Effect of non-sphericity of a narrow-sized binary mixture on mixing in convective vibrated packed bed using Discrete Element Method

Abstract

The effect of non-sphericity of particles on segregation in a vibrated packed bed is studied using the discrete element method. The DEM results for the base case are validated with novel experimental results obtained in an identical system, providing the basis for further exploration through simulations. The superquadric approach is used to create seven different particle shapes. The results show that the shape of particles plays a key role in overall mixing. Changing the fine particle shape from ellipsoid to cube with fixed reference coarse spherical particles reduces the overall mixing due to increased interlocking and grip between particles. Similarly, when changing the coarse particle shape, the cube particle shows the worst overall mixing than others. The overall mixing trend can be explained based on the convection current as a key mixing mechanism, which strongly depends on particle–particle contacts. Higher the convection current in the system better is the mixing.