Executive Summary
Segregation model development holds promise for translation of academic research into industrial
practice. Two significant issues that hamper the applicability of models in industry, however,
are (1) the inherent difficulty in measuring segregation rates (especially in an experimental setting)
for validation purposes and (2) the significant dearth of validated scale-up studies for these models.
In this project, we seek to alleviate these two shortcomings of segregation research through a
combined theoretical, computational, and experimental program. One unique aspect of our work
is that we use flow perturbations to establish an “equilibrium” between segregation and mixing in
free surface granular flows in order to alter the steady-state distribution of particles. By achieving
this balance between the rate of segregation and the perturbation rate, we can combine the model
expressions that we are interested in testing with dramatically simplified experiments to ultimately
deduce the segregation rate (and validate the expressions). Moreover, by exploring a novel view
of the interplay between granular rheology and segregation, we aim to introduce a new way of
structuring segregation rate models that will make them inherently more scalable than any models
previously reported. As the project progresses, we expect to yield – either via adoption from the
literature or through new theoretical development – (experimentally) validated segregation models
that can be incorporated into device-level transport equations in order to supply quantitative
prediction of segregation at process scale.