The Influence of Particle Shape on Granular Hopper Flow

This paper presents a DEM study of the effect of particle shapes on granular flows through hoppers, based on a novel method of generation and packing of realistic sand samples proposed recently by the authors (Mollon and Zhao 2012). Realistic 2D particles of Toyoura sand are used as a demonstrative example. During the flow, we monitor closely the velocity field, the particles rotations, the coordination number, the stress fields and the fabric evolution. These results are compared to the corresponding cases using circular particles. It appears that the use of non-circular particles during the granular flow leads to reduced flow-rate, changes the velocity field towards funnel-flow, localizes particles rotations, increases coordination number, and induces complex behaviors in shear stresses and fabric anisotropy.