Grain-scale modelling of swelling granular materials; application to super absorbent polymers

Sweijen, Thomas; Hassanizadeh, S. Majid; Karadimitriou, Nikolaos

doi:10.1016/j.powtec.2017.06.015

Cited by 40 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…For swelling of single particles, the overall trend of volume change with time during isothermal soaking appears to be similar for different materials. As an example, Figure 1 shows the volume change with time for a rice kernel [8] and a SAP particle [3]. At a given external condition, the particle increases its volume (V) from the initial volume ( 0 ) to the equilibrium volume ( ) with certain kinetics.…”

Section: Swelling Of a Single Particlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 1 Swelling of a single grain of (a) rice [8] and (b) SAP [3]. Thus, in order to develop a generic model to describe this generic behaviour, a dimensionless swelling parameter ′ was introduced and defined as follows:…”

Section: Swelling Of a Single Particlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This phenomenon is observed in a variety of natural and industrial materials. For example, rice can increase its volume by about 40% during soaking [2] and a single super absorbent polymer particle can increase its radius by about 600% [3]. Many reseaerchers experimentally investigated water absorption of biological materials during isothermal soaking [4,5] and a few studies also were performed to examine swelling associated with the water uptake [2,[6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, a grain-scale model was proposed by Sweijen at al. [3], in which DEM was coupled with a pore finite volume (PFV) method to model the swelling of super absorbent polymers (SAPs) under fully saturated conditions. Although their theoretical model and simulations well reproduced the expansion of the granular bed observed experimentally, the deformation (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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DEM modelling of swelling of grains

Braile

Hare

2021

EPJ Web Conf.

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Swelling of grains due to water absorption is ubiquitous in many natural materials and industrial products. Hence, a thorough understanding of grain swelling is of great scientific importance. An experimental investigation can only provide limited information, whereas great insight could be gained from numerical modelling, rigorous numerical models for describing particle swelling are essential. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop and validate a discrete element method (DEM) model for swelling of grains. A first order kinetic model was introduced to describe the swelling of a single grain, and subsequently implemented into the DEM code LIGGGHTS. Model validation was performed by comparing the time evolution of the expansion of a packed bed made of super absorbent polymer (SAP) particles obtained numerically and experimentally. It was demonstrated that the developed model can accurately predict the bed expansion. The validated model was then used to investigate the effect of material properties on the swelling behaviour using rice and SAP as the model materials. It is shown that the swelling depends significantly on material properties, as expected; the expansion of the powder bed made of rice is much lower than that of SAP. The developed model could be further advanced to study consequences of swelling phenomena in granular materials, such as segregation and heat generation.

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Section: Swelling Of a Single Particlementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Swelling Of a Single Particlementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

DEM modelling of swelling of grains

Braile

Hare

2021

EPJ Web Conf.

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“…Currently, the mechanical grain-scale behavior of a wet granular material is usually investigated by discrete element methods using 2D and/or 3D simulations [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. These studies precisely characterized the change of microstructure such as coordination numbers (of contacts, of distant interactions, of compressive and tensile contacts), radial distribution function, force chains, distribution of forces between particles, etc.…”

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confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation on the grain-scale compression behavior of loose wet granular material

et al. 2019

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The behavior of model granular materials (glass beads) wetted by a small quantity of liquid forming capillary bridges is studied by one-dimensional compression test combined with Xray computed tomography (XRCT) observation. Special attention is paid to obtain very loose initial states (initial void ratio of about 2.30) stabilized by capillary cohesion. XRCT-based analyses involve spherical particle detection adapted to relatively low-resolution images, which enable heterogeneities to be visualized and microstructural information to be collected. This study on an ideal material provides an insight into the macroscopic compression behavior of wet granular materials based on the microstructural change, such as pore distance distribution, coordination number of contacts, coordination number of neighbors, number of contacts per grain.

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DEM‐CFD analysis of swelling behaviors of binary particle systems with a microscopic diffusion model

Hu,

Li,

Zhang

et al. 2023

AIChE Journal

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Swelling, that is, volumetric expansion, of particles is ubiquitous in many industrial systems containing both swellable particles and non‐swellable particles. However, the interactions between these two types of particles and the internal stress distribution within the binary particle systems are not yet fully understood. The dynamic behavior of binary mixtures with both swellable and non‐swellable particles was explored for the first time in this study by employing a microscopic diffusion swelling model that considers the change in microstructure of swelling particles implemented in the discrete element method coupled with computational fluid dynamics (DEM‐CFD). The expansion of particle bed consists of super absorbent polymers (SAPs) particles, that is, the swellable particles, and polyformaldehyde (POM) particles, that is, the non‐swellable particles, in a rectangle container is then analyzed experimentally and numerically. The results show that a tapered pattern of SAP particles and an arch pattern of POM particles are formed during the swelling process. The Lacey index is used to quantify the mixing degree of the binary particle system, which increases with time until the POM particle layer is fully encompassed by SAP particles. The mean stress distribution within the particle system is also examined, revealing that the swollen SAP particles migrate upward through a “low‐stress channel,” pushing the POM particles in the central area outward. Moreover, it is found that, for case with a relative low friction, SAP particles penetrate the POM particle layer along the container walls, while for the cases with relative high friction, SAP particles penetrate the POM particle layers through the central regions of the container.

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Grain-scale modelling of swelling granular materials; application to super absorbent polymers

Cited by 40 publications

References 32 publications

DEM modelling of swelling of grains

DEM modelling of swelling of grains

Experimental investigation on the grain-scale compression behavior of loose wet granular material

DEM‐CFD analysis of swelling behaviors of binary particle systems with a microscopic diffusion model

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