Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

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

CFD–DEM simulation of material motion in air-and-screen cleaning device

Hongchang Li a,b,⇑, Yaoming Li b, Fang Gao a, Zhan Zhao b, Lizhang Xu b
a
Department of Automobile Engineering, Changzhou Institute of Mechatronic Technology, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213164, China
b
Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology, Ministry of Education & Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China

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

Article history: In this work, a numerical study of the gas–solid flow in an air-and-screen cleaning shoe is carried out by
Received 1 July 2011 use of the combined Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model
Received in revised form 14 July 2012 where the motion of discrete particles phase is obtained by DEM which applies EDEM software and
Accepted 16 July 2012
the flow of continuum fluid by the traditional CFD which solves the Navier–Stokes equations at a com-
putational cell scale. The effect of inlet airflow velocity is studied and analyzed in terms of grains and
short straws’ longitudinal velocity and vertical height, and cleaning loss. Simulation results showed that,
Keywords:
in a certain range, different inlet airflow velocity only affects the magnitude of airflow velocity in the
Combine harvester
Air-and-screen cleaning device
cleaning shoe, but does not affect the distribution regularity of flow field in the cleaning shoe. With
CFD–DEM simulation the inlet airflow velocity increase, vibrating screen processing power improves, while grain losses
Material motion increase. Grains mainly concentrate on 4–12 sections under the screen surface. Comparison of numerical
simulation results with experiments has demonstrated adequate agreement. It showed that numerical
simulation of material motion on vibrating screen of air-and-screen cleaning device based on CFD–
DEM is feasible. The results provide a basis for improving the design on air-and-screen cleaning device
of combine harvester.
Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction a cross-flow opening on the performance of the fan using three

Cleaning device is an important part of combine harvesters, its
superior or inferior performance directly affects the whole combine
harvester performance. High efficiency, high performance combine
harvester makes new demands for the cleaning device. Previous re-
search investigated the influence of the different cleaning device
settings like fan speed, screen lip angle, oscillation frequency and
amplitude on the transportation of grain and chaff along with the
cleaning screen by experiment on test bed (Simpson, 1966; German
and Lee, 1967; Lee and Winfield, 1969; Bo }ttinger and Kutzbach,
1987; Cheng and Wang, 1999; Xu et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2009).
But experiment on test bed is with high cost and strong seasonality.
With the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
technology, it has been able to implement complex geometry area
numerical simulation of fluid flows, quantitative description of
temporal and spatial change characteristics of the flow field, more
profoundly revealed the mechanism of fluid. CFD continues to ex-
pand the scope of application and offers new ways to solve practi-
cal engineering problems (Karim and Nolan, 2011; Ahuja and
Patwardhan, 2008; Blocken et al., 2009; Hanna et al., 2009). Gebre-
hiwot et al. (2010) applied CFD to study the effect of the addition of
⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Automobile Engineering, Changzhou
Institute of Mechatronic Technology, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213164, China. Tel./fax:
+86 (0)15051981238.
E-mail address: sxlhch@163.com (H. Li).
fans of similar geometries but different in their cross-flow opening.
Numerical simulation based on the so-called Discrete Element
Method (DEM) (Cundall and Strack, 1979) is an effective way to
study on screening process. This method has been applied to the
study of particle flow in various industrial processes and shown to
be very useful in understanding the fundamentals (Yu, 2003). How-
ever, its application to screening operation is rather preliminary. Li
et al. (2003) presented a mathematical investigation of particulate
motion on an inclined screening chute using the Discrete Element
Method (DEM). Cleary (2000) used the Discrete Element Method
(DEM) to simulate a full industrial scale double deck banana screen
for a range of accelerations. Hongguang et al. (2008) developed a
two-dimensional DEM emulator named SieveDEM by a VC++.NET,
and investigated three typical penetrating behaviors in screen pro-
cess by the emulator. Zhao et al. (2010) simulated the screening pro-
cess of particles flow on the vibrating plate based on the dry contact
model of soft-ball, and analyzed the motion state and change of
screening efficiency of coal particles flow, and discussed the effect
of particles size distribution on screening efficiency.
On the other hand, in recent years, the so-called combined ap-
proach of Discrete Element Method (DEM) and CFD (CFD–DEM)
has been developed (Tsuji et al., 1992; Xu and Yu, 1997; Zhou
et al., 2010) and accounts for both particle–particle and particle–fluid
interactions. The CFD–DEM approach has been proved to be effective
in modeling various particle–fluid flow systems (Li et al., 1999; Xu
et al., 2000; Rhodes et al., 2001; Kafui et al., 2002; Yu and Xu,

