Three-dimensional Modelling of Industrial Granular Flows

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is attracting increasing interest for the simulation of industrial granular flows. While the majority of previous DEM modelling has considered two-dimensional flows, we present here a series of three-dimensional simulations for a number of important industrial applications. The charge motion in a 5 m diameter ball mill and in a Hicom nutating mill, discharge from singleand four-port cylindrical hoppers, and particle size separation by a vibrating screen are considered. For each case, realistic particle size distributions have been used. The results obtained indicate that DEM modelling is now sufficiently advanced that it can make useful contributions to process optimisation and equipment design.