Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia

25-27 September 2006

EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION ON THE COMPUTATIONAL

MODELLING OF GRANULAR FLOW USING THE DISCRETE
ELEMENT METHOD (DEM)
Lourel, I1, Wu, W.2 and Morrison, D.J.3*
1

Senior Mechanical Engineer, Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd, Australia (formally at Sinclair Knight Merz)
2
Undergraduate Mechanical engineer, The University of Queensland, Australia
3
Materials Handling Manager, Sinclair Knight Merz, Australia
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: DMorrison@skm.com.au
decipher how salient features (for example: effects of
inter-particle interactions with varying consolidation
pressure, boundary conditions and gravitational forces)
should be correctly represented in any study to capture
the phenomena of interest.

ABSTRACT
This paper details the modelling of granular flow of rice
through simple transfer chutes/ slides using
experimental, analytical and computational means. The
issues with transfer chute design are outlined. A brief
history and an overview on the various numerical
modelling techniques are given. From a bulk materials
handling equipment designers point of view, state of
the affairs with commercial modelling software, and
key limitations with todays Discrete Element Method
(DEM) packages are discussed. Points of caution are
raised in the case of scale model testing and
experiments in granular flow. The chosen DEM
software, PFC3D, are overviewed. Initial validation
tests, comprising sensitivity studies on particle density,
wall friction, bond strength, mass and stiffness,
coefficient of restitution and damping, and the effect of
particle size and aspect ratio on gravity flow through a
hopper are detailed. Experimental apparatus used in the
rice flow tests are introduced. Qualitative comparison
between sparse and dense flow are visualised. Full-scale
simulation results are compared with experiments and a
fine-tuned list of input parameters are summarised.
Results are discussed and conclusions are made on the
validity of the chosen DEM software as a design tool.

Computational modelling of granular flows offers a

means to study the fundamentals but there are
uncertainties on the capabilities of the current
modelling techniques in capturing the essential features
of discontinuous flow. Software that are available in
the marketplace can be fairly generic and require a lot
of customisation or articulation of the programming
language for the command-driven codes. Limited
validation results are available in the public domain.
Combined with the complexity, and the degree of
variation in the underlying physics incorporated in the
codes, it is difficult to gain a thorough knowledge and
therefore confidence in the readiness of the state-ofthe-art computational methods.
As part of their continual research and development
programme implemented to provide a progressive
consulting service in the resources industry in
Australia, Sinclair Knight Merz have conducted inhouse validation studies on the three commerciallyavailable Discrete Element Method (DEM) software,
namely: EDEM*, Chute Maven and PFC3D. This
paper details the benchmark test work on the validation
of ITASCAs Particle Flow Code in 3 Dimensions, (or
PFC3D) in the simulation of granular flow through two
simple chutes/slides.

INTRODUCTION
Understanding the behaviour of granular materials in
flow is pertinent to industries ranging from minerals,
food, pharmaceuticals to the ceramics. Predicting, and
therefore controlling, the flow of a multi-phase
discontinuum is a challenge to theoreticians as well as
experimenters. Some of the complexities arise from
irregularity of particle shape, randomness and extent of
particle size distributions, non-linearity of bulk material
flow properties, and the sensitivity to moisture content
as well as a multitude of other physical parameters.
These effects are poorly understood.

TRANSFER CHUTE DESIGN

Transfer chutes form a common item in any bulk
materials handling plant. The routine design process
invokes in-house design rules based on past, proven
models with reference to flow data and simplified 2-D

Systems engineered to handle such granular material

are often the product of design guidelines arriving from
a combination of flow test data, scaled testing,
empirical relationships and rules-of-thumb. A complete
theoretical or numerical representation of any real
system is not yet possible; nevertheless, the key is to

Software by DEM Solutions Ltd. http://www.demsolutions.com

Software by Hustrulid Technologies, Inc.

http://www.chutemaven.com

Software by ITASCA Consulting group Ltd.