0168-1699/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2012.07.006
112 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119

Fig. 4. 3D model of materials.

Table 1
Summary of modeling conditions.

Material Grain Short Screen

Fig. 1. Model of contact forces. properties straw (wall)
Density (kg/m3) 1380 100 7800
Poisson’s ratio 0.3 0.4 0.3
Shear modulus 2.6 1 700
(MPa)

Collision Grain–grain Grain– Grain– Short straw–

properties short screen screen (wall)
straw (wall)
Coefficient of 0.2 0.2 0.5 0.1
restitutions
Coefficient of 1 0.8 0.58 0.8
static friction
Coefficient of 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
rolling
friction

Vibrating screen Motion Amplitude Frequency Vibrating

form direction angle
Sinusoidal 20 mm 4.5 Hz 30°
translation
Test case Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4
Inlet airflow 5 7.5 10 12.5
Fig. 2. The process flow for EDEM–CFD coupling. velocity (m/s)
Inlet direction 20 20 20 20
angle (°)

2003; Limtrakul et al., 2004; Di Renzo and Di Maio, 2007; Tsuji, 2007;
Kuang et al., 2008). In particular, efforts have been made to extend
the CFD–DEM approach to study complex particle–fluid flow sys-
tems (Kawaguchi et al., 1998; Rong and Horio, 2001; Ibsen et al.,
2004; Chu and Yu, 2008; Chu et al., 2009a,b). To date, to the authors’
knowledge, few studies have been made on the gas–solid flow in
air-and-screen cleaning device by means of CFD–DEM approach.
In the air-and-screen cleaning device, there are interactions of
particle–particle and particle–fluid. So it is a complex gas–solid
two-phase flow. Therefore, we use Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) and particle discrete element (DEM) to simulate the screen-
ing process of air-and-screen cleaning device. The effect of inlet
airflow velocity is studied and analyzed in terms of grains and
short straws’ longitudinal velocity and vertical height, and cleaning
loss. Theoretical basis for improving the design on air-and-screen
cleaning device of combine harvester was proposed in this paper.

2. Mathematical model

2.1. Equations of gas phase

The CFD portion of the coupling model uses the existing Euleri-
Fig. 3. Three-dimensional (3D) model of the cleaning device. an–Eulerian model in FLUENT. In the Eulerian model, an additional
 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119 113

Fig. 5. Overview of vibration screening at Case 3.

volume fraction term, ef, is added to the conservation equations to The continuity equation for the fluid phase is (Anderson and
take into account the solid phase. In the coupling module, although Jackson, 1967; Zhou et al., 2010):
two phases are created in FLUENT, the conservation equations for
@ðef qf Þ
the solid phase in the original Eulerian–Eulerian model are not þ r  ðef qf uf Þ ¼ 0 ð1Þ
solved. @t
114 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119

Fig. 6. Velocity vector diagram of airflow field at different inlet airflow velocity.

Table 2 2.2. Particles contact model

Average longitudinal velocity of material.

