Continuum simulation of granular flow in a rotating cylinder

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, U.P. 208016, India
² Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Kanpur, U.P. 208016, India

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 1 December 2025

Abstract

We perform continuum simulations of the flow behavior of granular materials in a rotating drum. We extend the interFoam solver used for two-phase fluid simulations in open-source CFD software OpenFOAM for simulating dense granular flow in presence of air. The numerical framework involves solving the continuity equation and momentum balance equations for the granular phase as well as the air phase. The interFoam solver utilizes the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method, which is able to track the movement of the interface between the two fluid phases. The granular phase is modeled as a continuum employing the μ − I rheology proposed by [1] while the fluid phase is simulated as a Newtonian fluid in the laminar regime. We predict the time dependent as well as steady state flow properties such as velocity, inertial number and kinematic viscosity using this model. The two-phase model is able to capture the behavior of various flow regimes observed in a rotating cylinder such as rolling, cascading, cataracting, and centrifuging as reported in literature. In addition, the effect of cylinder aspect ratio and the influence of the fill fraction of granular material is also accurately captured in these continuum simulations.