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International Conference on Discrete Element Methods

DEM 2016: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Discrete Element Methods pp 139–149Cite as

Algorithms and Capabilities of Solidity to Simulate Interactions and Packing of Complex Shapes

Part of the Springer Proceedings in Physics book series (SPPHY,volume 188)

Abstract

A number of numerical algorithms for simulation of particle packing have been proposed and used in a wide range of industries: mining, chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food handling, etc. However, most of them can only deal with simple and regular shapes due to the complex and expensive numerical algorithms needed to simulate complex shapes. In this paper, a FEMDEM code, Solidity, is used to more accurately capture the influence of complex shape. It combines deformable fracturing arbitrary-shaped particle interactions modelled by FEM with discrete particulate motion modelled by DEM. This paper will cover recent code optimisation for the contact force calculation with arbitrary body shape, parallelisation performance and discussion of results showing both deformable and rigid body versions of the code in different application scenarios. Solidity also provides post-processing tools to analyse the particle packing structure in terms of local porosity and orientation distributions, contact forces, and coordination number, etc. Some examples of Platonic and Archimedean body packs are presented.

Keywords

  • Contact Force
  • Packing Density
  • Discrete Element Method
  • Force Chain
  • Normal Contact Force

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-1926-5_16
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Acknowledgments

The third author’s research is supported by EPSRC and Johnson Matthey which is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Modelling and Computation Group, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Jiansheng Xiang, John-Paul Latham & Ado Farsi

Authors
  1. Jiansheng Xiang
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  2. John-Paul Latham
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  3. Ado Farsi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiansheng Xiang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dalian University of Technology, Department of Engineering Mechanics Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China

    Xikui Li

  2. Swansea University, College of Engineering Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Yuntian Feng

  3. Colorado School of Mines, Department of Mechanical Engineering Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA

    Graham Mustoe

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Xiang, J., Latham, JP., Farsi, A. (2017). Algorithms and Capabilities of Solidity to Simulate Interactions and Packing of Complex Shapes. In: Li, X., Feng, Y., Mustoe, G. (eds) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Discrete Element Methods. DEM 2016. Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol 188. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1926-5_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1926-5_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-1925-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-1926-5

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