Rheology of Granular Flow of Platonic Solid-Shaped Particles

An investigation of frictional spherical and Platonic solid-shaped particle flow on inclined plane is provided by Discrete Element simulations and the effect of particle shape on rheological properties are studied. The results indicate that as the particle sphericity increases, the tangential stress along the particle bed and the solid volume fraction corresponding to the rapid increase of coordination number and tangential stress of granular flow are reduced. The friction and dilatancy laws of spherical and polyhedral particle flows are significantly different due to the distinction in particle rotation ability, similar flow features to the Platonic solid-shaped particle flows can be achieved by applying rolling friction to spherical particles. Rescaling by a power of dimensionless granular temperature, the variation of bulk friction coefficient μ versus inertial number I of granular flows of different Platonic solid-shaped particles can be described by a master curve.