Computational and Experimental Shear Cell Study with Rigid Cylindrical Particles

Flow properties of particles are commonly assessed through shear cells. Both the Schulze ring shear tester (SRST) and Jenike shear tester (JST) measure the interparticle stresses which are important to the design of many granular flow processes. This work uses precision-cut rigid cylinders of various aspect ratios and sizes to compare the measured stresses between both testers. It is found that the shearing results for both testers are similar, which is important for future work involving flexible biomass materials.

Previous work has sought to use shear cell results to validate various aspects of discrete element method (DEM) simulations. The SRST is recreated in a DEM simulation with rigid glued-sphere cylindrical particles to assess the contact detection method by comparing the experimental and computation results. Also, a parameterization study is performed to examine the effects of coefficient of restitution, coefficient of friction, and other particle properties on the measured steady-state stress. Overall, this serves as an efficient validation of the contact detection method which will be used to simulate complex particle shapes.