Erosion dynamics of wet particle agglomerates

We study the erosion dynamics of wet particle agglomerates inside a simple shear flow of noncohesive granular materials by relying on the three-dimensional discrete-element simulations. The simulation model is discretized by assembling of wet and dry spherical particles. By systematically varying different parameters related to the shear flow of dry particles (the shear rate), the wet agglomerates (the amount of the binding liquid in the “pendular” state, the liquid viscosity, and the liquid–vapor surface tension), and the relative dry–wet density as well as the initial position of wet agglomerates, we measure the erosion of these agglomerates on their surface by quantifying the cumulative number of eroded particles. We show that the erosion rate increases proportionally to the inertial number and the height of the agglomerates decreases linearly with the liquid content and the liquid viscosity and decreases nonlinearly with the cohesion index (or liquid–vapor surface tension) for each value of the inertial number, whereas this rate is nearly independent to the relative dry–wet density with a low shear rate. It is worth noting that the normalized erosion rate by the shear rate collapses well on a master curve as a cutoff function of the erosion scaling parameter (combining the inertial number, the cohesion index, and the Stokes number), thus providing clear evidence for the unified description of the material and flow parameters on the erosion of wet agglomerates.