Rocky Technical Manual

ANSYS, Inc. Release 2025 R1

Southpointe January 2025
2600 Ansys Drive
Canonsburg, PA 15317 ANSYS, Inc. and
[email protected] ANSYS Europe,
Ltd. are UL
http://www.ansys.com registered ISO
(T) 724-746-3304 9001: 2015
(F) 724-514-9494 companies.
Copyright and Trademark Information

© 2025 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution or duplication is prohibited.

ANSYS, Ansys Workbench, AUTODYN, CFX, FLUENT and any and all ANSYS, Inc. brand, product, service and feature
names, logos and slogans are registered trademarks or trademarks of ANSYS, Inc. or its subsidiaries located in the
United States or other countries. ICEM CFD is a trademark used by ANSYS, Inc. under license. CFX is a trademark
of Sony Corporation in Japan. All other brand, product, service and feature names or trademarks are the property
of their respective owners. FLEXlm and FLEXnet are trademarks of Flexera Software LLC.

Disclaimer Notice

THIS ANSYS SOFTWARE PRODUCT AND PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION INCLUDE TRADE SECRETS AND ARE CONFID-
ENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY PRODUCTS OF ANSYS, INC., ITS SUBSIDIARIES, OR LICENSORS. The software products
and documentation are furnished by ANSYS, Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates under a software license agreement
that contains provisions concerning non-disclosure, copying, length and nature of use, compliance with exporting
laws, warranties, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and remedies, and other provisions. The software products
and documentation may be used, disclosed, transferred, or copied only in accordance with the terms and conditions
of that software license agreement.

ANSYS, Inc. and ANSYS Europe, Ltd. are UL registered ISO 9001: 2015 companies.

U.S. Government Rights

For U.S. Government users, except as specifically granted by the ANSYS, Inc. software license agreement, the use,
duplication, or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to restrictions stated in the ANSYS, Inc.
software license agreement and FAR 12.212 (for non-DOD licenses).

Third-Party Software

See the legal information in the product help files for the complete Legal Notice for ANSYS proprietary software
and third-party software. If you are unable to access the Legal Notice, contact ANSYS, Inc.

Published in the U.S.A.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction to DEM ............................................................................................................................... 9
2. Physical models in Rocky ...................................................................................................................... 13
2.1. Contact force models ...................................................................................................................... 13
2.1.1. Normal force models .............................................................................................................. 13
2.1.1.1. Hysteretic linear spring model ....................................................................................... 13
2.1.1.2. Linear spring-dashpot model ......................................................................................... 15
2.1.1.3. Hertzian spring-dashpot model ..................................................................................... 17
2.1.2. Tangential force models ......................................................................................................... 18
2.1.2.1. Linear spring Coulomb limit model ................................................................................ 18
2.1.2.2. Coulomb limit model ..................................................................................................... 19
2.1.2.3. Mindlin-Deresiewicz model ........................................................................................... 20
2.2. Adhesive force models .................................................................................................................... 21
2.2.1. Constant adhesive force model ............................................................................................... 21
2.2.2. Linear adhesive force model ................................................................................................... 22
2.2.3. JKR adhesive force model ....................................................................................................... 23
2.3. Rolling resistance models ................................................................................................................ 24
2.3.1. Type A: constant moment ....................................................................................................... 24
2.3.2. Type C: linear spring rolling limit ............................................................................................. 25
2.4. Breakage models ............................................................................................................................ 26
2.4.1. Impact Energy model ............................................................................................................. 26
2.4.2. Ab-T10 breakage model ......................................................................................................... 26
2.4.3. Tavares breakage model ......................................................................................................... 28
2.4.4. Breakage for large deformations ............................................................................................. 30
2.4.5. Fragment size distribution models .......................................................................................... 30
2.4.5.1. Gaudin-Schumann ........................................................................................................ 31
2.4.5.2. Incomplete beta function .............................................................................................. 31
2.5. Wear model .................................................................................................................................... 32
2.6. Thermal model ............................................................................................................................... 34
2.6.1. Contact heat transfer rate ....................................................................................................... 35
2.6.2. Joint heat transfer rate ........................................................................................................... 36
2.6.3. Thermal conduction correction models .................................................................................. 37
2.7. Coarse-grain model ........................................................................................................................ 38
2.7.1. Contact frictional forces .......................................................................................................... 42
2.7.2. Adhesive forces ...................................................................................................................... 42
2.7.3. Contact heat transfer .............................................................................................................. 42
2.7.4. Radl et al. kinetic energy dissipation model ............................................................................. 46
3. Flexible particles in Rocky .................................................................................................................... 49
3.1. Flexible particle types ..................................................................................................................... 49
3.1.1. Flexible fibers ......................................................................................................................... 49
3.1.2. Flexible shells ......................................................................................................................... 52
3.1.3. Flexible solid particles ............................................................................................................ 56
3.2. Joint models ................................................................................................................................... 56
3.2.1. Linear elastic model ............................................................................................................... 56
3.2.2. Joint damping model ............................................................................................................. 60
3.2.3. Bilinear elastoplastic model .................................................................................................... 61
3.2.3.1. Cycle with failure ........................................................................................................... 63
3.3. Element damping ........................................................................................................................... 64
3.4. Joint breakage models .................................................................................................................... 66
3.4.1. Tensile stress criterion ............................................................................................................ 70

