The role of particle shape in computational modelling of granular matter

Abstract

Granular matter is ubiquitous in nature and is present in diverse forms in important engineering, industrial and natural processes. Particle-based computational modelling has become indispensable to understand and predict the complex behaviour of granular matter in these processes. The success of modern computational models requires realistic and efficient consideration of particle shape. Realistic particle shapes in naturally occurring and engineered materials offer diverse challenges owing to their multiscale nature in both length and time. Furthermore, the complex interactions with other materials, such as interstitial fluids, are highly nonlinear and commonly involve multiphysics coupling. This Technical Review presents a comprehensive appraisal of state-of-the-art computational models for granular particles of either naturally occurring shapes or engineered geometries. It focuses on particle shape characterization, representation and implementation, as well as its important effects. In addition, the particles may be hard, highly deformable, crushable or phase transformable; they might change their behaviour in the presence of interstitial fluids and are sensitive to density, confining stress and flow state. We describe generic methodologies that capture the universal features of granular matter and some unique approaches developed for special but important applications. Sections• Consideration of shape effects in coupled simulations of granular particles and environmental fluids requires revamped theories and methods to faithfully reflect their underpinning multiphase, multiphysics nature.• Incorporating realistic particle shapes in granular matter modelling must harness the latest advances in parallel computing and machine learning for effective large-scale computations.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

A novel unresolved/semi‐resolved CFD‐DEM coupling method with dynamic unstructured mesh

“…With the assistance of graphics, the PLC is expected to be automatically established according to the spatial distributions of the assembled particles, which can be potentially applicable to cases with arbitrarily shaped saturated specimens. Furthermore, due to the irregular shape of granular particles in their natural state, it is imperative to employ specific methods for shape representation (such as sphere clustering in PFC3D), contact determination, and evaluation of the particle-fluid interaction 77 in order to enhance the coupling method proposed in this study and accommodate particles with complex geometries. The resolved CFD-DEM coupling method based on the immersed boundary method (IBM) 78 can efficiently calculate the particle-fluid interaction for irregularly shaped particles and accurately reflect the local flow characteristics, consequently, it will be the further improvement direction of the proposed coupling method.…”

Atomic surface achieved through a novel cross-scale model from macroscale to nanoscale

“…As a promising avenue, numerical simulation offers another direction to explore the CMP material-removal mechanism from different scales, mainly including finite element analysis (FEM), [19][20][21] computational fluid mechanics (CFD), [22][23][24] smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH), [25][26][27] and molecular dynamics (MD). [28][29][30][31] Among these, the FEM, CFD, and SPH approaches mainly focus on the macro-and mesoscale aspects and the chemical reactions in CMP are not considered.…”

A new cube movement test for verification of simulations of contact processes of blocks of different size in geological hazards

“…13,14 The CDEM was successfully applied to the analysis of a variety of geotechnical engineering problems, such as coal caving mining, 15 propagation of hydrofracturing cracks, 16,17 rock blasting, 18,19 crack propagation of brittle materials, 20,21 deformation of tunnels, 22 and landslides. 23,24 The success of modern simulation models for granular matter requires realistic and efficient consideration of frequently complex particle shapes of geological materials, see Zhao et al 25 for a comprehensive appraisal of state-of-the-art computational models for granular particles of either naturally occurring shapes or engineered geometries.…”