Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834

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Powder Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Study of the discharge behavior of Rosin-Rammler particle-size

distributions from hopper by discrete element method: A systematic
analysis of mass flow rate, segregation and velocity profiles
Raj Kumar a, Srikanth R. Gopireddy b, Arun K. Jana a, Chetan M. Patel a,⁎
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat 395007, Gujarat, India
b
Daiichi-Sankyo Europe GmbH, Pharmaceutical Development, Luitpoldstrasse 1, 85276 Pfaffenhofen, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present work, the discrete element method (DEM) is used to investigate the behaviour of Rosin-Rammler
Received 4 March 2019 (R-R) particle size distribution (PSD) during hopper discharge. The study attempts to identify mass flow rate
Received in revised form 13 September 2019 (MFR) and segregation as a function of spread parameter (PSD width) and location parameter, which includes de-
Accepted 14 September 2019
tailed analysis of bulk density, segregation and velocity profile of particles. The applicability of the widely used
Available online 16 September 2019
Beverloo correlation for prediction of MFR for studied R-R PSDs is also investigated. The results show that,
Keywords:
(1) MFR increases as PSD width (at fixed location parameter) increases, whereas MFR decreases with increase in lo-
Discrete element method cation parameter at fixed PSD width; (2) the studied R-R PSDs exhibit a monotonic trend of flow bulk density and
Rosin-Rammler particle size distribution MFR with respect to PSD width and location parameter; (3) the effect of PSD width on overall segregation is
PSD width found to be more than the location parameter; (4) the velocity profiles for considered R-R PSDs vary along the height
Mass flow rate of hopper, but remain uniform in shape and follow a pure parabolic increase from the hopper wall; (5) DEM flow rate
Segregation prediction shows a good agreement with the Beverloo correlation by applying the concept of flow bulk density.
Velocity profiles © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Granular or powder materials storing and handling is considered to
be the most important step in every chemical process industry. The big-
gest challenge faced by chemical researchers is to produce sufficient
quantity and quality of product at low cost without wasting these par-
ticulate or granular materials [1]. The behavior of granular materials
during discharge from hoppers or bins plays a crucial role in many in-
dustrial processes such as chemical, agricultural, food and pharmaceuti-
cal industries [2]. For example, uninterrupted powder flow from hopper
is vital for successful tableting process as it is the rate limiting factor for
high tablet production, where with the modern tableting machines it is
possible to produce up to 1.6 M (Mega) tablets per hour [3]. Granular
flows can be extremely complex and in general are not well understood.
The granular material cannot be considered as solid, liquid or gas to fully
characterize their flow state. In fact they are characterized as the fourth
state of matter due to its puzzling nature and behavior [4,5]. The key un-
derstanding towards the behavior of granular material in a hopper not
only aids in obtaining the correct flow, but also to ensure that the hop-
per is properly designed to deliver quality product during processing
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cmp@ched.svnit.ac.in (C.M. Patel).
time [6]. The prediction of mass flow rate (MFR) from hoppers or bins
is both a classical problem regarding unpredictable behaviour of granu-
lar material and a problem of engineering concern. Numerous correla-
tions were proposed over many decades and are used to predict
discharge rates of granular materials from different shape hoppers
[7–12]. Some of them were based on the dimensional analysis and
others using experimental results. From application point of view,
Beverloo Eq. [7] is a dominating choice in predicting MFR from hoppers
pffiffiffi
having circular outlets. It takes the form: m_ ¼ Cρ gðD−kdÞ2:5 ; where
m_ is the mass flow rate, C and k are the empirical discharge and shape
coefficients respectively which need to be determined experimentally,
ρ is bulk density, D is the hopper outlet diameter, and d is mean particle
diameter. There have been several attempts to improve the Beverloo
correlation which include the effects such as fill height [13–16], friction
between granular material and hopper wall [17,18], hopper outlet di-
ameter [10,19], particle properties [16,20–23] on MFR. Nedderman
et al. [18] claimed that material dilation during discharge is a strong
function of voidage characteristics of the flowing material. Following
this line of reasoning, they defined a term ‘flow bulk density’ and
found a much restricted range of discharge coefficient, C between
0.575 and 0.59. Humbly and co-workers [16] also studied the discharge
behaviour from flat bottom hopper and proposed modification in
Beverloo equation by incorporating the concept of flow bulk density.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.09.044
0032-5910/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834
But the use of such concept to MFR prediction somewhat requires a pre-
cise set of experiments having high reproducibility. The discharge dy-
namics from hopper depends upon several factors which include
material properties, processing conditions and hopper geometry. The
flow dynamics gets completely changed due to change in any one of
these parameters, which may results in non-uniformity in product
stream termed as segregation [24,25]. The degree of segregation is
greatly affected by factors such as particle size distribution width
(span), mass fraction of individual components, mean particle diameter,
filling method as well as the hopper angle [26–28].
Over the last few decades, Discrete Element Method (DEM) has al-
leviated some of the pitfalls associated with processing granular mix-
tures [29,30] and processing conditions in terms of segregation
[31,32], mass discharge rate [33,34], flow mode [30,35,36] and velocity
profiles [37–40]. The utility of DEM in particle technology sector has in-
creased due to its ability to track the each particle [41] and studying va-
riety of processes at experimental scale [42]. Anand et al. [33] utilized
DEM to study the discharge behaviour of granular material having dif-
ferent size distribution from rectangular/wedge-shaped hopper. They
suggested that filling of voids by fines particles results in increase in
flow bulk density and hence MFR. Ketterhagen et al. [31] also assessed
binary-size mixtures and found that the greatest extent of segregation
is at the fine mass fraction of 5%, above which the segregation intensity
decreases as the mass fraction of fines increases. In the recent study
