Transport of small particles through a 3D packing of spheres: experimental and numerical approaches

In this paper, we study the transport of particles through a porous structure. Experimentally, we focus our attention on the dependence of the mean transit time on some parameters like the number of small particles injected in the structure, and the height of the packing. We have developed a numerical model, based on a DEM method, to simulate the experiment. This model is useful for accessing the internal structure of the packing and for analysing precisely the influence of the restitution coefficient and the size ratio between spheres.