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. iii
Rocky Technical Manual

3.4.2. Shear stress criterion .............................................................................................................. 70

3.4.3. Tensile or shear stress criterion ............................................................................................... 70
3.4.4. Von Mises stress criterion ........................................................................................................ 71
3.4.5. Griffith surface energy ............................................................................................................ 71
4. Statistics modules in Rocky ................................................................................................................... 73
4.1. Statistics types in Rocky .................................................................................................................. 73
4.1.1. Event-based statistics ............................................................................................................. 73
4.1.2. Integral-based statistics .......................................................................................................... 74
4.1.2.1. Works ............................................................................................................................ 74
4.1.2.2. Impulses ....................................................................................................................... 76
4.1.2.3. Frequency ..................................................................................................................... 77
4.2. Collision statistics modules ............................................................................................................. 77
4.2.1. Boundary collision statistics .................................................................................................... 78
4.2.1.1. Corrections when CGM is enabled .................................................................................. 81
4.2.1.2. Curves ........................................................................................................................... 81
4.2.2. Intra-particle collision statistics ............................................................................................... 82
4.2.3. Inter-particle collision statistics ............................................................................................... 84
4.2.4. Inter-group collision statistics ................................................................................................. 86
4.3. CFD coupling particle statistics ........................................................................................................ 87
4.4. Energy spectra modules .................................................................................................................. 88
4.4.1. Contacts energy spectra ......................................................................................................... 89
4.4.2. Particles energy spectra .......................................................................................................... 92
5. Miscellaneous Topics ............................................................................................................................. 95
5.1. Contact detection ........................................................................................................................... 95
5.2. Timestep calculations .................................................................................................................... 100
5.2.1. Timestep for the hysteretic linear spring model ..................................................................... 101
5.2.2. Timestep for the linear spring-dashpot model ....................................................................... 101
5.2.3. Timestep for the Hertzian spring-dashpot model .................................................................. 101
5.2.4. Numerical softening factor ................................................................................................... 102
5.3. Sieve size calculation ..................................................................................................................... 102
5.4. Particle orientation ....................................................................................................................... 105
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 109

