Eur. Phys. J. E (2021) 44: 86
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00091-0

Regular Article - Flowing Matter

Effects of size polydispersity on segregation of spherical particles in rotating drum

¹ Bridge and Road Department, Danang Architecture University, Da Nang city, Vietnam
² Division of Computational Mathematics and Engineering, Institute for Computational Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
³ Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
⁴ IFREMER, DYNECO/DHYSED, 29280, Plouzané, France

^a trungvt@dau.edu.vn

Received: 16 March 2021
Accepted: 16 June 2021
Published online: 27 June 2021

Abstract

To get insight into the segregation process of a polydisperse granular materials flow, we numerically investigated the migration process of particles in a rotating drum operating in the rolling regime by means of the discrete element method. Particle migration is analyzed through the variation of the proportion of particles in different zones where the flow property is characterized. The proportion of particles in different zones of the drum shows to increase in the center of the flow radially and axially where a higher concentration of small particles is observed, while its decreases in other zones with a higher concentration of larger particles. Interestingly, we find that the migration process of particles leads to radial and axial segregation which is caused by a combination between the exerted fluctuation forces on particles and its surrounding pressure gradient.