The Technological and Higher Education

Institute of Hong Kong

Faculty of Science and Technology

Final Year Project

Final Report

Statistical features of the contact force

structure in the bidisperse packing

Authorization

I hereby declare that I am the sole and/or join author of the thesis.

I authorize the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi) to lend

this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research.

I further authorize THEi to reproduce the thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total

or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly

search.

________________________

Yat Ng

May 2019
 The Impact of Climate Change on
Rainfall Intensity-Duration-Frequency
(IDF) Curves in Hong Kong

By
Ng Yat

This is to certify that I have examined the above Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) graduation
thesis and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects,
and that any and all revisions required by the thesis examination committee have been made.

Dr. Li Zhaofeng, Supervisor

_________________________

Prof. Simon Wong Ho Fai, Programme Leader

______________________________

Faculty of Science and Technology

16 May 2018
Abstract
In granular materials, it has been well observed by experiment and numerical simulation that

the contact forces between particles follow a bimodal distribution, and this bimodal feature is

universal regardless of the grain size distribution and particle shape. The strong forces,

known as the contact forces with a magnitude greater than the mean value, form the skeleton,

whereas the weak forces confine the skeleton. Such a finding may hint that the contact forces

between different particles is randomly distributed, and any particle, either with a large radius

of small radius, can play an equal role in the packing. This suggestion is contradicted to our

intuitive idea that the large particles assist in forming the skeleton. Therefore, it is worthwhile

to observe how the contact forces distribute between different particles, and the investigation

here uses the numerical simulation and penetrates into the simplest case, i.e., the bidisperse

packing which is the mixture of two types of mono-size particles.

1.Introduction
It is always my pleasure to have been chosen by my tutor Feng that this is my first choice

among other ten programs. Statistics has been my hobby that I am always interested into

predicting results of any games like blackjacks and horse racing, or something that we don’t

know but there may be a sequences, evidences or clues that I may look for. For example,

whether the size of the granular particles will affect the contact forces between the particles

or the greater particles may provide a skeleton use that they may hold all the particles

together while other small particles as fillers (However, this may not be true that some

experiments proved that there may be other explanations).

Granular has been very important in our daily life that granular is everywhere. The milk

powder, the noodles, bread, and even our houses, buildings and many other usage are about

granular.

The relationship between the large particles and smaller particles have been concerned by

scientists and engineers that there may have been contradicted to the idea in granular physics

and soil mechanics that larger particles will be performing as a skeleton to hold all the

particles and ingredients. However, after many of experiments and studies, it is found out that

there may be some contradiction with the knowledge that we all have. Contact forces

between particles may be randomly distributed that the particles with large or small radius

may play as a same role. To find out the relationship between them, statistical methods may

be taken with bidisperse packing.

1.1 Bidisperse Packing

Bidisperse is something that the particles with two different sizes are distributed or spread

over a wide area. For bidisperse packing, the particles are diverge into two sizes in a packing.
 1.2 Random Distribution

Probability density function is the function that for normal distribution, which is the most

important continuous random distribution that the probabilities of interval are correspond to

the area under the curve. The values of mean, median and mode are the same. 68% of the

data will be within the standard deviation - mean and standard deviation + mean. It is

believed that all the particles generated ratio and other aspects will be in random distribution

and Central Limit Theorem is also applied in this research.

1.2.1 Central Limit Theorem (CLT)

When there is not a normal distribution, or it is unknown. Ie it cannot be deemed as normally

distriubuted, the shape of the distribution can be approximately demmed as normally

distributed. (Rumsey, 2011) For example, averaging a fair dice is approximately normal. It is

nearly impossible to row die thousand of times with an average outcome of straight 3.5, may

be 3.48 or 3.52. It may be tends to 3.5.

 1.3 Contact Forces

In order to omit and minimise other forces between the grains and to minimise the error by

attractive forces by liquid bridges, the study will focus in electrically neutral, non-magnetic

grains in vacuum or air. Therefore, there will be no forces between the particles except when

they are in contact. I.e. the contact forces. Computer simulations will be taken in order to

minimise the loss of money and saving time. The contact forces will be saved in a system that

all of those forces like shear stress will all be collected for further implementation.
2. Objectives
2.1 General Objective

To find out the correlation between the sizes of the granular materials in packings. For

example, how they work, whether it is in quantitative or it is qualitative, both included or

even none of above is correct.

2.2 Specific Objectivewf

In order to find out the results, statistical methods have to be used. To obtain the statistical

results and make hypothesis, computer simulations will be the most cost effective and time

effective measures. PFC2D is used to simulate the packing situation with codes provided

from my tutor Dr Zhaofeng which I am very pleased to have.

