Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Stochastic And Deterministic Dynamics Investigation Of The Microstructure Of Granular Materials, Vishagan Ratnaswamy

Theses

Granular materials are ubiquitous in one's daily life. They can be found in the cereal you eat, the sugar you put in your coffee or the sand you walk on in the beach. The study of granular materials has a rich history dating back to the 17th century where Kepler studied the packing of particles. The compaction of granular materials is a problem that is studied by using theory, experiments and simulations. While these studies have yielded some important results, there still are many details about the mechanisms of granular compaction that are unknown.

In this thesis, the density relaxation …

Implementation Of A Two-Dimensional Discrete Element Method To Describe Granular Materials Composed Of Elliptical Cohesionless Particles, Juan Jose Martinez Alvez

Theses

This work is aimed at developing a discrete element simulation that models the contact between elliptical grains or particles in granular materials. The goal is to implement an algorithm to carry out collision detection between ellipses as well as ellipsoidal objects. The practical issue here is that the real shape of macroscopic grains can be approximated better using elliptical curves than using spherical curves. In addition, the simulation model will also be valid for spheres, since these objects are special cases of ellipsoids.

An accurate contact detection algorithm was investigated by means of two different formulations. The first formulation determines …

Development Of A Non-Intrusive Particle Motion Tracking Technique For Granular Flow Experiments, Jerry R. Volcy

Theses

Implementation aspects of monitoring the position and orientation of a one-inch diameter particle in space non-intrusively based on the principle of magnetic induction coupling are discussed. A radio-transmitter embedded within the particle induces voltages in receiver antennae. Position and orientation of the particle are deciphered from these voltages. A previously developed math model that predicts the voltage induced in an antenna given the position and orientation of the transmitter with respect to the antenna as well as the numerical techniques used to obtain the inverse solution of computing position and orientation from a given set of voltages are used.

Practical …

Computational Aspects Of A Three Dimensional Non-Intrusive Particle Motion Tracking System, Avadhani S. Ashok

Theses

Development of a technique for non-intrusive particle motion tracking in three dimensions is considered. This technique is based on the principle of magnetic induction. In particular, the determination of the position and onentation of the particle from the information gathered is the pnncipal focus of this thesis. The development of such a system is motivated by the need to understand the flow patterns of granular material. This is of cntical importance in dealing with problems associated with bulk solids flows which occur in almost all industries and in natural geological events. A study of the current diagnostic techniques reveals the …