Zhao et al. [43,44] employed DEM to explore the effect PSD width of
lognormal PSDs on the discharge rate and segregation from 3D hopper.
They reported that continuous lognormal PSDs with the same mean
having different widths exhibit distinctly different behaviors. Gener-
ally, the shape of PSD curve is best outlined by a continuous function
[45] and different PSD functions (i.e. normal, log-normal and Rosin-
Rammler) are used to characterize polydispersed systems like powders
[46]. In this category, the applicability of Rosin-Rammler (R-R) PSD in
different sectors (i.e. particle technology, spray technology, fragmenta-
tion processes etc.) is increased in recent years. The R-R PSD was orig-
inally developed to describe the distribution of coal particles [47], and
it has been shown that the R-R PSD equation is one of the well suited
distribution to represent powders made by grinding, milling, and
crushing operations [48,49]. The R-R PSD is generally expressed by
two parameters, location parameter (x', the particle size corresponding
to 0.632 cumulative distribution undersize i.e. mass fraction undersize)
and PSD width (n, spreadness of PSD), which can be easily accessed by
linear regression [45]. Djamarani and Clark characterized R-R PSD
based on fines and coarse fractions and expressed the PSD in terms of
two parameters (i.e. fines/coarse and coarse + fines fractions) [48].
The R-R PSD has been accepted as a robust distribution in broad
range of applications, but the behaviour of R-R PSDs during hopper dis-
charge process is still in its infancy. The research literature on the be-
havior of particulate solids in hoppers is vast and varied
[10,22,23,50–53], but an understanding and predictive ability of con-
tinuous R-R PSD in terms of R-R parameters (i.e. x' and n) is still an
open and unexplored topic.
In order to bridge the gap regarding the impact of the width of R-R
PSDs and location parameter on hopper discharge characteristics, this
study uses DEM to investigate the common continuous Rosin-
Rammler PSDs. The objective of the current study is to study the effects
of Rosin-Rammler PSD width and location parameter on the hopper dis-
charge characteristics, namely, mass flow rate, size-segregation and ve-
locity profiles. These investigations will be useful in understanding
hopper discharge characteristics that are difficult to study in a con-
trolled manner experimentally.
2. Methodology
This section presents all the details about mathematical ap-
proach, studied particle size distributions (PSDs) and geometrical
configuration.
819
2.1. Discrete element method (DEM)
The LIGGGHTS (LAMMPS Improved for General Granular and Gran-
ular Heat Transfer Simulations) code is used to perform the all simula-
tions [54]. The simulations are carried out using the three-dimensional
DEM, which computes the trajectories of each and every particle using
Newton's second law of motion. This is a well-established approach to
study the granular material flow dynamics and the details about this
method and theory can be found elsewhere [55]. Hertz and Mindlin &
Deresiewicz theories are used to compute the normal and tangential
forces, respectively [44,56].
2.2. Particle-size distribution
In the present work, Rosin-Rammler particle size distributions (R-R
PSDs) is considered having cumulative-mass form [57] as follows:
   n 
x
R¼ 1− exp − 0
x
where, R is cumulative percentage undersize mass fraction distribution
function, x is particle size (x ≥ 0), x' is the characteristic particle size (lo-
cation parameter) of the distribution, i.e., the particle size correspond-
ing to 0.632 cumulative distribution undersize, and n is spread
parameter (PSD width) of the distribution (n N 0).
Fig. 1 (a) and (b) show cumulative mass distributions (Fig. 1 (a)) and
the corresponding probability density distributions functions (Fig. 1
(b)), for five values of PSD width (n), viz., 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5 at fixed lo-
cation parameter (x') of 5 mm (see Fig. 1 (a) at a cumulative mass frac-
tion of 0.632). It can be seen by Fig. 1 (b) that the width (n) of R-R PSD
decreases with increasing value of n. Furthermore, the number of com-
ponents comprising the mixture or size range also increases with de-
crease in the value of n (low value of n indicates wider PSD). Similarly
Fig. 1 (c) and (d) show cumulative mass distributions (Fig. 1 (c)) and
the corresponding percentage mass distributions (Fig. 1 (d)), for five
values of location parameter (x'), viz., 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5 (see Fig. 1
(c) at a cumulative mass fraction of 0.632, represented by black dashed
lines) at fixed PSD width (n = 5). It is clear from the figure that with de-
crease in location parameter value at constant PSD width (n), the aver-
age particle size of considered PSD is shifted to lower value (Fig. 1 (d)).
2.3. Geometrical setup
The discharge characteristic of lognormal PSDs in a conical hopper
has been extensively described by Zhao et al. [43,44]. In extension to
[43,44], the focus of present study is to understand the behaviour of
continuous R-R PSDs during hopper discharge process as a function of
PSD width and location parameter. Therefore different simulations
were performed for Rosin-Rammler PSDs with varying PSD width and
location parameter (Section 2.2). The geometrical configuration consists
of a conical hopper identical to [41,43,44], and is depicted in Fig. 2.
The hopper geometry was created with the open source finite ele-
ment mesh tool known as Gmsh [58] and later imported as physical
boundaries into LIGGGHTS.
2.4. Model validation
The present DEM model is validated against the experimental and
numerical study of Li et al. [41] and Zhao et al. [43] respectively. Li
et al. [41] in their experimental study investigated discharge character-
istics of monodisperse glass beads having particle diameter of 10 mm in
semi-cylindrical hopper assembly. Hence, hopper geometry is cut in the
half to visualize the flow mode. First comparison is carried out in terms
of hopper bed heights between above mentioned studies [41,43] and
our simulation work at different time instances, and is depicts in Fig. 3.
820 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834

Fig. 1. (a) R-R PSDs (cumulative mass fraction distributions) for five values of PSD width (n) i.e. 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5; the location parameter x' of the five distributions is 5 mm, (b) Mass based
R-R PSDs for five values of n (3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5), (c) R-R PSDs (cumulative mass fraction distributions) for five values of location parameter (x') i.e. 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5; the PSD width (n) of
the five distributions is 5 mm, (d) Mass based R-R PSDs for five values of x' i.e. 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5.