http://www.itascacg.com/pfc.html

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia
25-27 September 2006
calculations [Roberts & Wiche, 1998]. Very
occasionally, expensive scale model prototyping would
be requested by the client for the design of complex
transfer geometries. The lack of understanding in the
granular flow results in great uncertainties, especially in
the performance of multifaceted chutes or chutes
involving multiple inlet and outlet streams. Poorly
designed chutes can cause bridging, material
segregation and spillage (see Figure 1), excessive dust
generation and reduced wear life to chute walls, liners
and the receiving belt (see Figure 2). Outside of the
obvious economic penalties associated with an undue
amount of maintenance and plant disruptions, there are
also significant operational safety and environmental
hazards.

NUMERICAL MODELLING OF GRANULAR

MATERIAL AND THE DISCRETE ELEMENT
METHOD
The dynamics of granular material has not attracted the
same degree of interest as fluid dynamics, although
first papers on the topic by well-known
hydrodynamicists date back to as early as the late
1800s [Hagen, 1852] [Reynolds, 1885]. The flow of
granular material has been modelled by an assortment
of numerical methods: the continuum method
[McIlvenna & Mossad, 2003] [Christakis et al, 2006],
the material point method [Wieckowski, 2006], particle
dynamics techniques [Losert et al, 2000], the discrete
element method (DEM) [Krause & Katterfeld, 2004]
which is derived from the particle dynamics method,
various hybrid particle-continuum, and finite element
coupled with discrete element methods [Negi et al,
1997].
Numerical simulation allows an unlimited freedom of
choice in the formulation of the mathematical model,
which can easily lead to results which may look
plausible but nevertheless erroneous. So far very
limited confirming evidence exists between
computational and experimental results to substantiate
a satisfactory level of confidence in the industry. There
is an upsurge of on-going collaborative research effort
between academic research groups, industries and
software developers world-wide in the recent years
[Loughran & Jacobs, 2005] [Krause & Katterfeld,
2004] [McIlvenna & Mossad, 2003]. In Australia, the
CMIS group at CSIRO provides very specialised
consulting services in the modelling of industrial
granular flows and is a prolific provider of publications
in this area. Their DEM research includes validation
studies on centrifugal and sag mills [Cleary & Hoyer,
2000] [Cleary et al, 2001].

Figure 1. Chute blockage and the subsequent spillage

disaster.

Developed in the 1970s by Cundall** [1971, 1979], the

application possibilities of DEM in the simulation of
bulk solids handling is only beginning to be explored
with the advent of computation power in recent years.
Before then, DEM has mainly been used in the study of
geo- and rock mechanics (see Figure 3). To the bulk
materials handling industries, relevant DEM research
areas include flow through apertures (hopper and silo
flow) [Langston et al, 1995] [Goda & Ebert, 2005],
flow along inclined surfaces (chute flow, see Figure 4)
[Dewicki, 2003], convection and size segregation under
vertical vibration, mixing and avalanching inside
rotating drums [Cleary et al, 1998], and powder flow
inside agitators [Cleary et al, 2002].
Useful

CSIROs
DEM
web
address:
http://www.cmis.csiro.au/cfd/dem/index.htm
**
Dr. Peter Cundall is the chief developer for all of
ITASCAs software products, including the PFC
2D/3D codes. He has numerous publications on the
topics of geomechanics and numerical modelling since
the 1970s.
His publication list is available at
http://www.itascacg.com/pdf/pub/Cundall-pub.pdf

Figure 2. Flooding of a receiving conveyor belt caused

by the clearing of a plugged chute.

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia
25-27 September 2006
information on DEM, including background,
applications, method, and list of open-source and
commercial software packages can be found in
[Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2006].

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3. (a) 2D Simulation of a solid in uniaxial

compression; and (b) 3D modelling of a landslide
(pictures courtesy of the Earth Science Systems
Computational Centre at The University of
Queensland).

