Study of Behaviors of Single Large Intruders in Bulk Flow

Abstract

Understanding the fundamentals of granular flow is crucial to industrial applications. Good examples are found in processing pharmaceutical pills and ceramic powders. Mixing granular materials is a major concern for engineers who process granular materials. Developing sensor particles to track the flow of granular materials is a good way to understand the characteristics of granular flow. In order to facilitate the development of sensor particles, it is crucial to understand how the sensor particles behave in bulk granular flow. This research was to study how a single intruder's (sensor) movement might be different than that of the bulk particles. In other words, this research is to understand the segregation process, so that details of this disparate movement could be used to predict the bulk behavior. Most of the segregation occurs in the vertical direction so that most parts of this research is focused on exploring the vertical segregation between intruders and matrix particles.