Specifically, each column represents a specific study, while each row
represents the discharge time namely, t = 0, 6, 12, and 18 s. At each
time instance, the hopper bed heights between simulations and past
studies is excellent and indicates that present DEM model is able to
quantitatively reproduce the experiments of Li et al. [41] during hopper
discharge process. Second comparison is carried out in terms of mass
flow rate (MFR) of monodisperse glass beads particles (5 mm) used in
simulation work of Zhao et al. [43] and present simulation work,
which is shown in Fig. 4.
It can be seen clearly that discharge mass with time remains rela-
tively same between numerical study of Zhao et al. [43] and our present
work, which further confirms the proper selection of DEM parameters.
The material properties along with the other DEM parameters adopted
in the present work are given in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Mass flow rate (MFR)
with the different studies on binary mixtures [21,33], where increasing
mass fraction of finer species results in increased MFR. In the latest
study, Zhao et al. [44] investigated mass discharge characteristics of log-
normal particle size distributions as a function PSD width which is de-
fined as the ratio of standard deviation and mean of distribution. They
found that MFR decreases as the PSD width increases. Such discrepancy
could be due to definition of PSD width, which leads to different inter-
particles interactions among the various size particles. On the other
hand, at fixed PSD width having different location parameter, the MFR
is decreased in the following order; x' = 3 N x' = 3.5 N x' = 4 N x' =
4.5 N x' = 5 (see Fig. 5 (b)). It is evident that with increase in location
parameter value, the mean diameter of considered PSD is shifted to
higher value (Fig. 1 (d)) and hence reduced MFR is observed. A similar
behavior was reported, wherein increase in mean diameter resulted in
decrease in MFR [14]. But the effect of increasing PSD width at constant
location parameter (x') on MFR is less as compared to increase in loca-
tion parameter at constant width, which can be clearly seen by compar-
ing the slopes of Fig. 5 (a) and (b).

This section explores the impact of PSD width (n) and location pa-
rameter (x') on MFR for studied R-R PSDs. Fig. 5 (a) illustrates the con-
tinuous discharged mass from the hopper with time as a function of PSD
width (n) having constant location parameter (x').
It is found that the MFR increases with the increase in PSD width
(low value of n indicates wider PSD). This increase in MFR is due to in-
crease in the mass fraction of the finer particles smaller than 5 mm (lo-
cation parameter, x') with increase in PSD width. These results resemble
3.1.1. Static bulk density or flow bulk density
As has already been shown in the previous section, increase in PSD
width (at constant location parameter) and decrease in location param-
eter (at constant PSD width) results in increased MFR. In order to study
the dependency of initial packing density (which is termed as static bulk
density in the present work) on MFR, static bulk density is estimated at
different heights before discharge. The average of 12 measurements is
used to examine the relationship between MFR and static bulk density
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834 821

Fig. 2. Schematic of the computational 3D conical hopper.

for studied PSDs. Fig. 6 (a) and (b) show the variation of static bulk den-
sity and MFR with PSD width (n) and location parameter (x') respec-
tively. Each graph comprises two y-axis namely MFR (marked in
black) and static bulk density (marked in red), plotted against n and x'
respectively.
It is evident from the plot that the increment in PSD width (n) results
in increase MFR and shows a positive relationship with static bulk den-
sity (Fig. 6 (a)). On the other hand, a negative relation between static
bulk density and MFR is observed for constant width PSD having differ-
ent location parameter (see Fig. 6 (b)). As per Beverloo equation, MFR is
positively related to the static bulk density, but in present work contrary
nature of static bulk density with MFR is observed for constant width
PSDs. In general, static bulk density is strongly affected by particle size
Fig. 3. Comparison of the instantaneous bed height of the experimental [41], numeric
and decreases with decreasing particle size [59]. As mentioned earlier, study of Zhao et al. [43] and present simulation at time instances of (a) 0, (b) 6, (c) 12,
reduction in location parameter at constant width results in reduced and (d) 18 s.
mean diameter of mixture. It can be one of the reasons that for PSD hav-
ing different location parameter, increased MFR is obsevered even
though low value of static bulk density is noticed. From the comparison
of results (Fig. 6), two interesting observations are clear, (1) the effect of
PSD width on static bulk density is found to be more as compared to lo-
cation parameter, whereas the trend reverse for MFR, (2) it is not neces-
sary that the mixture or PSD having high static bulk density will always
have more MFR and it purely depends upon the PSD and its microstruc-
tural features.
During granular discharge, particles mechanisms such as percolation
or sifting due to which particles segregate cause fine particles to move in
the direction of gravitational acceleration relative to the larger particles.
Humbly et al. [16] studied the discharge characteristics of binary granu-
lar mixtures and defined flow bulk density (ρd) which takes the form, ρd
= ρp (1-εd), where, ρp and εd are the particle density and voids respec-
tively. It is clear from the equation that flow bulk density is a strong
function of void fraction generated during hopper discharge which in
fact depends upon PSD. Anand et al. [33] reported that flow bulk density
is a dominant parameter to increase MFR in binary mixtures by filling
voids between coarser particles with finer one. To verify such a concept, Fig. 4. Comparison of continuous discharge mass versus time profiles for monosize particle
a quantitative approach to calculate flow bulk density is carried out for systems (5 mm) between simulation work of Zhao et al. [43] and present study.
822 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834

Table 1
Parameters considered in simulations [43].