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
iv of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
List of Figures
1.1. Schematics of a typical normal force–overlap response for the hysteretic linear spring model. ................ 10
2.1. Schematics of a typical normal force-overlap response for the hysteretic linear spring model. ................. 14
2.2. Graph of the relationship between the damping ratio and the restitution coefficient . ....................... 17
2.3. Examples of force-overlap plots for different adhesive stiffness fractions. ............................................... 23
2.4. Examples of fragment size distributions for different values of . ......................................................... 32
2.5. Schematic depiction of the wear of a surface. ........................................................................................ 33
2.6. Heat transfer between two colliding particles. ....................................................................................... 35
2.7. Heat transfer between two elements in a flexible fiber. .......................................................................... 36
2.8. Example of a multi-branched custom fiber. In this case, the number of coincident elements =4. For
the joint between the green and blue elements, is the cross sectional area of the blue element (the one
with the smallest diameter). ........................................................................................................................ 37
2.9. A collection of small (original) particles is replaced by a larger parcel (scaled-up particle).The parcel mass
is the sum of the original particle masses. In this example = 2. ............................................................ 39
2.10. Eight contacts of the original system are represented by a single contact on the scaled-up system with
= 2. .................................................................................................................................................... 41
2.11. Eight contacts of the original system with energy transfer are represented by a single contact on the
scaled-up system with = 2. ................................................................................................................. 44
2.12.Two groups of particles scaled up with CGM. Particles within the smaller circles represent four contacts
that were missed due to the scalingup process: three due to intra-particle collisions and one due to an inter-
parcel collision. = 2. ............................................................................................................................ 47
3.1. a) Schematic representation of a flexible straight fiber. (b) Forces and moments that a joint exerts on the
two contiguous fiber elements. ................................................................................................................... 49
3.2. Relative displacement vector and definition of the normal direction. ..................................................... 50
3.3. Decomposition of the relative displacement vector. ............................................................................... 50
3.4. Example of a multibranched custom fiber. Six coincident joints are located at point A. ............................ 51
3.5. Portion of a flexible shell. ...................................................................................................................... 52
3.6. Forces and moments exerted by a joint between two shell elements. ..................................................... 53
3.7. Angular deformations in a shell joint. The orange arrows indicate the rotation axes. ............................... 54
3.8. Forces and moments exerted by a joint between two tetrahedral elements. ........................................... 56
3.9. (a) Dimensionless Young's modulus and (b) Poisson's ratio as a function of the stiffness ratio for composite
bodies formed by Delaunay tetrahedra. Extracted from Potapov & Campbell (1996). .................................... 59
3.10. Typical loading-unloading-reloading cycle for the bilinear elastoplastic model in Rocky. ....................... 62
3.11. Cycle of loading-unloading-reloading for the bilinear elastoplastic model with failure. ......................... 64
3.12. Damping force proportional to the relative element velocity in relation to the parent particle's velo-
city. ............................................................................................................................................................ 65
3.13. Vertices related to an undeformed joint between two elements of (a) a flexible fiber, (b) a flexible shell
and (c) a flexible solid. ................................................................................................................................. 67
3.14. Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell ........................................................................ 68
3.15. Tensile deformation due to bending around the first bending axis, for a joint in a flexible shell ............. 69
4.1. Normal-force-overlap diagram of a simple collision. ............................................................................... 75
4.2. Four built-in collision statistics modules in Rocky. .................................................................................. 77
4.3. Data collection time interval. ................................................................................................................. 78
4.4. Data collection region for intra-particle collision statistics on (a) rigid polyhedral particles and (b) flexible
fibers. ......................................................................................................................................................... 82
4.5. Construction of a data collection region on a polyhedral particle. .......................................................... 83

