DEM and experimental studies on pellet segregation in stockpile build-up

Granular conical pile consisting of a large number of particles of various sizes are frequently encountered in industries and nature. Size segregation in the pile is known to occur as the piles are being formed. This work studies the shape, repose angle and size segregation of a pile of binary size pellets in small-scale experiments as well as computationally using the discrete element method (DEM). The simulations were found to be consistent with the experiments, which indicate the applicability of DEM for predicting the conditions at pile formation of spherical particles. The fines mainly percolate into the space between the coarses and concentrate in the centre of the pile, while coarses slide along the free surface, move toward the bottom of the pile and primarily distribute on the bottom and on the free surface of the pile.