Parameter Value

Spread parameter or PSD width (n) 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5

Location parameter (x') 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5
Density, ρp (kg/m3) 2460
Young's modulus, Y (GPa) 0.1
Poisson's ratio, v(−) 0.25
Coefficient of static friction of particle - particle (−) 0.6
Coefficient of static friction of particle - wall (−) 0.6
Coefficient of rolling friction of particle–particle (−) 0.01
Coefficient of rolling friction of particle–wall (−) 0.05
Coefficient of restitution of particle–particle (−) 0.99
Coefficient of restitution of particle–wall (−) 0.99
Time step, Δt (s) 2 × 105

investigated R-R PSDs. For that, particles movement at center region at

52 mm above outlet (i.e., cone height) is tracked during whole discharge
time. The flow bulk density is defined as the ratio of total mass of the
particles inside the selected region to volume of that region. It is worth-
while to note that such a flow bulk density calculation is time depen-
dent because the total mass inside that region changed during each
simulation time step. Fig. 7 (a) and (b) show the variation of flow bulk
density with time for considered PSDs as a function of PSD width and lo-
cation parameter respectively.
For constant location parameter (x') having different PSD width (n),
flow bulk density increases with increase in PSD width (Fig. 7 (a)). For
all considered PSD, the flow bulk density decreases drastically during
initial discharge and fluctuates around a constant value. The flow bulk
density is expectedly higher for the wider PSD and shows a positive re-
lationship with MFR. Basically, with increase in PSD width, the tendency Fig. 6. Relationship between static bulk density and MFR for investigated R-R PSDs as a
function of, (a) PSD width (n), (b) location parameter (x').

of particles to fill the available voids increases which results in dense

packed structure during discharge. On the other hand the flow bulk
density values for constant PSD width having different location param-
eter (x') remains quite close to each other (see Fig. 7 (b)). It is due to less
scope of particles packing as the PSD width remains constant. These re-
sults are consistent with the previous findings on binary and ternary
mixtures, where increase flow bulk density is claimed for high discharge
rate by filling the available voids between larger particles with smaller
ones [33,50]. Fig. 8 (a) and (b) also plot the average flow bulk density
and MFR as a function of PSD width (n) and location parameter (x')
respectively.
The three main results are: (1) the flow bulk density shows a posi-
tive relation with MFR for all considered R-R PSDs; (2) the flow bulk
density is expectedly higher for the wider PSD at constant location pa-
rameter as compared with the constant width PSDs having different lo-
cation parameter (x') and (3) the difference in the flow bulk density
remains approximately small with respect to location parameter at con-
stant PSD width.
In the latest study, Zhao et al. [44], showed a lack of relationship be-
tween bulk density and MFR for lognormal PSDs as a function of PSD
width. But in the present study of R-R PSDs, MFR is positively related
to the flow bulk density as per Beverloo Eq. [7].

