Modelling Granular Collisions with Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics

This thesis focuses on modelling granular collisions. Granular collisions are encountered in various industrial and mining applications. These range from the transport and separation of grains in agricultural industries to the crushing and breakage of rocks in mills and crushers. For accurate modelling of rebound and deformation in elastoplastic granular collisions, a new Collisional-SPH (Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics) method has been developed. This new method is then used to investigate the interdependence between the deformation of the colliding bodies and the contact force distribution. The influence of granule shape, material properties and impact conditions on collision dynamics is also investigated. It is found that the deformation influences the contact force distribution, which affects the rebound behaviour of the colliding bodies.