The issue of mathematical modelling of non-spherical shapes of particles is considered. Thus, application of the spherical harmonics (SH) technique in modelling the simplest symmetric star-shaped particles is demonstrated by applying low-resolution functions. The investigation was restricted to a circular cylinder and a rectangular parallelepiped, geometrically primitive, but widespread oblate industrial shapes. The modelling quality was studied by considering selected error norms and the most important integral characteristics of a particle geometry, including the surface area and volume. The presented results discovered new features of the spherical harmonic technique and enhanced understanding of their applicability to describe non-spherical shapes.
In this paper a numerical analysis was performed developing low-resolution spherical harmonics (LRSH) models in order to describe particle shapes. The potential of LRSH, limited by the expansion degree L ≤ 3, to describe quasi-regular particle shapes was explored. The term “quasi” is used hereafter to indicate the monomeric, almost regular shaped, particle described by a single continuous function. This approach reflects the shape of a major part of soil minerals. It was shown, that even the simplest case of the suggested low-resolution harmonics technique with L = 1 showed sufficient accuracy. The main drawback of the suggested approach was that the low-resolution harmonics yield particle shapes with nearly sharp angles, there-fore, enhanced analysis of local surface curvatures becomes necessary. An application using quasi-ellipsoidal particles is enclosed.
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