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. v
Rocky Technical Manual

4.6. Schematics of a typical contact-based energy spectra plot.The two extra points located at the extremities
of the interval include data from collisions whose energies fall outside that interval. ................ 90
4.7. Overlap-time diagram of a collision with multiple loading-unloading periods. ........................................ 91
4.8. Example of a cumulative power curve (in purple) generated from a power distribution curve (in
green). ....................................................................................................................................................... 92
4.9. Schematics of a typical particles energy spectra plot. ............................................................................. 93
5.1. Contact detection stages in the general algorithm in Rocky. .................................................................. 96
5.2. Neighborhood region of a particle in Rocky. .......................................................................................... 97
5.3. Exact distance calculation between neighbor particles. ......................................................................... 98
5.4. Before updating neighbor lists, the maximum distance that any pair of non-neighbor particles can move
relative to each other is . ............................................................................................................. 99
5.5. Two cases with different magnitude of the neighboring distance ........................................ 100
5.6. Sieve size of a polyhedral particle. ....................................................................................................... 103
5.7. Example of a slice considered for determining sieve size candidates. .................................................... 104
5.8. Projection of the vertices onto an orthogonal plane to the major axis. .................................................. 105
5.9. Axis-angle representation of a rotation in a 3D space. .......................................................................... 106
5.10. Examples of the orientation of a particle represented with the axisangle formalism. ........................... 107

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
vi of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
List of Tables
4.1. Available boundary collision statistics, as of v4.4 .................................................................................... 79
4.2. Available intra-particle collision statistics, as of v4.4 ............................................................................... 84
4.3. Available inter-particle collision statistics, as of v4.4 ............................................................................... 85
4.4. All possible pair combinations for a set of 3 particle groups and 2 boundaries. ....................................... 86
4.5. Available curves for intergroup collision statistics, as of v4.4 ................................................................... 86
4.6. Available CFD coupling particle statistics, as of v4.5 ................................................................................ 87

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. vii
 Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
viii of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 1: Introduction to DEM
Discrete Element Method (DEM) is a numerical technique for predicting the behavior of bulk solids. A
bulk solid is a large collection of solid particles; otherwise known as granular media. Some examples
of granular media flows include grains being moved through processing equipment, ore being passed
through mining machinery, and sand falling through an hourglass. Granular media flow can be quite
complex as these flows are known to exhibit solid-like, fluid-like, or a combination of both behaviors.
For example, sand in an hourglass behaves like a fluid while a stockpile of sand can have a solid-like
stress-strain response.

DEM is a mesh-free method and does not solve the continuum equations of motion. Hence, no stress-
strain constitutive law for the material is needed. Instead, a stress-strain relationship can be obtained
as an output from the DEM model. A general DEM algorithm is shown below:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 9
Introduction to DEM

Figure 1.1: Schematics of a typical normal force–overlap response for the hysteretic linear
spring model.

The equations of motion for every individual particle are numerically integrated with time. For this
process, the total force on a particle needs to be known. The total force is the resultant of contact forces

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
10 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
(between particles and with the boundary) and body forces. Typical body forces are gravity (weight),
fluid and other forces, such as electrostatic, electromagnetic, and so on.

Note:

Rocky uses an Euler First Order interpolation scheme for velocity and a modified first
order scheme for displacement.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 11
 Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
12 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 2: Physical models in Rocky
This chapter is a general guide for most of the models currently implemented in Rocky. For specific in-
formation about the fluid coupling models included in Rocky, please see the DEM-CFD Coupling Technical
Manual.

2.1. Contact force models

The contact forces in any DEM code (including Rocky) consist of the following two parts:

• Forces normal-to-contact plane

• Forces tangent-to-contact plane

For spherical particles, the contact plane is perpendicular to the line that connects the centers of two
spheres. In the case of particle-to-boundary contact, the line connects the center of a sphere and the
closest point of a triangle making up a boundary. For non-round particles, the algorithm for determining
a contact plane is more complex; it involves calculating one of any of the following:

• The closest points of two particles.

• The closest points of a particle and triangle.

• The two points with the maximum overlap distance in the case of a physical contact.

The contact plane is a plane perpendicular to the line connecting these closest points. The descriptions
for the normal and tangential force calculations used in Rocky, as well as the models used by these
forces are presented below.