Test case 1 2 3 4
This concept, contact mechanics can be considered as a ‘spring-
dashpot’ configuration, as shown in Fig. 1. The contact model is the
Velocity of the grains (m/s) 0.158 0.162 0.198 0.224
Velocity of the short straws (m/s) 0.173 0.225 0.331 0.483
default model used in EDEM software for its accurate and efficient
force calculation. The model is based on the work of Mindlin (Cun-
dall and Strack, 1979; Di Renzo and Maio, 2004).
The normal force, Fn, is given by
where qf is the fluid density, t is time and uf is the fluid velocity.
A similar equation exists for the conservation of momentum: 4  1=2 3=2
Fn ¼ E R dn ð5Þ
3
@ðef qf uf Þ
þ r  ðef qf uf uf Þ ¼ rp þ r  ðlf ef ruf Þ  ef qf g  S ð2Þ where E is the equivalent Young’s Modulus, R the equivalent ra-
@t dius and dn the normal overlap. Additionally there is a damping
Here, P is the pressure, g is the gravity force vector, gf denotes the force, Fdn , given by
viscosity and S is the momentum sink. The coupling between the rffiffiffi
two phases is then achieved through the calculation of the momen- 5 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rel
Fdn ¼ 2 b Sn m v n ð6Þ
tum sink of the drag force that arises due to the relatively velocity 6
between the phases. Therefore, the momentum sink S is calculated
where m is the equivalent mass, v reln is the normal component of
by
the relative velocity and b and Sn (the normal stiffness) are given by
1 Xn
ln e
s¼ FD;i ð3Þ b ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð7Þ
DV i¼1 2
ln e þ p2
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
where DV = DxDyDz, Dx, Dy and Dz is control volume length, FD,i is Sn ¼ 2E R d n ð8Þ
fluid viscous resistance. FD,i is calculated by (Yu et al., 2008)
where e is the coefficient of restitution.
ðvþ1Þ The tangential force, Ft, depends on the tangential overlap dt
FD;i ¼ 0:5C D qf Ap ðuf  up Þjuf  up jef ð4Þ
and the tangential stiffness Sn.
h i
ð1:5log10 ReÞ2 Ft ¼ St dt ð9Þ
where v ¼ 3:7  0:65 exp 2
; C D ¼ ð0:63 þ 4:8=Re0:5 Þ2 ;
e q d ju u j With
Re ¼ f f pl f p , CD is fluid resistance coefficient, Re is Reynolds
number.
f
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
St ¼ 8G R d n ð10Þ
Standard k–e turbulence model and wall function are applied to
calculate the airflow. Additionally there is a tangential damping force, Fdt , given by
 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119 115

Fig. 7. Variation of the mean materials longitudinal velocity with time.

rffiffiffi
d 5 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rel Particle–wall interaction can also be calculated according to the
Ft ¼ 2 b St m v t ð11Þ above equations, which is treated as a contact between a particle
6
and a finite polygon surface whose radius and mass is infinity.
Fig. 2 illustrates the process flow for EDEM–FLUENT coupling.
where v rel
t , is the relative tangential velocity. The tangential force is
limited by Coulomb friction, lsFn, where ls is the coefficient of sta-
tic friction. 3. Simulation conditions
For simulations in which rolling friction is important, this is ac-
counted for by applying a torque to the contacting surfaces. Because actual air-and-screen cleaning device is too large and
complex, mesh and calculation is limited by computer conditions,
we simplify the structure of the cleaning device, and its three-
si ¼ lr F n Ri xi ð12Þ
dimensional (3D) model is shown in Fig. 3. The width of cleaning
device was reduced from 1000 mm to 100 mm; length and height
with lr the coefficient of rolling friction, Ri the distance of the con- are consistent with the real elements. The structure of vibrating
tact point from the center of mass for object i and xi the unit angu- screen is not simplified. The structure of the vibrating screen is
lar velocity vector of object i at the contact point. wire woven screen which is 650 mm long, 100 mm wide and has
116 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119

Fig. 8. Variation of the mean materials vertical height with time.