3.1.2. Beverloo correlation

Fig. 5. Discharged mass versus time profiles for (a) R-R PSDs having constant location
parameter (x' = 5) with five values of PSD width (n) i.e. 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, and 5, (b) R-R
PSDs having constant PSD width (n = 5) with five values of location parameter (x') i.e.
3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, and 5.
For several decades, Beverloo correlation has been the dominant
choice for prediction of MFR through an orifice. Mankoc et al. [10]
checked the accuracy of Beverloo correlation for different outlet sizes.
They modified the Beverloo correlation for all outlet size by introducing
an exponential term which was tied with local density variations near
the outlet. As seen in previous section, static and flow bulk density of
considered PSDs show distinct behaviour towards MFR. Hence choice
of static bulk density (ρ) in Beverloo correlation, while calculating the
discharge rate raises interestingly questions. Basically, density term in
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834
Fig. 7. Flow bulk density variations for investigated R-R PSDs during discharge time as a
function of, (a) PSD width (n), (b) location parameter (x').
Beverloo correlation was incorporated to provide dimensional consis-
tency. But, as the hopper discharge begins, density within a hopper
varies with respect to both time and position. In this section a compre-
hensive analysis of static and flow bulk density towards prediction of
MFR is performed. Fig. 9 (a) and (b) shows the variation of static density
and flow bulk density for considered PSDs.
It can be seen that the flow densities are in general lower than the
initial packing densities (static densities) for all considered PSD, and
having maximum value for wider PSD (n = 3). This may be tied to the
extent of dilation among the different ranges of particle sizes (Fig. 1),
which leads to the behavior illustrated in Fig. 9 (a). Similar findings
were also reported by Arteaga and Tuzun [21] in their study in which
they studied effect of fines percentage on binary system. To check the
applicability of flow bulk density in MFR prediction, MFR obtained by
DEM simulations are compared with Beverloo correlation by incorpo-
rating the flow density concept which takes the form:
pffiffiffi
_ ¼ Cρp ð1−εd Þ gðD−kdÞ2:5
m
In the above equation, the term ρp(1 − εd) represents flow bulk den-
sity, where ρp is the particle density and εd is void fraction during dis-
charge. The discharge coefficient (C) is the function of packing fraction
of particles and value of C lies between 0.575 and 0.59 by incorporating
the concept of flow bulk density as suggested by Nedderman and co-
workers [18]. In the present study, value of C is taken as 0.58 [60].
Fig. 10 shows the prediction of MFR with DEM and Beverloo correlation
(with static and flow bulk density) for considered PSDs.
The results indicate that MFR increases as the PSD width broadens
(Fig. 10 (a)) and this profile is very well captured by Beverloo and
823
Fig. 8. Relationship between flow bulk density and MFR for investigated R-R PSDs as a
function of, (a) PSD width (n), (b) location parameter (x').
DEM results. From these results, it may be concluded that, DEM has
reproduced the MFR for different PSDs quite well. The good agreement
between the results obtained by Beverloo correlation (with flow bulk
density) and DEM is observed for almost all the considered PSDs,
whereas the Beverloo correlation (with static bulk density) overesti-
mates the MFR in these cases. Such a good agreement for prediction of
MFR with flow bulk density suggests use of flow bulk density instead
of static bulk density.
3.2. Segregation analysis
This section further explores ineluctable size segregation during dis-
charge for studied R-R PSDs. Size-based particle segregation during hop-
per discharge is frequently reported in the literature (see, for example,
[21,27,31,35,61]. To the authors' knowledge, the existing literature on
segregation is limited to bidiseperse and tri-disperse particles system,
where smaller size particle (fines) is used to characterize segregation
phenomena. Since present PSDs contain various sizes of particles and
concept of single size particle (which is termed as fines in past) segrega-
tion is not suitable to quantify the segregation in the present scenario. Xu
et al. [62] in their work quantitatively characterize and investigate the
transient local segregation behavior of the binary particles by making
use of square grids. In the latest study, Zhao et al. [43] investigated segre-
gation of continuous lognormal particle size distributions by dividing the
PSD in three ranges along with the mean diameter of mixture. In partic-
ular to hopper discharge, reference is missing when it comes to under-
stand size segregation of R-R PSD having different poly-disperse nature.
In the present work, location parameter (x', particle sizes b63.2% cumula-
tive distribution undersize) is taken as reference point and the particle
sizes below location parameter is termed as fines. Hence, extent of segre-
gation is quantitatively described by the mean diameter of mixture, fines
and behaviour of different size fractions during hopper discharge.
824 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834
Fig. 9. Variation in static and flow bulk density for (a) PSD with constant location
parameter having different PSD width (n), (b) PSD with constant PSD width having
different location parameter (x').
3.2.1. Variation in mean diameter of mixture
Fig. 11 (a) illustrates the mass-based normalized mean diameter
(i.e., ratio of the mean particle diameter of considered PSD inside hop-
per during particular time instant to the initial mean particle diameter.
A value of normalized mean diameter inside hopper equal to 1 show
completely mixed state, whereas low and high value shows coarse de-
pleted and coarse rich material inside hopper respectively) with time
as a function of PSD width (n).
The mean diameter inside hopper roughly remains constant during
initially discharge period of discharge up to 3 s for all considered PSDs.
As the flow proceeds, the interaction between different sizes particles
is obvious, where small size particle species continuously percolate
through the spaces between the large particles. For narrower PSD (n
= 5), normalized mean diameter inside hopper remain equal to 1 dur-
ing entire discharge process, showing completely mixed state. On the
other hand, with increase in PSD width (low value of n indicates
wider PSD), segregation phenomena becomes more prevalent, which
can be clearly seen by increase in mean diameter inside hopper. Since
fines are continuously discharged from hopper and it corresponds to a
state (at approximately 14 s), where coarse particles occupy most of
the centerline channel. It results in accumulation of fines at the side
walls of hopper and as the flow further proceeds; these accumulated
fines are discharged. Hence, by changing the PSD width from wider (n
= 3) to narrower (n = 5), the percolation or shifting effects diminish
leaving well mixed mixture inside hopper. Earlier studies permit to con-
clude that increasing fines content in mixture decreased the intensity of
particle segregation [21,25,28,31] by filling the available voids during
discharge. But for considering case, two interesting observations are
worthwhile to note, (1) the mass fraction of the finer species smaller
Fig. 10. MFR predicted by the DEM simulation and Beverloo correlation (with static and
flow bulk density) for considered R-R PSD, (a) as a function of PSD width (n), (b) as a
function of location parameter (x').
than location parameter (5 mm) increases with increase in PSD width
(n), and hence disagree with the results of past studies on binary mix-
ture [32,63], whereby segregation decreases as the mass fraction of
the finer species increases, (2) the number of size components increases
with increase in PSD width, hence the results also disagree with another
study on multi-component mixtures (binary, ternary and quaternary)
in which extent of segregation decreases as the number of size compo-
nents increases [63,64]. Fig. 11 (b) also shows the change in the normal-
ized mean diameter inside hopper as a function of location parameter
(x') having constant PSD width (n = 5), with each trendline ending at
different time instants due to the varying MFR as depicted in
Section 3.1 (Fig. 5 (b)). For constant width PSD (n = 5) having high
value of location parameter (x' = 5), the normalized mean diameter re-
mains constant to value of 1 for maximum time. On the other hand, with
decrease in location parameter, the decrease in mean diameter inside
hopper happen much early, with a greater decrease for the PSD having
low value of location parameter (x' = 3). This suggests that low location
parameter PSD is likely to induce segregation much earlier during dis-
charge and can be controlled by increasing the mean diameter of mix-
ture. As the mass fraction of smaller particles (fines) b5 mm increases
with decrease in location parameter at constant PSD width, the results
here also contradicts with different studies on bi-disperse mixtures
[21,32,63], where segregation decreases with increase in mass fraction
of fines. Such discrepancy is due to different inter-particles interactions
and percolation phenomena for studied R-R PSDs as compared to past
studies on mono-diseperse, bidiseperse and tri-disperse particles sys-
tem. Since these observations completely depend upon the choice of
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834 825

Fig. 11. Normalized mass based mean particle diameter inside hopper with respect to time for, (a) R-R distribution at constant location parameter (x' = 5) having different PSD width,
(b) R-R distribution at constant PSD width (n = 5) having different location parameter.

