A simulation study of segregation of particles in a vibrating bed using DEM via LIGGGHTS

Abstract

Particle segregation and mixing are common operations in most industrial applications such as pharmaceutical, polymer, and petroleum industries. Using the open-source software package LIGGGHTS, we performed DEM simulation and investigated the segregation of granular particles inside a vibrating bed. We created a vertical rectangular column for simulation and inserted various types of particles of varying sizes into it by writing the script file into the LIGGGHTS. The plots of normalized axial position v/s normalized fine mass fraction that is obtained by dividing the bed into 10 equal parts along the height. At top Fine particle mass fraction is low and at bottom Fine particle mass fraction is high and at intermediate section both types of particle having approximately same mass fraction. So we can say that fine mass fraction increases from top to bottom. Trend of fine mass fraction from top to bottom is approximately the same in both experimental and simulation.