Figure 4. Dewickis [2003] DEM simulations of

granular flow through (a) a screen; (b) gravity flow
inside a hopper; and (c) a simple transfer chute.
Generally speaking, current DEM simulations face
these key limitations: systems size (computational
resources often dictate the number of particles which
can be introduced), inability to represent realistic
particle shapes (particles are represented by composites
of simple geometries), simplified contact force models
(which cannot properly take into account the nonlinearity, elasticity/ plasticity and inter-particle
cohesion), and dependence on the input values of
physical and geometrical properties of particles and
contacts.

There is little doubt, from the very active research

activities, that DEM is thought to provide the
possibilities for the optimisation of the design and the
operating life of bulk materials handling equipment.
With different specialised consultants and DEM codes
out there, the plant designers need to take a few things
into consideration. In the case of pursuing with the
purchase of a particular software for design use, the
decision needs to be based on the price tag,
performance and the level of competence required to
drive the software. It is prudent to be knowledgeable in
the basic DEM mythology and to thoroughly evaluate
the software before proceeding with the investment.

SCALED TESTING AND EXPERIMENTS IN

GRANULAR FLOW
As Ottino and Khakhar [2002] have pointed out, the
basic governing equations for flow, mixing, and
segregation are not yet established. Existing models
apply mostly to rapid surface flows (i.e. flows inside
drum mixers and rotary kilns), and they are
rudimentary and restrictive in nature. In the industry,
scaled testing of granular flow inside transfer chutes,
for example, is expensive and is often carried out

Contact Dr. Dion Weatherley, Website address:

http://www.esscc.uq.edu.au/
3

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia
25-27 September 2006
without understanding of the relevant scaling laws and
subsequently there is great uncertainty to the relevance
of the test results.

such as arcs) or the capability for the user to

personalise the code with C++ codes. Instead, the
software was driven by user-defined FISH functions.

A model test must yield data that can be scaled-up to

obtain, for example, the forces, moments, dynamic
loads and flow behaviour associated with the full scale
equipment. To do this, the model and full scale
equipment must firstly be geometrically similar.
Geometric similarity requires that the model and
equipment be the same shape, and that all linear
dimensions are appropriately scaled by a constant scale
factor. This is generally practiced in scale testing.

VALIDATION TESTS IN PFC3D

Sensitivity to Particle Density
Using Newtons Laws of Motion, tests were devised to
examine the correctness of the fundamental
mathematical model implemented in PFC3D. A single
spherical particle sliding down and falling off the end
of a decline onto a flat surface was used as the test case
to perform spot checks to see if the velocities match
that predicted by Newtons Laws of Motion for the
specified value of wall friction coefficient and a range
of particle densities. There was good correlation
between theoretical and PFC3D output for the sliding
and free-fall velocities of a single spherical particle.
There was a consistent error of +0.02m/s in the
simulated sliding velocity, which is thought to be
contributed by the additional rolling motion of the
sphere. Freefall velocity of the particle just prior to
impact also agreed well with theory, regardless of
particle density, as can be imagined.

Secondly, the model and real flow must be

kinematically similar. In other words, the velocities at
corresponding points are in the same direction and are
related in magnitude by a constant scale factor.
Kinematically similar flows will also produce
streamline patterns that are related by a constant scale
factor.
Dynamic similarity can only be achieved when two
flows are both geometrically and kinematically similar.
The effects of pressure and cohesion, namely, must be
considered such that all important forces are related by
the same scale factor between model and real flow.
This ensures that data measured in a model flow may be
related quantitatively to conditions in the real flow, thus
satisfying the full purpose of scale testing. Dynamic
similarity is rarely achieved in routine scale model
testing.