fines, we further try to investigate segregation by tracking the behav-
iour of different size faction for considered PSDs which are discussed
in the next section.
3.2.2. Behaviour of different size fractions
In this section, behaviour of three different size fractions (i.e. size
fraction below location parameter, at location parameter and above lo-
cation parameter) of considered PSDs is separately analyzed during dis-
charge process. It provides an understanding of the PSD width and
location parameter's effect on overall segregation. Fig. 12 shows the
change in the mass fraction of three considered size fractions (normal-
ized with initial mass fraction of fractions) as the hopper discharges
for R-R PSDs having constant location parameter (x' = 5) with different
PSD width (n = 3, 4 and 5).
The mass fraction of fines species (size fraction below location pa-
rameter) inside hopper for narrower PSD (n = 5) is relatively uniform
in composition until the end of discharge where a slight percolation of
fines is observed. However, as the PSD width increases, fines percola-
tion becomes more frequent, which further confirms the results ob-
tained in Fig. 11 (a). On the other hand, the mass fraction of fines
species (size fraction below location parameter) inside hopper is rela-
tively uniform in composition for high value of location parameter
PSD (x' = 5) and tend to fluctuates with decrease in value of location
parameter (Fig. 13).

Fig. 12. Normalized mass-based particles fraction inside hopper during discharge process for constant location (x' = 5) R-R distribution having different PSD width, (a) n = 3, (b) n = 4
and n = 5.
826 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834

Fig. 13. Normalized mass-based particles fraction inside hopper during discharge process for constant width (n = 5) R-R distribution having different location parameter, (a) x' = 3, (b) x'
= 4 and (c) x' = 5.

3.3. Velocity analysis velocity profile from DEM simulations for R-R distribution at constant
location parameter (x' = 5) having PSD width (n) of 3, 4 and 5 at four
As a qualitative comparison, the velocity of the particles for consid- time instances (namely, t = 0, 5, 10, and 15 s). The geometries in
ered PSD is also observed during hopper discharge. Fig. 14 depicts the Fig. 14 are cut in the half in order to view the velocities in the center

Fig. 14. Velocity profile at four time instances (namely, t = 0, 5, 10, and 15 s) for R-R distribution at constant location parameter having PSD width of, (a) x' = 3, (b) x' = 4, (c) x' = 5. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834 827

Fig. 15. Velocity profile at four time instances (namely, t = 0, 5, 10, and 15 s) for R-R distribution at constant location parameter having PSD width of, (a) x' = 3, (b) x' = 4, (c) x' = 5.

of the hopper. The formation of a core with higher velocities above the
outlet near the center can be observed and this core region tends to de-
crease with decrease PSD width (see at 10 s).
Thus it can be concluded that the wider PSD imparts fluidity charac-
teristics and majority of the particles were in motion during discharge,
whereas the materials with narrower PSD move at a very low speed
with a gradient across the geometry cross section. This corresponds to
the discharge state in the upper region of hopper which shows no move-
ment of particles on the surface (indicated by blue region in Fig. 14 (c) at
discharge time of 10 s). Fig. 15 also shows snapshots of the instantaneous
velocity profiles at four time instances (namely, t = 0, 5, 10, and 15 s) for
R-R PSDs at constant PSD width (n) having location parameter of 3, 4 and
5 respectively. During discharge process, the particle velocities through-
out the particle bed increases and the different particle sizes tend to flow
at different rates. The velocity distributions are markedly different for
PSDs having constant width, which is due to increases in mean diameter
with increase in location parameter. At t = 5 s (second column of
Fig. 15), the center region velocities near the hopper outlet is compara-
tively highest for PSD having low value of location parameter, which
keep on decreasing with increase in location parameter.
As the discharge further increases, a center V-channel is formed
where fines species continuously percolating through the vicinity of
coarser one. This V-channel tends to decrease with increase in location
parameter, which can be clearly seen by comparing the velocity profile
at 10 s (see third column of Fig. 15). The early discharge of PSD having
low value of location parameter (Fig. 15 (a), at 15 s) further confirms
the results obtained in Fig. 5 (b).
3.3.1. Local particles velocity
In this section, a comprehensive analysis of local velocity of
particles is presented to elucidate the effect of PSD width (n) and
location parameter (x') on velocity profiles. To examine this, parti-
cles velocity are tracked at different dimensionless radial positions
(r/R = 0 to 1) of hopper. Here, R is the radius of cylindrical section
828 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834
Fig. 16. Sketch of the different sections for velocity analysis. (For interpretation of
the references to color in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)
of hopper and r is the radial position assessed, such that r/R = 0
and 1 represent, respectively, at the center axis and wall. The spa-
tial averages are taken 20 mm vertically and radially at different
heights (named as section 1, section 2, section 3, section 4 and sec-
tion 5) as shown in Fig. 16.
Fig. 17 (a) displays the averaged velocity as a function of PSD width
(n) having constant location parameter (x' = 5) at the center (r/R = 0)
in section 1. The values are time-averaged for sample time of 0.5 s.
Clearly, the relationship between PSD width and particle velocities is
generally non-monotonic with no consistent trends. These results are
surprising one, since MFR is found to maximum for wider PSD. This in-
dicates a negative relationship between MFR and center velocity as a
function of PSD width. Similar findings were also reported by Zhao
et al. [43,44] in their study in which they studied discharge characteris-
tics of lognormal PSD as a function of PSD width. On the other hand, for
constant width (n = 5) PSDs having different location parameter (x' =
3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5), a direct correlation between velocity and MFR is ob-
served at the center (Fig. 17 (b)). The center hopper velocity decreases
sharply with increase in location parameter (x') and have minimum
center velocity for monodisperse particle system. This implies that for
fixed PSD width, reducing location parameter and hence mean diameter
of PSD, results in increased centerline velocity and MFR as they experi-
ence low resistance to flow compared to higher location parameter PSD.
Furthermore a detailed microscopic analysis on the average fields of
the velocity for considered R-R PSDs at different heights is performed.
Fig. 18 shows the average velocity field as a function of PSD width at
Fig. 17. Behaviour of studied PSD during hopper discharge on (a) average particle velocity
at center as a function of PSD width, and (b) average particle velocity at center as a
function of location parameter. (Spatial averages are taken every 20 mm vertically and
radially for sample time of 0.5 s.)
different radial positions (r/R = 0, 0.5, 1, −0.5, −1) of the hopper for
considered sections (Fig. 16) at different time instances.
Specifically, each column represents a specific time instant (namely
5, 10 and 15 s), while each row represents a specific section (repre-
sented by different colors, grey for section 1, yellow for section 2, red
for section 3, blue for section 4 and green for section 5). By visualizing
the velocity fields, material can be divided into three different regions
during whole discharge, (1) plug-flow region (section 5 (marked by
green) and section 4 (marked by blue)); (2) transition region (section
3, marked by red) and (3) converging flow region (section 2 (marked
by yellow) and section 1 (marked by grey)). As for plug-flow region
(section 5 and 4), the material in cylindrical section of a hopper
moves in plug-flow fashion, having flatter velocity profile during
whole discharge. On the other hand, velocity profile somewhat differ
in lower part (section 3) during whole discharge. In this transition re-
gion, the top material surface continues to decline towards outlet during
whole discharge process (see Fig. 18 (c, h, m)). On moving further down
the hopper bed (section 2 and 1, converging flow region), the centerline
velocity becomes greater and a depression is formed in the top material
surface (see Fig. 14 (d, i, n, e, j and o)). It can be seen that the magnitude
of the velocity decreases with radial positions and is relatively insignif-
icant in the region close to the wall. Such a bell shaped velocity profile is
also observed by different authors [65,66]. Regarding the impact of PSD
width on velocity profile, the spatial distribution of the velocity
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834 829

