Computer simulations of particle-bubble interactions and particle sliding using Discrete Element Method

Three dimensional Discrete Element Method (DEM) computer simulations have been carried out to analyse the kinetics of collision of multiple particles against a stationary bubble and the sliding of the particles over the bubble surface. This is the first time that a computational analysis of the sliding time and particle packing arrangements of multiple particles on the surface of a bubble has been carried out. The collision kinetics of monodisperse (33 μm in radius) and polydisperse (12-33 μm in radius) particle systems have been analysed in terms of the time taken by 10%, 50% and 100% of the particles to collide against the bubble. The dependencies of these collision times on the strength of hydrophobic interactions follow relationships close to power laws. However, minimal sensitivity of the collision times to particle size was found when linear and square relationships of the hydrophobic force with particles radius were considered. The sliding time for single particles has corroborated published theoretical expressions. Finally, a good qualitative comparison with experiments has been observed with respect to the particle packing at the bottom of the bubble after sliding demonstrating the usefulness of computer simulations in the studies of particle-bubble systems.