Thermo-mechanical behavior of polydisperse particle aggregates: a pore-scale modeling approach

Discrete network models provide an efficient pore-scale approach to explore the role of individual transport phenomena in deformable particle aggregates made from particles with a multimodal size distribution. During drying, mass transfer (liquid flow and vapor diffusion) is obtained from pore-scale finite volume (PFV) model, whereas the mechanical response (cracks and shrinkage) of the solid to compressive capillary forces is computed by discrete element method (DEM). The DEM-PFV coupled model permits to study the influence of physical properties of liquid, mechanical properties of solid, and rate of drying on the degree of mechanical response.