Fig. 18. Analysis of radial velocity profiles as a function of PSD width for studied R-R PSDs in different section of hopper during hopper discharge process. The five rows represent different
sections of hopper that are defined in Fig. 12, section 5 (a, f and k), section 4 (b, g, and l), section 3 (c, h and m), section 2 (d, i and n) and section 1 (e, j and o), while the three columns
represent specific time instant namely 5 s (a-e), 10 s (f-j) and 15 s (k-o).
830 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834

Fig. 19. Analysis of radially velocity profiles as a function of location paramter for studied R-R PSDs in different section of hopper during hopper discharge process. The five rows represent
different sections of hopper that are defined in Fig. 12, section 5 (a, f and k), section 4 (b, g, and l), section 3 (c, h and m), section 2 (d, i and n) and section 1 (e, j and o), while the three
columns represent specific time instant namely 5 s (a-e), 10 s (f-j) and 15 s (k-o).
Fig. 20. Rescaled velocity profiles, (a) as a function of PSD width, (b) as a function of location parameter for studied R-R PSDs. The solid lines are the fits of the rescaled velocity profiles to a
power law as u/umax = (y/R) 2 for y ≥ D (outlet diameter).

Fig. 21. Mass based frequency distribution for lognormal and R-R PSDs having parameters, (a) n = 3 and lnσ = 0.33, (2) n = 3.5 and lnσ = 0.29, (3) n = 4 and lnσ = 0.25 and (4) n = 5
and lnσ = 0.2.
832 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834

Table 2 3.3.2. Velocity profiles

MFR comparison of lognormal and R-R PSDs. The prediction of velocity field inside hopper has become a bone of
Particle size distribution (PSD) PSD parameter MFR (Kg/s) contention for the research fraternity dealing with powder materials.
R-R n=3 1.64
Albaraki and Antony [37] in their studies investigated spatial and tem-
Lognormal lnσ = 0.33 1.70 poral distributions of the velocity fields inside different internal angles
R-R n = 3.5 1.60 hoppers using digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) and high
Lognormal lnσ = 0.29 1.65 speed videography. Although they studied dynamic flow trajectories
R-R n=4 1.57
and velocity profiles in detail, but no direct expression between hopper
Lognormal lnσ = 0.25 1.63
R-R n=5 1.54 parameters and velocity field was obtained. Maiti et al. [40] studied the
Lognormal lnσ = 0.20 1.59 discharge behaviour of granular materials (sand grains and glass beads)
through the eccentric opening of rectangular silos and extended the ki-
nematic model for granular discharge. Magalhães et al. [38] have stud-
magnitudes seems to be unaffected by the PSD width during whole dis- ied the effect of orifice size and hopper opening angle on the velocity
charge and is almost overlapping on one another in each of the section. fields of monodisperse spherical grains and concluded the power law
Agreeing with Fig. 17 (a), Fig. 18 shows clearly that velocity is not a dependence of the distance from the orifice. In the latest study, Wang
dominant parameter for increased MFR with PSD width. On the other et al. [39] have presented the expression for velocity profile in a quasi-
hand, the velocity profile in each section is directly affected by the loca- two-dimensional wedge-shaped hopper. But the applicability of such
tion parameter (see Fig. 15). expression on 3D geometry and polydisperse particle system is still a
For PSD having low value of location parameter, the velocity profile largely unexplored topic.
is extended downwards with time in each of the section and tends to Hence, in the present work, an attempt is made to understand the
decrease or flatter when the value of location parameter is increased. velocity profile of considered R-R PSDs flowing out from three-
These flatter profiles have lower centerline velocities and agree well dimensional conical hopper. Fig. 20 shows a typical velocity profile for
with the trend for MFR (Fig. 5 (b)). Furthermore, the variation of particle studied PSDs superimposed on section 1 (Fig. 16) of hopper.
velocities caused by changing location parameter (x') at constant width Specifically, y denotes the radial distance from the wall to the center
are greater as compared to change in PSD width (n) at constant location and R is the radius of cylindrical section of hopper. It can be seen that the
parameter (x'). Collectively, Figs. 18 and 19 show that the radial velocity velocity u increases from the hopper wall to a certain value at the center
profiles of the particles are different for different PSDs (having different of hopper. By scaling the radial velocity (u) by center velocity (umax),
PSD widths and location parameter), and velocity of particles to en- the velocity profile can be expressed in parabolic form:
hance MFR purely depends upon the type of PSD and hence not found !2
u y
to be a dominant parameter affecting MFR for all studied PSDs. =
umax R

