A STUDY ON SIZE SEGREGATION OF PARTICLES USING DISTINCT ELEMENT ANALYSIS

'Size segregation' is a typical phenomenon usually accompanied with fl ow of particles. It has been demonstrated experimentally and macroscop ically. However, the microscopic mechanism is difficult to observe, an d it is not understood sufficiently. In this study, the experiment foc used on size segregation simulated using the distinct element method. A 2-dimensional simulation for the full model of the experiment indica tes equivalent behavior. However, size segregation in an accumulated l ayer is not properly shown. Next, the simple partial model is simulate d using 2- and 3-dimensional analysis. The 2-D result does not show th e size segregation clearly due to the wide scattering of data, but tha t of 3-D shows that it is possible to simulate the segregation properl y. Also, detailed observation of the movement of each particle demonst rates the validity of the mechanism of size segregation which was pres ented from the experiment.