Performance of Discrete and Continuous Models for the Simulation of Granular Flow in a Rotating Drum

VENIER, CESAR; MARQUEZ DAMIAN, SANTIAGO; BERTONE, SERGIO EDUARDO; PUCCINI, GABRIEL DARÍO; RISSO JOSE; NIGRO NORBERTO

Bahia Blanca

Congreso; MECOM 2022; 2022

AMCA

In this work, the performance of discrete and continuous computational models toaddress the dynamics of granular flow in a rotating drum under different regimes is studied.The results are compared with experimental observations on a pilot plant scale drum. For thediscrete modeling, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) was used, while for the continuousmodel the µ(I) rheological model was used on the general structure of the Volume-Of-Fluid(VOF) method of OpenFOAM(R). Four test cases with different filling levels and rotationalspeeds are studied, and the results are analyzed in terms of solids distribution, particle velocityand mixing patterns. The distribution of solids and velocities for each of the tests considered arequite similar between both computational techniques and the experimental observations. Theseresults suggest that, taking into account the computational costs of each strategy, the use of acontinuous model is more appropriate to simulate industrial-scale systems. However, in orderto replicate an even larger range of regimes using continuous models, the non-local rheology ofthe granular material must be taken into account in the computational model.