In the agricultural industry, the conservation of wheat grains in silos after stocking is a hard task. This is because when stocking a large crop, hot aeration from the bottom of the silo is not sufficient to preserve the crop and avoid losses due to the manifestation of moisture between grains and grains-wall. As a concern, engineers, as well as inspectors, challenged day-to-day issues whenever packing such granular material. A screw could be a good solution to improve the dryness of the particles and mix the bed material in case of stocking different types of grains. Mainly, the complexity does emanate from the model used to predict accurately the mixing performance. Emerging generation of simulation codes using the discrete element method (e.g., EDEM®, LIGGGHTS, etc.) have brought an intact solution to the problem of particulate flow and particles inhomogeneity. The present work has sought to develop predictive models for average mixing index and particles velocity distribution assessments in mixing of wheat granules in a small-scaled hopper base screw mixer. A screw-mated-horizontal-ploughs has been utilized to improve the agitation of grains rather than a simple screw. 1, 2 and 4 mated ploughs to the screw axle has been used, also the tilt angle of the 4 mated ploughs case has been varied as follows; 20°, 45° and 70° then evaluated. Next, findings regarding bed homogeneity are calculated using the Lacey method [1] for quantitative analysis and visual observations have been read out for qualitative assessment. Particles inhomogeneity is at its minimum when more ploughs mated to the screw were used.

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Granular materials are used in various industries, including pharmaceutical and agriculture, where the material properties of elements have an important impact on their flow behavior. Numerical codes based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) are decisive for describing the flow of granular material. The DEM could investigate granular materials' macro and micro-mechanical shear behaviors. The commercial software EDEM® based on the DEM was utilized for this purpose. A gravitational disposition for the geometrical arrangement model has been performed in this study to model different particle sizes for a direct, simple shear test (DSST). The results indicated that referring to the size index (SI), a positive correlation occurred with the shear strength, dilation, volumetric strain, a negative correlation with the average particle angular velocity, and a neutral correlation with the coordination number (CN).

The presence of moisture content in a silo makes the preservation of a grain stock challenging especially when dealing with a large stock. This made it as a major concern for engineers to preserve large crops of grains and avoid huge losses. By installing a screw inside of a silo, the moisture problem could be avoided by stirring the loaded granular bed alongside aeration, also it could be effective to mix different types of loaded materials. The present work has sought to develop predictive models of discrete element method for mixing uniformity assessment when mixing wheat granules in a hopper-bottom screw mixer. The different factors being investigated are: initial configuration of particles, screw rotational direction, screw pitch length, screw diameter and screw rotational velocity. Findings regarding bed homogeneity were calculated using the nearest neighbor’s method. The best mixture was obtained when considering a side-wise filling type of particles ahead mixing and using a 20 mm screw diameter, 30 mm screw pitch and rotating the screw at 80 rpm speed.