Frictional granular flows of rod and disk mixtures with particle shape distributions

Abstract

Three-dimensional simulations of polydisperse shear flows of rod and disk mixtures are performed using the discrete element method. The effects of particle shape distribution on flow behaviors are investigated assuming that all particles have the same volume and density but different shapes in the simulations. The solid phase stresses and bulk friction coefficients show a strong dependence on the particle alignment and the structural anisotropy of interparticle contacts. The combined effects of interparticle friction and particle shape difference lead to larger stresses for mixtures of different particle shapes than the pure particle species in dense shear flows. For frictionless and frictional flows with particle shape distributions, it is observed that the particle fluctuating velocities follow non-Maxwellian distributions and the fluctuating kinetic energies are unequally partitioned among the different particle species.