Simulation of sintering using a Non Smooth Discrete Element Method. Application to the study of rearrangement

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present an original approach for the simulation of sintering with Discrete Element Method, using a Non Smooth Method called Contact Dynamics. Recently, there have been numerous papers about the simulation of sintering using Discrete Element approaches. Most of these papers use Smooth Dynamics and their results match well experimental data. However, some limits come from the use of an explicit scheme in which the time step has to be very small. In order to obtain reasonable time steps, the density of particles is dramatically increased which turns out to have an impact on rearrangement. Solving the sintering model with an implicit method such as Contact Dynamics takes into account the real density of particles. The discrete model of sintering considers spherical particles which overlap due to the sintering stress. In Contact Dynamics, particles are not allowed to overlap. To overcome this issue, the sintering contact law is written using a basic deformation scheme coupled with a cohesion force. The comparison with experimental data from previous studies shows that Contact Dynamics gives an improved representation of rearrangement when compared with Smooth Dynamics. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.