3. Literature Review

4. Methodology
The data after collecting will be analysis in further mathematical methods that will be decided

in the next semester.

Detailed Methodology

As mentioned above, the models will be generated by the code PFC2D as a particle flow

model as the model can be set up with more complex behavior by allowing the particles to

bond together that the contact points. Therefore, the inter-particle forces can exceed the bond

strength at any bond, that the bond is broken.

However, there are some assumptions of PFC2D for particle-flow model.

● Contacts only occur over a vanishingly small area

● Particles are seen as rigid bodies

● There can be bonds at contacts between particles

● All particles are circular

● Soft-contact approach is used where overlaps one another at contact points are

allowed for rigid particles

● The contact force and magnitude are inter-correlated via the force-displacement law.

Distinct-Element Method

DEM is used to assembly the rigid circular particles models’ stressed and interaction.

Interaction of particles are treated as dynamic process at the states of equilibrium developing.

By tracing the movements of individual particles, contact forces and displacements of

stressed assembly of particles are found. The dynamic process that the speed of propagation

will be depended by the physical properties from the discrete system. The dynamic behavior
will be represented numerically by the explicit time-stepping algorithm. Central-difference

scheme will be used to represent velocities and accelerations.

4.1 Making Hypothesis

Before Starting the test, hypothesis have to be made. In this project, hypotheses will be made.

1. The contact force among the bidisperse packing particles are qualitative

2. The contact force among the bidisperse packing particles are quantitative.

3. The contact force among the bidisperse packing particles are not qualitative nor

quantitative and not related.

4. The contact force among the bidisperse packing particles are not qualitative nor

quantitative but related.

Assume that all particle distributions are determined by the Central Limit Theorem (CLT).
 4.2 χ2 Test

Chi-square test is a statistical method to determine whether a statement is a correct statement.

Chi-square test was a test developed in the 19th century. It was developed for statistical

analytical methods applying in biological data analysis and for researchers for determine

whether the works are in normal distribution. In order to achieve a better result, microsoft

excel will be used to write a spreadsheet to test whether it is qualitative and quantitative.

5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
It has been my pleasure to work in this topic that I have learnt a lot different knowledge in

packings and granular physics. To be honest, I have never heard of what packings are and

what are they about before getting in touch to the project.

References
1. McGeary, R.K.: Mechanical packing of spherical particles. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 44,

513–523 (1961)

2. Rassolusly, S.M.K.: The packing density of ‘perfect’ binary mixtures. Powder

Technol. 103, 145–150 (1999)

3. Zhou, F., Advani, S.G., Wetzel, E.D.: Slow drag in polydisperse granular mixtures

under high pressure. Phys. Rev. E 71, 06304 (2005)

4. Isola, R.: Packing of granular materials. Dissertation, University of Nottingham

(2008)

5. Chegg.com (2018). Chegg.com. [online] Chegg.com. Available at:

https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/normal-curve-31 [Accessed 27

Dec. 2018].

6. Isola, R. (2018). PACKING OF GRANULAR MATERIALS. [online]

Nottingham.ac.uk. Available at:

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/ntec/documents/theses/isolathesis.pdf

[Accessed 27 Dec. 2018].

7. Rumsey, D. (2011). Statistics for dummies. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing.
Appendices

Results

Quantitative Results

1 to 1.5
1 to 2
1 to 2.5
1 to 3
1 to 3.5
1 to 4
1 to 4.5
1 to 5
Qualitative Results

Size Ratio = 1 to 5
Size Ratio = 1 to 5.5
Size Ratio = 1 to 6
Size Ratio = 1 to 6.5
Size Ratio = 1 to 7
Size Ratio = 1 to 7.5
Size Ratio = 1 to 8
Size Ratio = 1 to 8.5
Size Ratio = 1 to 9
Chi Square Test Results

Quantitative Results

Quantity Ratio Exact Contact Force Expected Contact Force

1 to 1 1.563 0.4236

1 to 1.5 1.421 0.6354

1 to 2 1.47 0.8472

1 to 2.5 1.776 1.059

1 to 3 2.166 1.2708

1 to 3.5 1.784 1.4826

1 to 4 1.998 1.6944

1 to 4.5 2.256 1.9062

1 to 5 2.118 2.118

Chi Square Test Results 0.67076124

 Qualitative Results

Expected Contact Force

Size Ratio Exact Contact Force

1 to 5

1.563 0.3754

1 to 5.5 1.735 0.5631

1 to 6 1.886 0.7508

1 to 6.5 1.6 0.9385

1 to 7 1.991 1.1262

1 to 7.5 2.331 1.3139

1 to 8 1.61 1.5016

1 to 8.5 1.693 1.6893

1 to 9 1.877 1.877

Chi Square Test Results 0.27659045