a 4° declination. The screen mesh is considered to be a square aper-
ture 10 mm  10 mm formed from u = 2 mm steel wires. Materials
are fed onto the front-top section of the vibrating screen by gravity
via a particle factory. Because the structure of cleaning device is
simplified, the periodic boundary condition is used for the sidewall
that it can be closer to the actual situation. For gas, the gas velocity
of the sidewall is given to the other. For particles, when a particle
leaves from the sidewall, it will enter into the domain via the other.
We take the rice grains and short straws for screening object. The
rice grain is spheroid which is 6 mm long with 1.6 mm radius of
rotation. The short straw is a cylinder 30 mm long by 4 mm diam-
eter. Their 3D models are shown in Fig. 4. Materials are loaded
from the particle factory at a fixed rate (6000 grains/s and
320 short straws/s) with initial velocity v0 = 0 m/s at the point
where they enter into the calculation domain. The other simulation
conditions are summarized in Table 1. Data are from the pre-test
results which are the mean number of repeated test results (rice
varieties: Wu japonica rice 13) and related literature (Yang et al.,
2009; Li et al., 2008; Qiao, 1992; Zhang et al., 2006).
4. Simulations and discussions
A time step of 10–6 s was used for a total simulation time of
2.84 s in EDEM. Case 3 is discussed in this part. Fig. 5 shows an
overview of vibration screening at various time instants from 0 s
 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119
Fig. 9. Grains distribution of different inlet airflow velocity.
Table 3
The number of short straws passing through the screen.
Test case 1 2 3 4
The number of the short straws 42 34 30 25
The number of the grain loss 0 0 0 11
to 2.82 s. The section on the screen displays the number of materi-
als on the screen in real-time; another section in rear of the screen
counts the total number of cleaning loss; then the section below
the screen was divided into 20 parts to analyze the relation be-
tween the screen length and the distribution of the grains. Differ-
ent colors represent different speeds of the materials. It can be
concluded that the materials generated by the particle factory
reach the screen surface when t = 0.19 s. Some grains penetrate
the screen directly. At t = 1.00 s, the particle factory has completed
generating materials and the materials have scattered in front of
the screen surface. The total number of grains penetrating the
screen has increased. At the same time, some short straws are
blown out of the calculation domain. After t = 1.15 s, the materials
all fall to the screen surface. At t = 2.58 s, all the grains penetrate
Fig. 10. Structure schematic drawing of the air-and-screen cleaning device.
117
the screen surface. The grains and short straws move backward
and bounce under the combined action of vibrating screen and
wind. All materials are processed complete at t = 2.82 s.
4.1. Airflow field
The airflow velocity vector field at different inlet airflow veloc-
ity is shown in Fig. 6. It can be concluded that inlet airflow velocity
only affects the magnitude of the airflow velocity, not the distribu-
tion regularity of airflow field in the cleaning shoe. There is a local
eddy above the oscillating pan. Above and near the screen surface,
airflow velocity in the front is higher than the middle, the rear is
highest.
4.2. Materials motion on the vibrating screen
Materials motion velocity is decomposed along the length of
screen surface velocity and vertical the screen surface velocity.
The velocity along the length of screen surface is longitudinal
velocity, which is transportation velocity of the vibrating screen,
and its magnitude determines processing power of cleaning device
(In this paper, the processing power is defined as, under a certain
structural parameters of the screen, the total mass of processed
materials within 1 m2 area per hour.) The higher longitudinal
velocity, the less residence time of the materials on the screen sur-
face it will take, and the greater the processing power of the clean-
ing device will be. In order to make the figure clearer, we specially
select a period of time to make simulation data mapping. Table 2
shows the longitudinal average velocity of the materials. The lon-
gitudinal velocity of the grains and the short straws is shown in
