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Effects of particle size and region width on the mixing and dispersion of pebbles in two-region pebble bed

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Abstract

Granular systems and their mixing processes are widely used in various industries. The effects of size ratio and region width on the mixing and dispersion of pebbles in the two-region pebble bed are studied by discrete element method (DEM). The particle-scale mixing index (PSMI) and mixing entropy are used to quantify the particle mixing process. A similarity of mixing under different discharge rates is found after a stable two-region distribution structure is established. From qualitative observation and quantitative analysis, the mixing region is complicated in shape for the cases with greater particle size ratios. There is an increasing tendency of PSMI for two-region pebble bed when the region ratio or size ratio rises. The size ratio has greater effects on the mixing and dispersion of pebble than the region ratio, since the occupied volumes and entropies in the mixing region in the relatively steady state are more strongly affected by the size ratio rather than by the region ratio. As particles in the side regions can be easily driven by large ones, the stagnant region will decrease greatly when large size particles flow in the central region.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of this research by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (Grant No. 51576211), the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51321002), and the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of PR China (Grant No. 201438). This work is also supported financially by China Scholarship Council (CSC) under the Grant No. 201506210365.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article. Publication has been approved by all authors. None of the material presented in the paper is submitted or published elsewhere, and the paper does not contain any information with restricted access or proprietary content.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hao Wu, Nan Gui, Xingtuan Yang, Jiyuan Tu & Shengyao Jiang

  2. School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, 3083, Australia

    Hao Wu & Jiyuan Tu

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  1. Hao Wu
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  2. Nan Gui
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  3. Xingtuan Yang
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  4. Jiyuan Tu
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  5. Shengyao Jiang
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Correspondence to Shengyao Jiang.

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Wu, H., Gui, N., Yang, X. et al. Effects of particle size and region width on the mixing and dispersion of pebbles in two-region pebble bed. Granular Matter 18, 76 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-016-0672-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-016-0672-7

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