Modification of the spherical particle spring-damping contact model from contact velocity dependent restitution coefficients

The most common granular flow Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulation contact model is the spring damping model, which typically uses constant restitution coefficients to estimate the model damping coefficient. The predicted rebound velocities are thus pre-determined by the ad hoc restitution coefficient setting. Considering the fact that the coefficient of restitution is contact velocity-dependent and event driven, we advance the spring-damping model using three contact velocity-dependent restitution coefficient approaches. We show that the spring-damping model using a new restitution coefficient approach derived from the model of Walton & Braun (1986) gives good rebound velocity predictions over a range of contact velocities for four spherical particles of different hardness. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The paper presents an improved spring-damping model for granular flow simulations using contact velocity-dependent restitution coefficient approaches. The model achieves accurate predictions of rebound velocities for different hardness levels of spherical particles.