DEM Simulation of Granular Flows on a Heap
Résumé
Flow of granular material on a heap is numerically investigated using the discrete element method. Experiments are carried out to validate the numerical model. ne flow profiles of the surface granular flow and the creep motion of particles in the heap are studied. It is shown that the mean velocity of the surface flow exhibits a linear relationship with depth, while that of the creep motion in the heap decays exponentially with depth and the characteristic length of the decay is on the order of the particle size. The existence of the creep motion can be attributed to the variation of the porosity distribution of the heap. The granular flow on `frozen' static heap is also investigated to understand the effect of the creep motion on the surface flow.