Calculating the trajectories of triboelectrically charged particles using Discrete Element Modeling (DEM)

Theoretical and experimental work has been performed pursuant to incorporating electrostatic forces into a commercial Discrete Element Modeling (DEM) software package. This DEM software is used to model the trajectories of large numbers of particles for industrial applications and processes. Electrostatic forces due to the triboelectrification of the particles will be included in the model in addition to existing kinematic forces enhancing the fidelity of the calculation. In this paper, we will present an overview of the theoretical calculations and experimental data and their comparison to the results of the DEM simulations.