Simulation of sheared, caking powder

Abstract

Abstract. We introduce a visco-elastic contact model for DEM simulations, which takes caking into account and investigate the impacts of this time dependent inter particle cohesion force on the bulk behavior under biaxial deformation. Starting from the assumption that the cohesion force between two particles develops on a characteristic timescale t c , we show, that two regimes can be identified. If t c is small compared to the shear rateγ, full cohesion is reached within the typical contact duration. The cohesion strength remains homogeneous throughout the sample. However, if t c γ crystallization bridges at fluctuating contacts never fully recover. Heterogeneous cohesion forces and granules are the consequence.