Semi-Analytical Model for Non-Spherical Particles

The problem of the particle shape arising in modelling granular materials by the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is investigated. A semi-analytical modelling concept for arbitrarily shaped particles is presented and with the aim of implementing it in DEM. Two types of surfaces, namely, reference and actual surfaces, are considered. The reference surface is assumed to be the 'exact surface', and the actual surface, which is an approximated surface of the particle used for modeling purposes. A corn kernel surface is considered to be the reference surface. The considered semi-analytical method uses spherical harmonics and the obtained results demonstrate the increase in the accuracy of the model with the increase in the number of spherical harmonics used.