Calibration and Validation of Granular Continuum Models from Particle Data

Thomas Weinhart studied Mathematics at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen in Germany (B.Sc. in 2004), and at Virginia Tech in the USA (M.Sc. in 2005 and Ph.D. in 2009). His interests lie in numerical and analytical material modelling. His research is based on applying concepts of applied mathematics to the field of granular mechanics.He is working on improved material models for particulates, developing microscopic contact laws between individual particles, as well as rheological laws for macroscopic continuous flows. One of these rheological laws now provides the basis for a shallow-water model of granular avalanches; another law describes the mechanism of particle segregation in granular two-phase flows. He has also worked on several numerical improvements to the Discrete Particle Method, such as steady inflow and complex boundary conditions. He is recognised in the granular field for having developed a new and efficient technique to couple micro- and macro-scale models for particulate flows, and for having developed implementations for the Discrete Particle Method and the Finite Element Method. In particular MercuryDPM is now a well-used open-source tool in the granular community, and is utilised by industry through our spin-off company MercuryLab.His knowledge of particulate systems on both the micro- and macro-scale and their coupling has led to many successful collaborations with experimental and other modelling groups. He further works on numerical methods for simulating transport phenomena, such as error estimators which he uses for adaptive mesh refinement in finite element methods. Stefan Luding studied physics at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, focusing on reactions on complex and fractal geometries. He continued his research in Freiburg for his PhD on simulations of dry granular materials in the group of Prof. A. Blumen. He spent his post-doctorate time in Paris IV, Jussieu, with E. Clement and J. Duran before he joined the computational physics group with Prof. Herrmann for his habilitation. In 2001, he moved to DelftChemTech at the TU Delft in Netherlands as associate professor for particle technology. Since 2007 he has held the chair on multi-scale mechanics (MSM) at the Faculty of Engineering Technology, CTW, at the University of Twente, Netherlands, with ongoing research on fluids, solids, particle interactions, granular materials, powders, asphalt, composites, bio- and micro-fluid systems and self-healing materials. Stefan Luding has been managing editor in chief of the journal Granular Matter since 1998. He has written more than 200 publications and is a member of several international working parties, including presidentship of AEMMG that organizes the Powders and Grains Conference in 2009 and 2013. Anthony Thornton works jointly between the Multi-scale Mechanics (MSM) and Mathematics of Computational Science (MaCS) groups. His main research interest is in granular materials, primarily size segregation in dense granular avalanche flows. During this research a continuum model of size segregation for dense granular free surface flows was developed and compared to simple laboratory experiments. Current research focus is now on using this model and particle simulation methods to explain phenomena caused by segregation. These include pattern formation in rotation drums, levee formation in geophysical flows, particle size structure of a flowing finite mass of material in avalanches and axial segregation in long rotating cylinders.