Discrete element method applied for soya bean flow prediction and analysis

Manuel Osório Binelo¹; Oleg Khatchatourian¹; Nelson Toniazzo¹; Jennifer Valleriano Barboza¹; Saul Winik¹

¹ UNIJUI

doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-0388

Resumo

Soya bean is a very important product for many countries and there are many equipments to manipulate this product in bulk during the post harvesting process. In this work, the discrete element method (DEM) was applied to predict and analyze the soya bean flow by modeling each seed as a sphere. The values of the material properties necessary for simulation (Poisson coefficient, Young modulus, fraction angle and rolling stiffness) were obtained from the literature. Comparison between the simulation results and the experimental data showed a good agreement. Simulation analysis permitted to identify the non-uniformity of the grain flow that could occur in equipments such as dryers and conveyers that can represent loss in grain quality or security risks for their operation.

Palavras-chave: DEM; Soya bean; particulate flow; flow analysis