Fig. 7. Fig. 7 and Table 2 show that, with the inlet airflow velocity
increases, the average longitudinal velocity of grains and short
straws have increased, and the rate of change of the short straws
is particularly evident. The end of the simulations, the section on
the screen surface displays the number of the materials on the
screen surface which is 137, 117, 0 and 0, respectively. Therefore,
from the above relationships we can draw a conclusion that, with
the increase of inlet airflow velocity, vibrating screen processing
power improves. Fig. 8 shows variation of the mean materials ver-
tical height with time. From the analysis of Fig. 8 we can see, inlet
airflow velocity has little influence on the vertical height of the
grains; the vertical height of the short straws increase slightly as
the inlet airflow velocity increases. This course is beneficial to
the stratification and screen-penetrating of the materials. As the
time goes by, the grains continually penetrate the screen, and at
118 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119
Fig. 11. Grains distribution of different inlet airflow velocity (experiment).
Table 4
Cleaning loss and the impurity rate.
Experiment case 1 2 3 4
The impurity rate (%) 0.5 0.42 0.32
The cleaning loss (%) 0 0 0.05
the same time, the short straws is continually blown out of the cal-
culation domain, the less total material, the greater the influence of
the inlet airflow velocity on longitudinal velocity of the materials.
4.3. Distribution of the grains
Fig. 9 shows the grains distribution curve of different inlet air-
flow velocity. It can be seen that the grains mainly concentrate
on 1–10 sections under the screen surface. There is the greatest
number of the grains in section 4. The higher the inlet airflow
velocity, the higher the longitudinal velocity of the grains and
the farther the movement distances. So, with the inlet airflow
velocity increasing, the grains under the screen are slightly increas-
ing in the back of the cleaning shoe. After section 15, the grains be-
come very small. This is consistent with the longitudinal velocity of
the grains.
Make use of the section under the screen, we can also get the
number of the short straws passing through the screen apertures.
Meanwhile, the number of the cleaning loss can be obtained by
the section at the rear of the screen. As shown in Table 3, with
the increase in the inlet airflow velocity, the cleaning loss in-
creased, the number of the short straws through the apertures
reduced.
5. Experimental verification
The experimental system is illustrated in Fig. 10. The mixture is
fed onto the oscillating pan by gravity via a divert slot underneath
the feeding hopper. The moving parts in the experimental system
are driven by variable-frequency motor; hence their speed is
adjustable. Vibrating screen can be double layer screen, and can
also be single layer screen. The mixture is composed of rice grains
and short straws, and the mass ratio of rice grains to short straws is
100:5. Structure parameters and motion parameters of the exper-
imental system are the same as simulation parameters.
Grains distribution is shown in Fig. 11. Table 4 shows the clean-
ing loss and the impurity rate. The number of the grain loss varies
directly proportional to the cleaning loss; the number of short
straws passing through the screen varies directly proportional to
the impurity rate. Comparing Fig. 6 with Fig. 7, Table 3 with Table 4,
we can see that the results of simulation agree well with that of
experiments. It showed that numerical simulation of material mo-
tion on vibrating screen of air-and-screen cleaning device based on
CFD–DEM is feasible.
6. Concluding remarks
CFD–DEM simulations are carried out to study the effect of inlet
airflow velocity in terms of grains and short straws’ longitudinal
velocity and vertical height, and cleaning loss. Hertz–Mindlin con-
tact model has been used to simulate particle–particle and parti-
cle–screen (wall) collisions. CFD–DEM coupling model can well
describe the movement of particles on the screen surface in the
air–screen cleaning, leading to the following conclusions:
 Inlet airflow velocity has more influence on the longitudinal
velocity of short straws than that of grains. Inlet airflow velocity
has little effect on vertical height of materials. Accordingly, the
