Axial segregation characteristics and size-induced flow behavior of particles in a novel rotary drum with curved sidewalls

In this work, the discrete element method (DEM) was applied to construct the novel rotary drum composed of different shaped curved sidewalls. By varying the operation parameters of particle and sidewall shapes as well as the length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio of drums, the axial mixing and segregation processes of binary size-induced particles were investigated.

The results show that the axial flow velocity of the particle mixtures is noticeably weakened once the particle angularity increases, making the non-spherical particles to mix better in rotary drums compared to the spherical particles. Besides, in the short drums with size-induced spherical particles, the axial segregation characteristics are significantly enhanced by the convex sidewalls while suppressed by the concave sidewalls.