Numerical investigation of the effect of particle properties on a flexible tube transport system by DEM-FEM

The transport of particulate materials through flexible tubes, where tube deformation and movement are significant, is quite common in industries but lacks fundamental understanding, especially at the particle level. To gain fundamental particle-level insights, this study employs a coupled DEM-FEM approach, modeling particle flows with DEM and flexible tube with FEM. The DEM-FEM model is used to systematically investigate the impact of key particle properties on the transport dynamics. Specifically, the effects of particle density, particle shape (both spherical and non-spherical particles are included), particle feed rate, and initial particle velocity on both particle behavior (particle velocity and shear impact energy) and tube response (vibration displacement behaviors of the tube) are analyzed in detail. The DEM-FEM simulation results demonstrate that increasing the particle density, sphericity, feed rate and initial velocity can lead to more significant vibration displacements of the flexible tube and higher shear impact energy. However, their effects on the particle velocity are rather complex. For example, the variation trends of particle velocity differ as particle density increases during the downward particle flow along the tube. Moreover, taken as a whole, the particle density and particle shape exert the quite limited influence on the particle velocity. These findings should provide valuable insights for optimizing operations of particle transport processes in flexible tubes.