Discharge flow of a bidisperse granular media from a silo: Discrete particle simulations.

Discrete particle simulations are used to study two-dimensional discharge flow from a silo using both monodisperse and bidisperse mixtures. The density and the velocity profiles through the aperture are measured. In the monodisperse case, two particles' diameters are studied for different outlet diameters. In the bidisperse case, we varied the fine mass fraction of the mixture. In all cases, the density and the velocity profiles are found to follow the same self-similar law. Based on these observations and the previous work of Benyamine et al., a physical model is proposed to describe the flow of bidisperse mixtures giving an explicit expression for the flow rate that is in good agreement with the results.