Mengmeng Yang, Shuiqing Li*, Guanqing Liu, Qiang Yao, Jeff Marshall

Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, China. lishuiqing@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

School of Engineering, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, U.S.A
Motivation
The packing process plays an important role in the filtration and
deposition of particles. It involves a variety of mechanisms, such
as the inertial impaction, VDWadhesion, gravity sedimentation and
fluid drag force. The effects of these mechanisms in the packing of
fine particles on a plane substrate are investigated in this work by
using a novel dynamic simulation based on Discrete Element
Method. Three packing patterns are firstly classified from the
simulated results.
Simulation Model
Conclusions
1) The initial porosity only has a weak effect on packing structure. Packing
porosity decreases with particle diameter, flow velocity and the gravity.
2) Structure rearrangement occurs during the packing process, so the
porosity changes with time. The transmit of vertical forces makes the
porosity varies along height.
3) Stokes and Adhesion number are two significant factors of packing. On
the basis of these factors, the patterns of packing can be classified as
three kinds, contact-holding, transition and fast-rearrangement regimes.
Acknowledgements
Key Factors
Patterns and Rearrangement
Patternsandmicrostructuresofthepackingofmicro-particlesbya
noveldynamicssimulationbasedondiscreteelementmethod
Simulation Results
This work was supported mainly by the National Natural Science Fund of China (No. 50976058)
H
=
4
L
L=10dp
X
Y
Z
Uf
Boundary Setting for particles:
up: inlet down: porous material
vertical: periodic
Flow Condition:
normal steady flow, capital velocity U
Parameter Value Parameter Value
particle
diameter
1-100 m fluid viscosity 110
-5
-510
-5
Pas
particle density 2000 kg/m
3
surface energy 0.1-1 mJ
fluid density 1.225 kg/m
3
particle elasticity 110
6
-510
6
Pa
particle number 1000
G FD f p u v

FVDW
n
C
F
s
C
F
t
C
M
r
C
F
Main conception of DEM simulation:
f VDW C
f VDW C
d
m
dt
d
I
dt
= + +
= + +
v
F F F
M M M
O
Main forces involved:
Fluid force: Drag force, buoyancy
Volume force: Gravity
Adhesion force: VDW force
Contact force: normal force, shearing force
twisting moment, rolling force
The initial porosity of the injected particles
does not influence the packing process.
The packing porosity differs at
different height and changes with
time.
The porosity decreases with the level getting up. This
is because the force passed on from the up levels.
The porosity gets smaller because of the
rearrangement of the packing structure under the
vertical forces.
Porosity at top level (5) is very large, because of the
limit of particle number and the small vertical force.
Porosity at level (1) behaves different with the others,
due to the wall effect.
0.1 1 10 100 1000
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55


p
o
r
o
s
ity
dp
porosity
The packing porosity decreases with
particle diameter.
Porosity decreases with the gravity.
Gravity plays the similar role with drag force, so
when the drag force is small, porosity changes
obviously with the gravity.
Porosity decreases with the flow velocity
very fast. The fluid viscosity exists in the
denominator of the stokes number, so the
smaller the viscosity is, the faster porosity
changes with U.
2
p p
w
Ad
U d
=
2
18
p p
d U
St
L

=
The adhesion and Stokes number are two
important factors determining the packing of
particles. The influences of other parameters
can be attributed to the variation of these
two factors
(a) U=0.1m/s w=4mJ dp=1m f= 210
-5
Pas
(b) U=0.1m/s w=0.25mJ dp=10m f= 210
-5
Pas
(c) U=2m/s w=0.5mJ dp=10m f= 210
-5
Pas
Contact holding Regime:
0.0694 160 St Ad = << =
Particles almost hold the initial contact.
Rearrangement rarely takes place.
Short packing time and large porosity.
Transition pattern:
0.694~ 1 St Ad = =
The initial contact is not strong enough.
Rearrangement takes place, but not much.
Long packing time and middle porosity.
Fast Rearrangement Regime:
13.9 0.005 St Ad = >> =
Particles cannot hold initial contact.
Rearrangement tale place, immediately
after contact forming.
All Initial contact breaks.
Short packing time and small porosity.
-0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55
0.60
porosity-miu1
porosity-miu2
Cn-miu1
Cn-miu2
gravity (g)
P
o
r
o
s
ity
2
4
6
8
C
n
0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0

porosity-miu1
porosity-miu2
Cn-miu1
Cn-miu2
Initial Porosity
P
o
r
o
s
it
y
0
2
4
6
8
10
C
n
0 1 2
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55
0.60
0.65

porosity-miu1
porosity-miu2
Cn-miu1
Cn-miu2
U (m/s)
p
o
r
o
s
ity
-
m
iu
1
2
4
6
8

0 2 4 6 8
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55
0.60
0.65
porosity
Cn
Ad
p
o
r
o
s
it
y
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

C
n
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55

porosity
Cn
St
p
o
r
o
s
it
y
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

C
n
( )
5 5
1 2 1 10 , 2 10 Pa s Pa s

= =
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
p
o
r
o
s
ity
ncyc
level 1
level 2
level 3
level 4
level 5
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
p
o
r
o
s
it
y
ncyc
level 1
level 2
level 3
level 4
level 5
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0


p
o
r
o
s
it
y
ncyc
level 1
level 2
level 3
level 4
level 5
0.05 0.10 0.15
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0


P
o
r
o
s
ity
time(s)
level 1
level 2
level 3
level 4
level 5