Granular flow in a rotating drum with gaps in the side wall

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the motion of bi-sized particles in a short rotating drum by using Discrete Element Method (DEM). The side wall of the drum has equally spaced gaps whose width is just between the two particle diameters. One end wall of the drum is fixed while the other rotates with the side wall. Small particles are fed into the drum continuously at the center region in the axial direction. The effect of rotating speed on the volumetric holdup and residence time of small particle is investigated. A critical rotating speed is found, below which the decrease of rotating speed will increase the volumetric holdup and the residence time of the small particles sharply. A jump in the axial distribution of the outflow rate of the small particles is observed at the region adjacent to the fixed end wall. The flow pattern inside the drum is analyzed. In the region between the fixed end wall and the feeding point, all small particles, on average, move towards the fixed end wall. While in the region between the rotating end wall and the feeding point, the small particles curve away the rotating end wall in the upper part of the charge and return to this wall in the lower part. The particle temperature distributions at different rotating speeds are explored to understand the flow behavior observed in these simulations.