contact force F0. At low P* the final structure depends on the level of velocity fluctuations at the early stages of cluster aggregation. With RR the coordination number approaches 2 in the limit of low initial velocities or large rolling friction. The force network generally comprises small hyperstatic clusters with forces of the order of F0, joined by nearly unstressed, barely rigid arms. As P* grows, it quickly rearranges into force chain-like patterns. Density correlations witness a fractal structure, with dimension Df, up to some density-dependent blob size. WIth RR Df coincides with the ballistic aggregation result, despite a possibly different connectivity. Possible effects of some parameters on material strength are evoked.
2018, Extreme Mechanics Letters
We experimentally and numerically examine stress-dependent electrical transport in granular materials to elucidate the origins of their universal electrical response. The dielectric responses of granular systems under varied compressive loadings consistently exhibit a transition from a resistive plateau at low frequencies to a state of nearly constant loss at high frequencies. By using characteristic frequencies corresponding to the onset of conductance dispersion and measured direct-current resistance as scaling parameters to normalize the measured impedance, results of the spectra under different stress states collapse onto a single master curve, revealing well-defined stress-independent universality. In order to model this electrical transport, a contact network is constructed on the basis of prescribed packing structures , which is then used to establish a resistor-capacitor network by considering interactions between individual particles. In this model the frequency-dependent network response meaningfully reproduces the experimentally observed master curve exhibited by granular materials under various normal stress levels indicating this universal scaling behaviour is found to be governed by (i) interfacial properties between grains and (ii) the network configuration. The findings suggest the necessity of considering contact morphologies and packing structures in modelling electrical responses using network-based approaches.
In this paper, we develop an optimal particle setup method for initial condition with Centroidal Voronoi Particle (CVP) dynamics, which combines the Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) and Voronoi Particle (VP) concept. CVT optimizes the energy function in terms of compactness and consequently ensures the isotropy of particle distribution. The CVT configuration is computed by Lloyd’s algorithm, which decreases the energy function monotonically. A physics-motivated model equation with tailored equation of state (EOS) is employed to relax the Voronoi particle system such that the convergent equilibrium matches the target configuration. The resulting particle distribution approximates the given analytical profiles of spatially adaptive density, smoothing-length and mass distribution with high interpolation accuracy. The level-set method is introduced to describe arbitrarily complex geometries. A set of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations is computed to demonstrate the performances of the proposed method. Without parameter tuning, good performance is obtained for presented benchmarks implying its promising potential.
2010, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
2008
A micro-hydromechanical model for granular materials is presented. It combines the discrete element method (DEM) for the modeling of the solid phase and a pore-scale finite volume (PFV) formulation for the flow of an incompressible pore fluid. The coupling equations are derived and contrasted against the equations of conventional poroelasticity. An analogy is found between the DEM-PFV coupling and Biot's theory in the limit case of incompressible phases. The simulation of an oedometer test validates the coupling scheme and demonstrates the ability of the model to capture strong poromechanical effects. A detailed analysis of microscale strain and stress confirms the analogy with poroelasticity. An immersed deposition problem is finally simulated and shows the potential of the method to handle phase transitions.