Granular material

Bulk handling of powders and granular solids is common in many industries and often gives rise to handling difficulties especially when the material exhibits complex cohesive behavior. In this study the effect of moisture on the level of cohesion, and thus handleability, of iron ore fines is investigated.

Poster at Telford-UKIERI workshop on Anisotropic, heterogeneous and cellular materials: From microarchitecture to macro-level response

Powders and bulk solids are stored and handled in large quantities in many industries. The materials can differ greatly in size, shape …

Bulk handling of powders and granular solids is common in many industries and often gives rise to handling difficulties especially when the material exhibits complex cohesive behaviour. For example, high storage stresses in a silo can lead to high cohesive strength of the stored solid, which may in turn cause blockages such as ratholing or arching near the outlet during discharge.

In this study, the behaviour of iron ore fines with varying levels of adhesion was investigated using a confined compression test and a …

In this paper, the loading behaviour of iron ore fines was investigated using both a confined compression test and a uniaxial test. …

Click the Cite button above to get publication metadata for your reference management software in .bib format.

Industrial processes in many sectors including pharmaceutical, food, and chemical sectors involve bulk materials with varying degree of cohesivity. Cohesive solids can experience a number of flow problems including arching, ratholing, segregation, channelling and flooding. A better understanding of these problems can help to improve the handling of these solids and provide optimised solutions. The discrete element method (DEM) using soft contact approach as proposed by Cundall and Strack (1979) has been widely used to investigate the behaviour of granular materials subject to a variety of loading conditions. This paper describes a study using DEM to model cohesive-frictional particulate solids.

Many powders and particulate solids are cohesive in nature and the strength often exhibits dependence on the consolidation stress. As a result, the stress history in the material leading up to a handling scenario needs to be considered when evaluating its handleability. This paper outlines the development of a DEM contact model accounting for plasticity and adhesion force.