For four values of particle density ( = 500, 1000, 2500

and 5000 kg/m3), simulated rebound velocity and
contact force against impact time are shown in Figure
5. Since the theoretical rebound velocity is directly and
only related to impact velocity by the coefficient of
restitution, it should remain constant for any value of
particle density. In this case, this should be 1.73m/s.
Plots on the left column of Figure 5 show particle
velocity history during impact. Contact time equals
zero just prior to particle hitting the wall. The end of
the time period signals the completion of impact, when
a zero contact force is achieved, as can be seen on the
right column of Figure 5. In each plot, the unmarked
line represents theoretical values whilst the marked line
represents simulation results. The same minimum time
step was used across Figure 5 (a) to (d).

Quantitative validation requires carefully selected

problems for which good experimental runs can be
executed for comparison with simulation. In this study,
simple verification exercises were carried out to test the
fundamental mathematical model implemented in
PFC3D before full scale simulation of the experimental
chute flow were performed. These are delineated
following a brief introduction on PFC3D, the DEM
simulation software under evaluation.

Discrepancy in the rebound velocity increased with

increasing density. Time step in PFC3D is derived from
the specified normal and tangential wall stiffness. It
may be the case that stiffness will need to be corrected
for the particle density under consideration to minimise
discrepancy, prior to conducting any flow simulation.

PFC3D BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

PFC3D, or Particle Flow Code in 3 Dimensions, is a
time-stepping Discrete Element Method program. The
pioneer of DEM, Dr. Peter Cundall, is currently the
chief developer of PFC3D and conducts workshops on
the software. PFC3D is a command-driven software
which provides the freedom for users to add additional
codes to cater for specific problems. It models the
forces, movements and interactions of spherical
particles or clumps of spherical particles made to
represent the shape of the actual bulk material of
interest. PFC3D offers the option to be run on parallel
processors, and has been tested on a parallel
supercomputer as part of an integrated adaptive
continuum/ discontinuum modelling code [Young et al,
2003]. The basic user licence evaluated in the current
study did not come with the option of parallel
processing, general walls (ie. for geometrical surfaces

Sensitivity to Wall Friction

With increasing wall friction coefficient, rolling/
tumbling motion of the test particle (both irregular and
spherical particles have been tested) resulted in an
erroneous simulated velocity. No experiments were
conducted to verify if the rolling/ tumbling action was
in fact realistic for the specified wall friction
coefficients. When angular velocity of the particle was
fixed to zero (ie. only sliding motion was permitted),
PFC3D was able to give the expected velocities.

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia
25-27 September 2006
Particle velocity during impact

Contact force during impact

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 5. Comparison between theoretical and simulated rebound velocity and contact force of a spherical particle
at = (a) 500; (b) 1000; (c) 2500; and (d) 5000 kg/m3.

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia
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Bond Strength
Simulations were conducted to see if bonds can
potentially be used to model the segregation and
cohesion of particles in real bulk material flow. When
the contact bond strength (bonds that do not transmit
moments) between clumped spheres was increased, the
particles go from breaking-apart to remaining in a
clumped configuration when dropped from a height.
This is as per normal expectation. However, the
clumped spheres displayed an observable amount of
relative movements with each other due to the lack of
transmission of moments.
A simple test found that bonds do not automatically
form between two spheres coming into direct impact
with one another- even at very high bond strength. This
needs to be investigated further, to allow the proper
modelling of cohesion between real particles.

Figure 6. Theoretical and PFC3D results on the

correlation between damping ratio and coefficient of
restitution.

With parallel bonding (which allows moments to be

transmitted between bonded particles) the clumped
particles act like a rigid body at rebound and there was
no sign of relative movement between clumped
particles. However, the bond strengths imposed on the
cluster had to be exceptionally high for the particles to
remain intact.

Flow Through Hoppers

The next set of simulations were conducted to observe
the influence of particle size and shape on the flow
pattern through a square hopper. This test follows the
work of Paul Cleary and Mark Sawley [2002] who
originally conducted this style of test in 2D with their
DEM code. Hopper geometry can be seen in Figure 7
and the parameters used in the simulation are shown in
Table 1.

