Scaling behavior of particle breakage in granular flows inside rotating drums.

Abstract

We perform systematic particle dynamics simulations of granular flows composed of breakable particles in a 2D rotating drum to investigate the evolution of the mean particle size and specific surface as a function of system parameters such as drum size, rotation speed, filling degree, and particle shape and size. The specific surface increases at a nearly constant rate up to a point where particle breakage begins to slow down. The rates of particle breakage for all values of system parameters are found to collapse on a master curve when the times are scaled by the characteristic time defined in the linear regime. We determine the characteristic time as a function of all system parameters, and we show that the rate of particle breakage can be expressed as a linear function of a general scaling parameter that incorporates all our system parameters. This scaling behavior provides a general framework for the upscaling of drum grinding process from laboratory to industrial scale.