A discrete element model based on super-ellipsoids was used to simulate cylindrical particle flow. The model can describe a cylindrical particle accurately provided the shape indices of the super-ellipsoids are set to...A discrete element model based on super-ellipsoids was used to simulate cylindrical particle flow. The model can describe a cylindrical particle accurately provided the shape indices of the super-ellipsoids are set to appropriate values. To achieve more rapid calculations, we implemented an "oriented bounding box algorithm"(OBBA) for the initial contact detection of cylindrical particles. Several types of Simulations were performed to validate the super-ellipsoid model and the contact-detection algorithm. First, the effect of shape index of the super-ellipsoids on model accuracy was investigated through three simulations: impact of a cylindrical particle on a flat wall, flow of cylindrical particles in a rotating tumbler, and segregation of cylindrical particles of different length flowing down a bounded heap. The simulation results show that the super-ellipsoids describe cylindrical particles accurately when the shape index that specifies the sharpness of the cylinder edges is sufficiently large. The efficiency of the OBBA is measured by simulations in which a box is filled with cylindrical particles and a tumbler that contains cylindrical particles is rotated. The simulation results show that the OBBA can accelerate the calculations significantly. The effect of particle shape (such as aspect ratio and shape index) on the calculation speed was obtained. The simulation of rod-like particles tended to take more calculation time than that of disk-like particles, and the simulation time increased with an increasing particle-shape index.展开更多
Solid-particle settling occurs in many natural and industrial processes, such as in the transportation of drilling cuttings and fracturing proppant. Knowledge of the drag coefficient and settling velocity of cuttings ...Solid-particle settling occurs in many natural and industrial processes, such as in the transportation of drilling cuttings and fracturing proppant. Knowledge of the drag coefficient and settling velocity of cuttings and proppant is of significance to hydraulics design, wellbore cleanout, and fracture optimization. We conducted 553 tests to investigate the settling characteristics of spherical and non-spherical particles in power-law fluids. Three major particle shapes (spherical, cubic, and cylindrical) and eight different particle sphericities were used to simulate cuttings and proppant, and power-law fluids were applied to simulate drilling and fracturing fluids. Based on the data analysis, a new drag coefficient-particle Reynolds number correlation was developed to determine the drag coefficient in a power-law fluid for spherical and non-spherical particles. The drag coefficient increases as the sphericity decreases for the same particle Reynolds number. For a specific particle shape, the drag coefficient decreases as the particle Reynolds number increases, but the decreasing trend is reduced at high particle Reynolds number conditions. An explicit settling-velocity equation was proposed to calculate the settling velocity of spherical and non-spherical particles in power-law fluids by considering the effect of sphericity. A suitable range for the proposed model is 0.0001 < Re <200, 0.471 <φ< 1, and 0.505 < n < 1. An illustrative example is presented to show how to calculate the drag coefficient and settling velocity in power-law fluids with given particle and fluid properties.展开更多
Based on the general relationship described by Cheng between the drag coefficient and the Reynolds number of a particle, a new relationship between the Reynolds number and a dimensionless particle parameter is propose...Based on the general relationship described by Cheng between the drag coefficient and the Reynolds number of a particle, a new relationship between the Reynolds number and a dimensionless particle parameter is proposed. Using a trial-and-error procedure to minimize errors, the coefficients were determined and a formula was developed for predicting the settling velocity of natural sediment particles. This formula has higher prediction accuracy than other published formulas and it is applicable to all Reynolds numbers less than 2× 10^5.展开更多
Flow behaviors of four kinds of granular particles(i.e. sphere,ellipsoid,hexahedron and binary mixture of sphere and hexahedron) in rectangular hoppers were experimentally studied. The effects of granular shape and ho...Flow behaviors of four kinds of granular particles(i.e. sphere,ellipsoid,hexahedron and binary mixture of sphere and hexahedron) in rectangular hoppers were experimentally studied. The effects of granular shape and hopper structure on flow pattern,discharge fraction,mean particle residence time and tracer concentration distribu-tion were tested based on the visual observation and particle tracer technique. The results show that particle shape affects significantly the flow pattern. The flow patterns of sphere,ellipsoid and binary mixture are all parabolic shape,and the flow pattern shows no significant difference with the change of wedge angle. The flowing zone be-comes more sharp-angled with the increasing outlet size. The flow pattern of hexahedron is featured with straight lines. The discharge rates are in increasing order from hexahedron,sphere,binary mixture to ellipsoid. The dis-charge rate also increases with the wedge angle and outlet size. The mean particle residence time becomes shorter when the outlet size increases. The difference of mean particle residence time between the maximum and minimum values decreases as the wedge angle increases. The residence time of hexahedron is the shortest. The tracer concen-tration distribution of hexahedron at any height is more uniform than that of binary mixture. The tracer concentra-tion of sphere in the middle is lower than that near the wall,and the contrary tendency is found for ellipsoid particles.展开更多
基金the China Scholarship Council and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant No. 51741608)thanks Austin Isner for help with data processing. The authors thank Guillaume Adoneth and Quentin Mougeot for acquiring experimental data on the seg-regation of cylindrical particles in a quasi-2D bounded heap.
