Single Particle Interaction Properties: Investigations on the Coefficient of Restitution and Coefficient of Friction

Understanding granular flows has always been important for predicting natural phenomena such as rockslides and soil erosion, as well as industrial processes such as coal-based fossil fuel systems and solids processing. As such, it becomes important to understand granular flows from both a classical granular flow and tribological perspective. Inherently important in the study of granular flows is the study of the individual particle level interactions, which define the global behavior of the flow. The current work examines both the coefficient of restitution (COR) and coefficient of friction (COF) for various material combinations. COR and tribological experiments are performed on various sphere and plate (disk) materials, such as low carbon steel, tungsten carbide (WC), and NITINOL 60.