Eur. Phys. J. E (2017) 40: 79
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2017-11570-0

Regular Article

Segregation of a binary granular mixture in a vibrating sawtooth base container

¹ Department of Physics, Islamic Azad University Arak Branch, 38135-567, Arak, Iran
² Department of Physics, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Gava Zang, 45195-159, Zanjan, Iran
³ Laboratory of Physics and Physical Chemistry of Food, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
⁴ Research Center for Basic Sciences & Modern Technologies (RBST), Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), 45137-66731, Zanjan, Iran

^* e-mail: shahinmobaraki@gmail.com

Received: 16 July 2017
Accepted: 4 September 2017
Published online: 20 September 2017

Abstract

A granular mixture of identical particles of different densities can be segregated when the system is shaken. We present an efficient method of continuously segregating a flow of randomly mixed identical spherical particles of different densities by shaking them in a quasi-two-dimensional container with a sawtooth-shaped base. Using numerical simulation we study the effect of direction of shaking (horizontal/vertical), geometry of the sawtooth, and the friction coefficient between the grains and the container walls on the segregation quality. Finally by performing experiments on the same system we compare our simulation results with the experimental results. The good agreement between our simulation and experiment indicates the validity of our simulation approach and will provide a practical way for granular segregation in industrial applications.