Study of external factors to minimize segregation of granular particles

Abstract

Segregation of granular particles affects the quality of end products in the pharmaceutical, chemical and food processing industries. Many researchers have worked on controlling the mechanical properties of granular particles to minimize segregation. In this paper, we studied different chute-related factors — inclination angle, friction, fill, channel geometry and base profile — and their effects on segregation. We conducted a small-scale experiment with chute inclined at different angles, and also numerical simulations performed using an open-source discrete element method (DEM) code — LIGGGHTS. We found the optimal condition for minimum segregation of a binary granular mixture. We concluded that segregation is minimized if the stream-wise velocity is low, for example, by keeping the chute at a low inclination [Formula: see text] and increasing the wall roughness to 0.14.