Numerical method of gravity-assisted granular mixing through a pipe
Abstract
We propose a model for gravity-assisted mixing of granules of the same masses and sizes colliding with a horizontally oscillating obstacle within the pipe. The only variable, which characterizes a granule during the simulation is its normal coefficient of restitution, mN. The collision between a granule and the obstacle is assumed to be a frictionless binary collision of hard-spheres obeying the conservation of momentum. Regardless of the initial states of the particles, and opening radius of the pipe, the frequency distributions for final positions of particles for mN = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 at any location at the pipe end are approximately the same. This result implies that granular mixing is present. At the pipe height equal to 13.3 units a more uniform distribution was obtained. Finally, symmetric final directions of each particle further emphasized the presence of mixing.
