SEGREGATION OF FLUIDIZED BINARY HARD-SPHERE SYSTEMS UNDER GRAVITY

Abstract

We have derived an analytic expression for the contact value of the local density of binary hard-sphere systems under gravity. We have obtained the crossover conditions for the Brazil-nut type segregation of binary hard-sphere mixtures and binary hard-sphere chain mixtures from the segregation criterion, where the segregation occurs when the density (or the pressure) of the small spheres at the bottom is higher than that of the large spheres, or vice versa. For the binary hard-sphere chain mixtures, the crossover condition for the segregation depends on the number of monomers composed of hard-sphere chains as well as the mass and the diameter of each species. The fundamental-measure theories (FMTs) and local density approximation (LDA) are employed to examine the crossover condition for the segregation of the gravity-induced hard-sphere mixtures. The calculated results show that the LDA does not explain the density oscillation near the bottom, whereas the modified fundamental-measure theory (MFMT) compares with molecular dynamics simulations.