Dynamic characteristics of binary sphere mixtures under air impact

• Published in: Powder technology Vol. 332; pp. 224 - 233
• Main Authors: Gou, Dazhao, An, Xizhong, Zhao, Haiyang, Zhang, Hao, Yang, Runyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.06.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Air; Air impact densification; Axial stress; Binary mixtures; Binary sphere packing; Binary system; CFD-DEM; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer applications; Contact stresses; Densification; Discrete element method; Dynamic analysis; Dynamic characteristics; Filling; Fluid dynamics; Hydrodynamics; Packing; Packing density; Particle interactions; Particle physics; Probability density functions; Stress analysis; Stress concentration; Stress distribution; CFD-DEM; Air impact densification; Dynamic analysis; Binary sphere packing
• DOI: 10.1016/j.powtec.2018.03.065
• ISSN: 0032-5910

This paper presents a numerical study on the packing densification process of binary sphere mixtures under air impact using a combined computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM) scheme. The effects of particle size ratio (PSR) on the force and stress characteristics including the depth-averaged normal force, probability density function (PDF) of normal forces, distributions of strong forces, mean stress distribution in the axial cross-section, and depth-averaged mean stress for various contact types, are comprehensively analyzed. In addition, the distribution of fluid-particle interaction forces is also discussed to explain the densification mechanism during air impact. The results reveal that the force and stress characteristics are significantly affected by both PSR and air impact. For each PSR, the packing density increases with the gas inlet velocity to a maximum and then decreases. Meanwhile, both the depth-averaged normal force and the mean stress in initial packing increase linearly with the depth, while the relationship between the depth-averaged normal force or mean stress and the depth is in power law growth in the final packing after air impact. The contact type of L-S (L-large sphere, S-small sphere) plays a leading role in the PDF of normal forces, while the effects of S-S contact type on the packing system is weak. Furthermore, apart from the L-L contact, the strong force percentage of other contacts increases after air impact densification. The air impact can effectively improve the uniformity of the normalized mean stress distribution for the packing of binary mixtures. Finally, the distribution of fluid-particle interaction forces demonstrates that the packing can be densified by obvious rearrangement of small particles for adjacent pore filling, and this trend will become more apparent with the increase of PSR. [Display omitted] •Packing densification of various binary sphere mixtures under air impact is simulated by CFD-DEM.•The forces in the packings with different contact types and particle size ratios are synthetically analyzed.•The stress distributions in the binary packing under air impact are identified.•Densification mechanism for different packings under air impact is investigated based on the forces.