文摘A discrete element model based on super-ellipsoids was used to simulate cylindrical particle flow. The model can describe a cylindrical particle accurately provided the shape indices of the super-ellipsoids are set to appropriate values. To achieve more rapid calculations, we implemented an "oriented bounding box algorithm"(OBBA) for the initial contact detection of cylindrical particles. Several types of Simulations were performed to validate the super-ellipsoid model and the contact-detection algorithm. First, the effect of shape index of the super-ellipsoids on model accuracy was investigated through three simulations: impact of a cylindrical particle on a flat wall, flow of cylindrical particles in a rotating tumbler, and segregation of cylindrical particles of different length flowing down a bounded heap. The simulation results show that the super-ellipsoids describe cylindrical particles accurately when the shape index that specifies the sharpness of the cylinder edges is sufficiently large. The efficiency of the OBBA is measured by simulations in which a box is filled with cylindrical particles and a tumbler that contains cylindrical particles is rotated. The simulation results show that the OBBA can accelerate the calculations significantly. The effect of particle shape (such as aspect ratio and shape index) on the calculation speed was obtained. The simulation of rod-like particles tended to take more calculation time than that of disk-like particles, and the simulation time increased with an increasing particle-shape index.
基金The authors express their appreciation to the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foun-dation of China (No. 51521063)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1562212)+2 种基金the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (Grant No. 2016ZX05023-006)the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFE0124600)the State Scholarship Fund (CSC file No. 201706440059).
文摘Solid-particle settling occurs in many natural and industrial processes, such as in the transportation of drilling cuttings and fracturing proppant. Knowledge of the drag coefficient and settling velocity of cuttings and proppant is of significance to hydraulics design, wellbore cleanout, and fracture optimization. We conducted 553 tests to investigate the settling characteristics of spherical and non-spherical particles in power-law fluids. Three major particle shapes (spherical, cubic, and cylindrical) and eight different particle sphericities were used to simulate cuttings and proppant, and power-law fluids were applied to simulate drilling and fracturing fluids. Based on the data analysis, a new drag coefficient-particle Reynolds number correlation was developed to determine the drag coefficient in a power-law fluid for spherical and non-spherical particles. The drag coefficient increases as the sphericity decreases for the same particle Reynolds number. For a specific particle shape, the drag coefficient decreases as the particle Reynolds number increases, but the decreasing trend is reduced at high particle Reynolds number conditions. An explicit settling-velocity equation was proposed to calculate the settling velocity of spherical and non-spherical particles in power-law fluids by considering the effect of sphericity. A suitable range for the proposed model is 0.0001 < Re <200, 0.471 <φ< 1, and 0.505 < n < 1. An illustrative example is presented to show how to calculate the drag coefficient and settling velocity in power-law fluids with given particle and fluid properties.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40476039)
文摘Based on the general relationship described by Cheng between the drag coefficient and the Reynolds number of a particle, a new relationship between the Reynolds number and a dimensionless particle parameter is proposed. Using a trial-and-error procedure to minimize errors, the coefficients were determined and a formula was developed for predicting the settling velocity of natural sediment particles. This formula has higher prediction accuracy than other published formulas and it is applicable to all Reynolds numbers less than 2× 10^5.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （50706007 50976025） the National Key Program of Basic Research in China （2010CB732206）+1 种基金 the Foundation of Excellent Young Scholar of Southeast University （4003001039） the Collaboration Project of China and British （2010DFA61960）
文摘Flow behaviors of four kinds of granular particles(i.e. sphere,ellipsoid,hexahedron and binary mixture of sphere and hexahedron) in rectangular hoppers were experimentally studied. The effects of granular shape and hopper structure on flow pattern,discharge fraction,mean particle residence time and tracer concentration distribu-tion were tested based on the visual observation and particle tracer technique. The results show that particle shape affects significantly the flow pattern. The flow patterns of sphere,ellipsoid and binary mixture are all parabolic shape,and the flow pattern shows no significant difference with the change of wedge angle. The flowing zone be-comes more sharp-angled with the increasing outlet size. The flow pattern of hexahedron is featured with straight lines. The discharge rates are in increasing order from hexahedron,sphere,binary mixture to ellipsoid. The dis-charge rate also increases with the wedge angle and outlet size. The mean particle residence time becomes shorter when the outlet size increases. The difference of mean particle residence time between the maximum and minimum values decreases as the wedge angle increases. The residence time of hexahedron is the shortest. The tracer concen-tration distribution of hexahedron at any height is more uniform than that of binary mixture. The tracer concentra-tion of sphere in the middle is lower than that near the wall,and the contrary tendency is found for ellipsoid particles.
