ABSTRACT
This contribution aims to propose a simple method to quantify the degree of mixture of soil particles stirred by rotation of rods. Discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate the stirring process and evaluate the degree of mixture at each rotation based on the initial positions of particles. To reduce complexity in the mixing process of actual soil, this study focuses on monodispersed spherical particles where inter-particle cohesion is not considered. The DEM results reveal spatial variation of the degree of mixture (dm ) in the given volume; however, its mean ( https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> d m ‾ https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003299127/53799ffb-eaec-46d3-80fb-f8d3f08a0bab/content/inline-math86_1.tif"/> ) increases with the rotation number of stirring rods. Besides, https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> d m ‾ https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003299127/53799ffb-eaec-46d3-80fb-f8d3f08a0bab/content/inline-math86_2.tif"/> depends on the size of stirring rods whereas the mixing rate is insensitive to https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> d m ‾ https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003299127/53799ffb-eaec-46d3-80fb-f8d3f08a0bab/content/inline-math86_3.tif"/> for the non-cohesive sandy particles.