Mass and Stiffness

Since PFC3D calculates its time steps depending on the
specified mass and stiffness, drop test simulations of a
single particle were conducted to study the effect of
density and stiffness on the accuracy of the simulated
impact velocity. As can be expected, the impact
velocity became more accurate as stiffness was
increased- with the resultant decrease in the length of
time steps. Accuracy of this sort comes at the expense
of a significant increase in solution time, needless to
say.

Figure 7. Hopper geometry

Coefficient of Restitution and Damping

Coefficient of restitution is a fundamental material
property. It is not an input in PFC3D; instead, the
program asks for a damping ratio. Correlation between
viscous damping ratio and coefficient of restitution was
obtained in PFC3D and compared with theory [Wu,
2006] in Figure 6. The reason for the divergence is not
clear. Nevertheless, it was chosen to use the theoretical
relationship to obtain the corresponding viscous
damping ratio for use in PFC3D.

Table 1. Parameters used in the hopper flow

simulation.
Variable
Symbol
Value
Damping ratio

0.7

Friction coefficient

0.17633

Gravity

9.81m/s2

Particle density

2000kg/m3

Stiffness: normal

kn

200N/m

Stiffness: tangential

ks

200N/m

A cutting plane was placed in the centre of the hopper

for flow visualisation (Table 2). The particles are
coloured according to their height.

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

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Table 2. Time progression of flow through a hopper filled with differently-sized particles.
t = 0s
t = 0.5s
t = 1s
Sim. No.
Shape

PS1

PS2

PS3

PS4

Diameter
4mm
Aspect ratio
1:1

Diameter
4mm
Length 8mm
Aspect ratio
2:1

Diameter
4mm
Length 8mm
Aspect ratio
2:1

Diameter
4mm
Length 8mm
Aspect ratio
2:1

PS5
Diameter
4mm
Length
12mm
Aspect ratio
3:1

t = 1.5s

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

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25-27 September 2006
Table 2. (Cont.) Time progression of flow through a hopper filled with differently-sized particles.
t = 0s
t = 0.5s
t = 1s
t = 1.5s
Sim. No.
Shape

PS6

PS7

Diameter
2mm
Aspect ratio
1:1

Diameter
2mm
Length 4mm
Aspect ratio
2:1

PS8
Diameter
2mm
Length 6mm
Aspect ratio
3:1

PS9

Length 4mm
Width 4mm
Height 4mm
Aspect ratio
1:1

PS10

Length 4mm
Width 4mm
Height 4mm
Aspect ratio
1:1

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

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25-27 September 2006
Table 2. (Cont.) Time progression of flow through a hopper filled with differently-sized particles.
t = 0s
t = 0.5s
t = 1s
t = 1.5s
Sim. No.
Shape

PS11

Length 8mm
Width 4mm
Height 4mm
Aspect ratio
2:1

PS12

Length 4mm
Width 4mm
Height 2mm
Aspect ratio
1:1

PS13
Length 8mm
Width 4mm
Height 2mm
Aspect ratio
2:1

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

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Table 3. A summary of flow rates for varying particle
sizes and shapes used in the hopper simulations.
Sim. Shape Vol. of Time to Ave. Flow % to
Rate
PS1
No.
material clear
V (m3) hopper Q (m3/s)
(s)
PS1

1.24 10-4

1.45

8.55 10-5

PS2

1.35 10

-4

2.22

6.08 10

-5

PS3

1.53 10-4

2.43

6.30 10-5 26%

PS4

1.53 10-4

2.31

6.62 10-5 23%

PS5

1.46 10-4

PS6

0.97 10-4

0.89

1.09 10-4 +27.5%

PS7

1.15 10-4

1.28

8.98 10-5 +5%

Different modes of flow were observed: from mass and

funnel flow to a completely blocked hopper outlet.
Particle shape has a notable influence on the flow rate
through hopper discharge (see Table 3). Increasing the
aspect ratio significantly lowers the flow rate, changing
the mode from free flowing to a bridged outlet (see
simulation number PS1 to PS5 in Table 3).

