Capturing the non-spherical shape of granular media and its trickle flow characteristics using fully-Lagrangian method

We performed a numerical analysis for simulating granular media structures containing non-spherical elements and the liquid trickle flow characteristics of such structures. Fully-Lagrangian numerical simulation methods can track all motion information for solid or liquid elements at each point in time. We introduced suitable compressibility to moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) and performed individual packing behavior calculations for non-spherical elements, based on discrete element method (DEM) with expanded functions. Rigid bodies-DEM is a method using a DEM contact force model that is expanded to handle the motion of freely shaped solids. It expresses complex shapes to enable low calculation costs and intuitive mounting. We used the boundary for the granular media configured with non-spherical elements to implement a trickle flow simulation based on weakly compressible-MPS. Even for elements of equal volume, different shapes changed the liquid passage velocity and hold-up amount. The mean downflow velocity of the liquid phase was not always dependent on the void fraction. For the plane of projection, we obtained a good correlation with the mean downflow velocity in each packed structure, and successfully performed arrangements according to the new liquid-passage shape coefficient.