Numerical study of concrete mixing transport process and mixing mechanism of truck mixer

– The purpose of this paper is to establish a new two-phase Discrete Element Method (DEM) model to investigate the movement of fresh concrete which consists of mortar and aggregate. The established DEM model was adopted to simulate the mixing process of fresh concrete based on the commercial software package PFC3D. The trajectories of particles and particle clusters were recorded to analyze the mixing behavior from different scales. On one hand, the macro-scale movement was obtained to make the mixing process visualization. On the other hand, the relative micro movement of the single particle and particle clusters was also monitored to further study the mixing mechanism of the fresh concrete. , – A new two-phase DEM model was designed to simulate the movement of fresh concrete which consists of mortar and aggregate. The linear-spring dashpot model was used to model all the contacts between particle and particle/wall to characterize the viscidity of fresh concrete. Moreover, two sets of parallel bond models were employed to characterize the contact between the mortar particles and mortar/coarse aggregate particles, namely the pbond1 and pbond2. The hybrid treatment enables the current DEM model to handle the yield behavior. , – The mixing process of fresh concrete is mainly composed by the transportation in the x-direction and the overturn and fall off in the y- and z-directions. With these movements in different directions, the concrete particles can be fully mixed in the mixing drum. , – A new two-phase DEM model was proposed and used to simulate the mixing process of fresh concrete. The outcomes of the simulation would be helpful for making the transporting truck visualization and the movement behavior of fresh concrete observable. The model can provide dynamic information of particles to reveal the interaction mechanism of fresh concrete in the truck mixer which is extremely difficult to obtain on-line in physical experiments or building site.

[1]  H. Chu.  Numerical Simulation of Fluidity Behavior of Fresh Concrete by 2D Distinct Element Method , 1996 .

[2]  Hao Zhang,et al.  A Numerical Simulation of Motion of Particles under the Wafer in CMP , 2008, 2008 International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering.

[3]  Yuanqiang Tan,et al.  Numerical simulation of concrete pumping process and investigation of wear mechanism of the piping wall , 2011 .

[4]  Nicolas Roussel,et al.  Passing Ability of Fresh Concrete: A Probabilistic Approach , 2009 .

[5]  Hao Zhang,et al.  Parallelization of a DEM Code Based on CPU-GPU Heterogeneous Architecture , 2013, ParCo 2013.

[6]  Yong Xu,et al.  2D DEM simulation of particle mixing in rotating drum: A parametric study , 2010 .

[7]  Nobuyasu Suzuki,et al.  1073 Experiment Investigation and DEM Simulation of Filling Capacity of Fresh Concrete , 1996 .

[8]  P. Cundall,et al.  A bonded-particle model for rock , 2004 .

[9]  Phan Quoc Huu Duy.  3-D simulation using distinct element method for prediction of shotcrete shootability , 2002 .

[10]  Asensio Oliva Llena,et al.  Parallelization of a DEM/CFD code for the numerical simulation of particle-laden turbulent flows , 2011 .

[11]  Jihoe Kwon,et al.  Using the discrete element method to analyze the breakage rate in a centrifugal/vibration mill , 2010 .

[12]  Junya Kano,et al.  Analysis of abrasion mechanism of grinding media in a planetary mill with DEM simulation , 2010 .

[13]  Takaaki Ohkubo,et al.  Flow Performance of High-Fluidity Concrete , 2004 .

[14]  David W. Fowler,et al.  "A New, Portable Rheometer for Fresh Self-Consolidating Concrete" , 2006, SP-233: Workability of SCC: Roles of Its Constituents and Measurement Techniques.

[15]  F. X. Trias,et al.  Numerical investigation of the location of maximum erosive wear damage in elbow: Effect of slurry velocity, bend orientation and angle of elbow , 2012 .

[16]  Atsuhiko Machida,et al.  VERIFICATION OF APPLICATION OF DEM TO FRESH CONCRETE BY SPHERE DRAGGING VISCOMETER , 1998 .

[17]  Yuanqiang Tan,et al.  A GPU-based discrete element modeling code and its application in die filling , 2015 .

[18]  Liu Fang-xing.  Numerical value simulation of facilitated two phase agitated flow field based on double fluid model , 2007 .

[19]  Frédéric Dufour,et al.  Computational modeling of concrete flow: General overview , 2007 .

[20]  David R. Owen,et al.  Discrete element simulation of the dynamics of high energy planetary ball milling processes , 2004 .

[21]  Y. T. Feng,et al.  A discrete particle model and numerical modeling of the failure modes of granular materials , 2005 .

[22]  Knut Krenzer,et al.  Simulation of fresh concrete flow using Discrete Element Method (DEM): theory and applications , 2014 .

[23]  F. X. Trias,et al.  Numerical investigation on the role of discrete element method in combined LBM–IBM–DEM modeling , 2014 .

[24]  Rob Morrison,et al.  Discrete element method study of abrasion , 2008 .

[25]  P. Cundall,et al.  A discrete numerical model for granular assemblies , 1979 .

[26]  Zhou Xuan.  Parametric Design of Concrete-mixer Truck Drum Helical Curve Base on UG , 2006 .

[27]  Munaz Ahmed Noor.  Three-dimensional discrete element simulation of flowable concrete , 2000 .

[28]  Peng Wang,et al.  Analysis of Fluid Energy Mill by gas-solid two-phase flow simulation , 2011 .

[29]  Mohamed Lachemi,et al.  Performance of new viscosity modifying admixtures in enhancing the rheological properties of cement paste , 2004 .

[30]  Xie Jun.  Parametric designing for the mixing blades of the concrete-mixer truck based on UG , 2009 .

[31]  Aibing Yu,et al.  Discrete element method: An effective way for particle scale research of particulate matter , 2004 .