FLOW EXPERIMENTS
A pair of slides/chutes were built from stainless steel
plates for the flow experiments. As can be seen in
Figure 8 (a), the independent supports allowed the
inclination, as well as the relative positioning of the
slides/chutes to be adjusted to suit. The bulk material
of choice is medium-grain rice in this instance (see
Figure 9a).

29%

(a)

100%

(b)
PS8

1.78 10-4

2.35

7.57 10-5 11.4%

PS9

8.80 10-5

2.43

6.30 10-5 26%

PS10

8.80 10-5

1.47

5.99 10-5 30%

PS11

9.90 10-5

PS12

8.80 10-5

1.07

8.22 10-5 4%

PS13

1.46 10-4

2.64

5.53 10-5 35%

100%

Figure 8. (a) Actual chutes/ slides used in the

experiments; and (b) generalised input geometry of
chutes/ slides arrangement in PFC3D.

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Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

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(a)

Sparse Flow

Dense Flow

(b)
t = 0.00s

t = 0.02s

Figure 9. (a) Actual rice grains used in the experiments;

and (b) rice particles formed by clumps of spheres used
in the PFC3D simulations.
EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON BETWEEN
SPARSE AND DENSE FLOW
A qualitative study was conducted to investigate the
difference between sparse and dense flow. As can be
seen in the screen captures (Figure 10) from the video
recordings, the dense flow exhibits a more fluid like
pattern, as the interaction between particles at the
impact point limits the splattering effect. Simple
Newtonian mechanics, which is routinely used by chute
designers in the analysis of particle trajectory, does not
take this into account. The results here illustrate that
simple analysis must be carried out with caution.

t = 0.04s

CHUTE FLOW SIMULATIONS WITH PFC3D

First of all, inputs of bulk material properties were
determined in-house, through the use of simple
apparatus. The main parameters required by PFC3D
were: bulk density, particle density, wall friction, angle
of repose and coefficient of restitution. Details of the
tests conducted can be found in [Wu, 2006].

t = 0.06s

The geometrical model in PFC3D for the flow studies

was a mathematically parameterised version of the
experimental slides/chutes (see Figure 8b). The
parameterised geometry facilitated ease of adaptation to
different transfer and chute inclination angles, as 3D
models were not able to be imported into PFC3D and
vertices of each wall have to be manually defined in a
3D space.

t = 0.08s
Figure 10. Comparison between sparse and dense flow
for a right-angle transfer.

PFC3D only works with spherical particles. Therefore,

actual rice grains were modelled as 10-sphere clumps
(see Figure 9b). The overall size of the composite
particles match that of the rice grains used.

The first simulation was conducted with the input

parameters shown in Table 4.

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Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

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Table 4. Input parameters used in the first PFC3D
simulation.
Variable
Symbol
Value
Number of particles

100

Chute 1 gradient

28

Chute 2 gradient

22

Internal friction coefficient

0.6494

Wall friction coefficient

0.1557

Coefficient of restitution

0.5

Damping ratio

0.23

versus consolidation pressure. Changes in the flow

properties need to be incorporated into the user defined
codes which allow PFC3D to properly take these into
account.
Ideally, the specific flow data is curve-fitted and the
correlation coded into the PFC3D command lines so that
friction values can be constantly updated throughout
the simulation. In the absence of full scale flow
testing, three values of wall friction were specified for
the simulation. Static wall friction coefficient, and
average wall friction coefficients through Chute 1 and
Chute 2 were experimentally determined. The rice
particles were initially under the influence of static wall
friction (s) until their velocity exceeded a nominal
value of 0.1m/s (vk). At this point, an average value of
wall friction coefficient (1) through Chute 1 was
adopted. As the grains impacted Chute 2, the friction
value was switched to the experimentally determined
value of average wall friction for Chute 2 (2). These
values, as well as other fine-tuned input parameters
used in the subsequent simulations (Figure 12 and
Figure 13), are shown in Table 5.