higher the inlet airflow velocity, the faster the backward veloc-
ity of the materials on the screen surface, and the more the
cleaning loss.
0.26
 The number of the grains in the back of the screen increases
0.18
slightly as the inlet airflow velocity increases. After 15 sections
the number of grains is very small. So if material-other-than-
grain (MOG) is not much, we can shorten the length of the
screen.
 The experiment results show that the method is feasible and
effective. Numerical simulation of material motion based on
CFD–DEM, which can provide initial condition and parameter
configuration to the air-and-screen cleaning device of combine
harvester.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (50875113 and 50805068) and the National High
Technology Development 863 Program of China (2010AA101402)
and the Graduate Innovation Project of Jiangsu University
(CX09B_06XZ). Thanks for all your support.
References
Ahuja, G.N., Patwardhan, A.W., 2008. CFD and experimental studies of solids hold-
up distribution and circulation patterns in gas–solid fluidized beds. Chemical
Engineering Journal 143, 147–160.
Anderson, T.B., Jackson, R., 1967. A fluid mechanical description of fluidized beds.
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Fundamentals 6, 527–539.
Blocken, B., Defraeye, T., et al., 2009. High-resolution CFD simulations for forced
convective heat transfer coefficients at the facade of a low-rise building.
Building and Environment 44, 2396–2412.
}ttinger, S., Kutzbach, H.D., 1987. Performance Characteristics of A Cleaning Unit
Bo
Under Various Crop Conditions. ASAE Paper 87-1512.
Chen, N., Huang, D., et al., 2009. Theory and experiment on non-uniform air-flow
cleaning of air–screen cleaning unit. Nongye Jixie Xuebao/Transactions of the
Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery 40 (4), 73–77.
Cheng, F., Wang, J., 1999. Test study on the flow field above surface of the air and
screen cleaning mechanism. Transactions of The Chinese Society of Agricultural
Engineering 15 (1), 55–58.
Chu, K.W., Yu, A.B., 2008. Numerical simulation of the gas–solid flow in three-
dimensional pneumatic conveying bends. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry
Research 47, 7058–7071.
Chu, K.W., Wang, B., Vince, A., Yu, A.B., Barnett, G.D., Barnett, P.J., 2009a. CFD–DEM
study of the effect of particle density distribution on the multiphase flow and
performance of dense medium cyclone. Minerals Engineering 22, 893–909.
Chu, K.W., Wang, B., Yu, A.B., Vince, A., 2009b. CFD–DEM modelling of multiphase
flow in dense medium cyclones. Powder Technology 193, 235–247.
Cleary, P.W., 2000. DEM simulation of industrial particle flows: case studies of
dragline excavators, mixing in tumblers and centrifugal mills. Powder
Technology 109, 83–104.
Cundall, P.A., Strack, O.D.L., 1979. Discrete numerical-model for granular
assemblies. Geotechnique 29, 47–65.
 H. Li et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 88 (2012) 111–119
Di Renzo, A., Di Maio, F.P., 2007. Homogeneous and bubbling fluidization regimes in
DEM–CFD simulations: hydrodynamic stability of gas and liquid fluidized beds.
Chemical Engineering Science 62, 116–130.
Di Renzo, Alberto, Maio, Francesco Paolo Di, 2004. Comparison of contact-force
models for the simulation of collisions in DEM-based granular flow codes.
Chemical Engineering Science 59, 525–541.
Gebrehiwot, Mekonnen Gebreslasie, De Baerdemaeker, Josse, Baelmans, Martine,
2010. Effect of a cross-flow opening on the performance of a centrifugal fan in a
combine harvester. Biosystems Engineering 105, 247–256.
German, R.F., Lee, J.H.A., 1967. Grain separation on an oscillating sieve as affected by
air volume and frequency. In: 60th ASAE Annual Meeting, Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan.
Hanna, S.R., Hansen, O.R., et al., 2009. CFD model simulation of dispersion from
chlorine railcar releases in industrial and urban areas. Atmospheric
Environment 43, 262–270.
Hongguang, Jiao, Peng, Liu, Jiao, Ma, et al., 2008. Development and application of
screen simulation program by using particle discrete element method. Journal
of Henan Polytechnic University (Natural Science) 27, 711–715.
Ibsen, C.H., Helland, E., Hjertager, B.H., et al., 2004. Comparison of multifluid and
discrete particle modelling in numerical predictions of gas particle flow in
