An experimental study on the effect of liquid content and viscosity on particle segregation in a rotating drum

The segregation phenomenon of wet granular materials was experimentally studied in a quasi-2D rotating drum. The mono-disperse systems and binary-mixture systems (with 4 mm and 2 mm glass beads and 40% filled volume fraction) were used. All the experiments were controlled so the Froude number of the rolling regime was 2.79 x 10(-4). The effects of the volume and the viscosity of the liquid added to the granular system on the segregation index and angle of repose in the rotating drum were investigated and are discussed in this paper. The experimental results indicate that the volume and viscosity of the added liquid have significant effects on the wet granular flow. The results demonstrate that the segregation index decreases with an increase of the repose angle of the wet granular materials, regardless of the volume or viscosity of the added liquid. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.