Transition to Centrifugal Particle Motion in Rotating Drums

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transition to centrifugal particle motion in rotating drums through analytical and numerical methods, highlighting the role of particle-wall friction and the critical particle number needed for this regime.

Contribution

It provides a new analytical expression for the critical particle number required for centrifugal motion, considering particle-wall friction and inter-particle interactions.

Findings

Friction coefficient significantly affects transition regimes.

Behavior of rotating particles depends on particle number and friction.

Analytic expression for critical particle number derived.

Abstract

The dynamics and the transition to the centrifugal regime are studied analytically and numerically for particles in rotating drum. The importance of the particle-wall friction coefficient is demonstrated by studying first the motion of one non-rotating particle where three different regimes are found in the transition to the centrifugal motion. When a few rotating particles are considered, they behave similarly to one non-rotating particle in the low friction limit. A critical particle number is necessary to reach the centrifugal regime for which an analytic expression is derived in the limit of negligible inter-particle friction.