circulating fluidised beds. Powder Technology 149, 29.
Kafui, K.D., Thornton, C., Adams, M.J., 2002. Discrete particle-continuum fluid
modelling of gas–solid fluidised beds. Chemical Engineering Science 57, 2395–
2410.
Karim, A.A., Nolan, P.F., 2011. Modelling reacting localized air pollution using
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Atmospheric Environment 45, 889–895.
Kawaguchi, T., Tanaka, T., Tsuji, Y., 1998. Numerical simulation of two-dimensional
fluidized beds using the discrete element method (comparison between the
two- and three-dimensional models). Powder Technology 96, 129–138.
Kuang, S.B., Chu, K.W., Yu, A.B., Zou, Z.S., Feng, Y.Q., 2008. Computational
investigation of horizontal slug flow in pneumatic conveying. Industrial &
Engineering Chemistry Research 47, 470–480.
Lee, J.H.A., Winfield, R.G., 1969. Influence of oscillating frequency on separation of
wheat on a sieve in an airstream. Transactions of the ASAE, 149.
Li, Y., Zhang, J.P., Fan, L.S., 1999. Numerical simulation of gas–liquid–solid
fluidization systems using a combined CFD–VOF–DPM method: bubble wake
behavior. Chemical Engineering Science 54, 5101–5107.
Li, J., Webb, C., Pandiella, S.S., Campbell, G.M., 2003. Discrete particle motion on
sieves – a numerical study using the DEM simulation. [J] Powder Technology
133, 190–202.
Li, Jicheng, Quan, Longzhe, Luo, Lina, 2008. Influences of brown rice grain’s water ratio
on elastic modulus. Journal of Northeast Agricultural University 39 (4), 1–3.
119
Limtrakul, S., Boonsrirat, A., Vatanatham, T., 2004. DEM modeling and simulation of
a catalytic gas–solid fluidized bed reactor: a spouted bed as a case study.
Chemical Engineering Science 59, 5225–5231.
Yang, Mingjin, Yang, Ling, Li, Qingdong, 2009. Simple measurement of restitution
coefficient of granular material and its application. Journal of Agricultural
Mechanization Research 31 (10), 25–27.
Qiao, Zhenxian, 1992. Studies on characteristics of material mechanics of rice
grains. Acta Agriculturae Universitis Jiangxiensis 14 (1), 1–9.
Rhodes, M.J., Wang, X.S., Nguyen, M., Stewart, P., Liffman, K., 2001. Use of discrete
element method simulation in studying fluidization characteristics: influence of
interparticle force. Chemical Engineering Science 56, 69–76.
Rong, D.G., Horio, M., 2001. Behavior of particles and bubbles around immersed
tubes fluidized bed at high temperature and pressure: a DEM simulation.
International Journal of Multiphase Flow 27, 89–105.
Simpson, J.B., 1966. Effect of longitudinal slope on combine-shoe performance.
ASAE Winter Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.
Tsuji, Y., 2007. Multi-scale modeling of dense phase gas–particle flow. Chemical
Engineering Science 62, 3410–3418.
Tsuji, Y., Tanaka, T., Ishida, T., 1992. Lagrangian numerical-simulation of plug flow
of cohesionless particles in a horizontal pipe. Powder Technology 71, 239–250.
Xu, B.H., Yu, A.B., 1997. Numerical simulation of the gas–solid flow in a fluidized
bed by combining discrete particle method with computational fluid dynamics.
Chemical Engineering Science 52, 2785–2809.
Xu, B.H., Yu, A.B., Chew, S.J., Zulli, P., 2000. Numerical simulation of the gas–solid
flow in a bed with lateral gas blasting. Powder Technology 109, 13–26.
Xu, L., Li, Y., et al., 2007. Development on test-bed of axial threshing and cleaning
unit. Nongye Jixie Xuebao/Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural
Machinery 38 (12), 85–88.
Yu, A.B., Xu, B.H., 2003. Particle-scale modelling of gas–solid flow in fluidisation.
Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 78, 111–121.
Yu, A.B., Wright, B., Zhou, Z.Y., Zhu, H.P., Zulli, P., 2008. Discrete particle simulation
of gas–solids flow in a blast-furnace. Computers & Chemical Engineering 32,
1760–1772.
Zhang, Hongxia, Li, Dayong, Yang, Xuesong, 2006. Research on shear properties of
brown rice grain. Journal of Heilongjiang August First Land Reclamation
University 18 (1), 46–49.
Zhao, Lala, Liu, Chusheng, Yan, Junxia, et al., 2010. Numerical simulation of particles
flow on the vibrating screen plate using a 3D discrete element method. Journal
of China University of Mining & Technology 39, 414–419.
Zhou, Z.Y., Kuang, S.B., Chu, K.W., Yu, A.B., 2010. Assessments of CFD–DEM models
in particle–fluid flow modelling. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 661, 482–510.