A visual comparison between the simulated result and a

still shot of the actual flow at the impact point with
Chute 2 is shown in Figure 11.

Table 5. Fine-tuned input parameters used in PFC3D.

Variable
Symbol Value
Number of particles

100

Chute 1 gradient

28

Chute 2 gradient

22

Internal friction coefficient

Coefficient of restitution on
Chute 1
Coefficient of restitution on
Chute 2
Damping ratio on Chute 1

0.6494

0.1

0.7

0.59

0.11

vgate

0.12m/s

Static friction coefficient

0.46631

Kinetic friction velocity

Kinetic friction coefficient on
Chute 1
Kinetic friction coefficient on
Chute 2
Shear contact stiffness

vk

0.1m/s

0.347

0.1557

ks

10N/m

Damping ratio on Chute 2

Gate velocity

Figure 11. Visual comparison between PFC3D

simulation and the actual flow as the rice particles
impact the 2nd chute.
The results of this initial simulation were promising as
DEM portrayed the qualitative aspects of the flow quite
accurately; however, the flow velocity at the impact
point in the simulated model was much too fast. It is
well known that flow properties like wall friction angle
change with consolidation pressure. Wall friction also
drops when the material starts flowing. Flow tests such
as the ones done by TUNRA usually include data on
static and dynamic wall and internal friction angles

Figure 12 gives a visual comparison between

experimental and simulated flow through a right-angle
transfer. The flow velocities at the impact point are
correct, as well as other physical attributes of the flow.
The screen capture of the video footage, which was
taken at 30 frames per second, distinctly shows the

TUNRA Bulk Solids Handling Research Associates

are considered industry leaders in the bulk solids
handling research and materials flow testing.

The velocity at which the retaining gate was

withdrawn to release particles to initiate flow.

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splitting of flow into two streams at the impact point.
This phenomenon was correctly simulated in PFC3D.

Experimental flow
Experimental flow

t = 1.0s

t = 1.1s
t = 0.9s

t = 1.0s

t = 1.2s

t = 1.3s
Figure 12. Experimental and simulated right-angle
transfer.

t = 1.2s
t = 1.1s
Figure 13 Experimental and simulated wide-angle
transfer.

Figure 13 shows experimental and simulated flow at a

wide transfer angle. Using the input parameters shown
Table 5, the simulation again accurately reproduced the
experimental results.

Sensitivity studies were conducted on the main input

parameters to gain an understanding of their physical
effects. These validation tests are requisite to the
success of any computational modelling work. It is
understood that preparatory work is always necessary
to fine-tune various input parameters prior to modelling
a new problem.
Through the accumulation of
knowledge and experience with each modelling
software, though, the process will become less arduous.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Input parameters like damping ratio (), shear stiffness
(ks) and coefficient of restitution (), just to name a few,
were investigated and fined-tuned through both trialand-error and reverse-engineering (based on
experimental data) to produce the final set of variables
list which correctly reproduced subsequent test flows.
Out of all this, it was discovered that the flow property
that most significantly affected the accuracy of a DEM
simulation was friction. The stress dependency of
friction was successfully incorporated into the
simulations by the use of three distinct values of wall
friction coefficient at different stages of flow. This
produced correct simulation results, even without fullscale flow test data.

This work yielded evidence that the commercial DEM

software, PFC3D, was able to produce quantitativelyaccurate results. Further discussions and details on the
in-house-developed flow testing procedures can be
found in [Wu, 2006].

13

Asia-Pacific Bulk Materials Handling Conference

BULKEX, Melbourne, Australia
25-27 September 2006
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on
Bulk Materials Storage, Handling and Transportation,
Wollongong, 5-8 July.

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