Extended HPM-DEM coupled simulation of drainage of square particles in a 2D hopper flow

An extended hard particle method-discrete element method coupled model (EHPM-DEM) is proposed to simulate the drainage of square particle in 2D hoppers. The EHPM extends the hard sphere model to adapt for non-spherical shapes. A vertex-based extension of DEM is developed to solve collisions of square particles. A new coupled method is proposed, using the EHPM to simulate binary collisions and DEM to simulate multiple contacts. The collision between two triangles and the drainage of square particles in hoppers were simulated and compared to theoretical analysis and experiments, respectively, for validation. Moreover, the advantages of EHPM over DEM and the EHPM-DEM coupled solution over the pure soft DEM solution in computational efficiency have been demonstrated. In addition, the effects of restitution coefficient, friction coefficient, and the filled height on the discharge rates are analyzed, and a uniform discharge feature is discovered, which is especially useful for scaling studies.