Fig. 22. Comparative analysis of segregation of lognormal and R-R PSDs having parameters, (a) n = 3 and lnσ = 0.33, (2) n = 3.5 and lnσ = 0.29, (3) n = 4 and lnσ = 0.25 and (4) n = 5
and lnσ = 0.2.
 R. Kumar et al. / Powder Technology 360 (2020) 818–834
It is interesting to note that the fit of the rescaled velocity profiles to
a power law hold good for y ≥ D (outlet diameter). Hence the velocity
profiles of considered R-R PSDs can be expressed by two parameters
of center velocity (umax) and radius of cylindrical section (R) of hopper.
3.4. Comparison between lognormal and R-R PSDs
In this section, a direct comparison of DEM results with R-R and log-
normal PSDs is presented. The spreadness of lognormal PSD is governed
by standard deviation lnσ, which has a same role as the width (n) in the
R-R PSDs. Generally, parameter n and lnσ are inversely proportional to
each other [67]. In order to match R-R PSDs with lognormal PSDs, the
d0.5 of studied R-R PSDs are calculated and used to generate the respec-
tive lognormal PSDs. To achieve the same initial mass, the numbers of
glass beads used are 292,500, 371,491, 414,979, 522,473 respectively,
for the widths (lnσ) of 0.20, 0.25, 0.28 and 0.33. Fig. 21 depicts the com-
parative mass based frequency distributions between R-R and gener-
ated lognormal PSDs.
It can be seen that overall lognormal PSD shapes are similar; how-
ever, there is shift to left as compared to R-R PSDs having similar spread
(see Fig. 21 (a–d)). Moreover, the content of fines percentage is in-
creased in lognormal PSDs at same spreadness of R-R PSDs.
In order to observe such difference on MFR and segregation, DEM
simulations are performed with generated lognormal PSDs (i.e. lnσ =
0.33, 0.28, 0.25 and 0.20). Table 2 shows a comparative MFR prediction
by DEM simulations for both the distributions.
From these observations two points are worthwhile to note, (1) MFR
increases with increase in PSD width (i.e. n and lnσ) for both types of
considered PSDs, which is tied to increase in mass fraction of the finer
particles, (2) for same spreadness, lognormal PSDs shows improvement
in MFR as compared to R-R PSDs lognormal. Such a significant impact of
type of PSD on MFR as seen in Table 2 warrants a close look at segrega-
tion behaviour. For that, mass-based normalized mean diameter (index
of segregation) is tracked for each lognormal PSD and compare with R-R
distribution. Fig. 22 compares the segregation results between lognor-
mal and R-R PSDs.
As the PSD width is increasing, the segregation intensity is increased
for both PSDs, but R-R PSDs suffers more segregation as compared to
lognormal PSDs. But the concept of increasing fine content to reduce
the segregation does not hold true for both PSDs.
4. Conclusions
Despite the ubiquity of Rosin-Rammler particle-size distribu-
tions (R-R PSDs) in particle technology sectors, there has been little
research focused on mass discharge characteristics of particles fol-
lowing continuous R-R PSDs from hopper, a gap we address in
this study. The discharge behaviour of R-R PSDs is modeled numer-
ically using the discrete element method (DEM). The impact of the
PSDs widths and location parameters of R-R PSDs on mass flow rate
(MFR), bulk density, segregation and local particles velocity are an-
alyzed during hopper discharge. Firstly, the location parameter of
R-R PSDs is found to be significantly impacting the MFR where it
is shown that MFR increases with decrease in PSD location param-
eter at constant PSD width. Next, for PSD having constant location
parameter, it is reported that wider PSD have larger MFR as com-
pared to narrower PSD. The effect of change in PSD width (at con-
stant location parameter) on segregation is more than the change
in location parameter (at constant PSD width) for considered
PSDs. The relationship between PSD width and particle velocities
is generally non-monotonic with no consistent trends. The velocity
profile for studied R-R PSDs can be expressed by two parameters
expression, which exhibits parabolic nature. From the analysis of
results, it is found that high flow bulk density is favorable to in-
crease MFR. Furthermore, for the studied R-R PSDs, use of flow
bulk density term in place of the bulk density in Beverloo
833
correlation increase the accuracy of MFR predictions to within ±
7% of measured DEM discharge rates. A comparative analysis be-
tween R-R and lognormal PSDs shows that for the same spreadness,
R-R PSDs suffers more segregation as compared to lognormal PSDs.
The past observations on bidiseperse and tri-disperse particles sys-
tem, contradicts for studied distributions where extent of segrega-
tion increased with increase in mass fraction of the finer species.
The applicability and experimental investigation of present PSDs
particularly with smaller real powder fractions is an open area of
research. These different factors will be carefully examined in the
future.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to Ministry of Human Resource Development,
Government of India for providing Research scholarship to Raj Kumar
and Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat for pro-
viding facilities to conduct this research work.
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