2.1.1. Normal force models

A normal force model for a DEM simulation has two major requirements. First, the force has to be a
repulsive one. Second, the normal contact force model has to allow significant energy dissipation
since a granular medium is an extremely dissipative system. A number of models have been proposed
for these purposes. The models implemented in Rocky are discussed below.

2.1.1.1. Hysteretic linear spring model

This model, first proposed by Walton & Braun [19] (p. 110), was referred to as linear hysteresis model
in previous versions of Rocky. This elastic-plastic (repulsive and dissipative) normal contact model
allows simulation of the plastic energy dissipation on a contact without introducing the overhead
of long simulation times.

In addition, since no viscous damping term is used, the energy dissipation is not dependent on the
relative velocities of neighboring particles, making the energy dissipation insensitive to other con-

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 13
Physical models in Rocky

tacts. An additional advantage of this model is that compressible materials can be accurately
modeled due to the fact that the contact forces can be almost zero even at residual overlaps.

The hysteretic linear spring model is implemented in Rocky in an incremental way, as described by
the following set of equations:

(2.1)

(2.2)
where:

• and are the normal elastic-plastic contact forces at the current time and at the previous
time , respectively, where is the timestep.

• is the change in the contact normal overlap during the current time. It is assumed to be
positive as particles approach each other and negative when they separate. and are the
normal overlap values at the current and at the previous time, respectively.

• and are the values of loading and unloading contact stiffnesses, respectively.

• is a dimensionless small constant. Its value in Rocky is 0.001. The part of the expression in
which this constant is active ensures that, during the unloading, the normal force will return to
zero when the overlap decreases to zero.

A typical cycle of loading/unloading is depicted in Figure 2.1: Schematics of a typical normal force-
overlap response for the hysteretic linear spring model. (p. 14). Between points A and B, we have
the loading process, in which the normal force overlap increases linearly with slope . After
reaching the maximum overlap, the unloading follows a steeper line between points B and C, in
which the slope is . The plastic deformation for the contact only exists during the contact, so
any residual deformation is forgotten after the contact ceases. The energy dissipated in the collision
is numerically equal to the shaded area in the force-deformation diagram of Figure 2.1: Schematics
of a typical normal force-overlap response for the hysteretic linear spring model. (p. 14).

Figure 2.1: Schematics of a typical normal force-overlap response for the hysteretic linear
spring model.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
14 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Contact force models

The loading and unloading stiffnesses are defined by the particle size, the bulk Young's modulus,
and by the restitution coefficient of contacting materials, the last two of which the user inputs into
Rocky. The coefficient of restitution in Rocky is a measure of energy dissipation for the contacting
pair of materials. For the contact of two particles, or of a particle with a boundary, the loading and
unloading equivalent stiffnesses are defined, respectively, as:

(2.3)

(2.4)
where subscripts 1 and 2 identify the two contacting particles. The individual stiffnesses associated
to a particle and to a boundary are computed, respectively, as:
(2.5)
(2.6)
where:

• is the particle material's bulk Young's modulus or elastic modulus, which the user can input
in the corresponding material's editor panel. Note : A value of for the particle bulk
Young's modulus is a reasonable number for most particle sizes.

• is the boundary material's Young's modulus, which is also a user input.

• is the particle size.

In long-term contacts, for instance, among particles in a stockpile, the hysteretic linear spring
model can give rise to oscillations of very small amplitudes on the normal force and on the overlap.
Although these oscillations are barely noticeable, this phenomenon can prevent the particles from
reaching a state of absolute repose. Because of this, an additional mechanism of energy dissipation
was introduced in Rocky, in order to dissipate spurious oscillations in long-term contacts. Note that
this force does not act during regular collisions, therefore, the energy dissipation specified by the
restitution coefficient will not be altered at all by this force on those collisions. This mechanism
consists in the addition of a viscous force which is only activated during secondary loading cycles
on long-term contacts. That additional force is defined in a similar fashion to that of the dissipative
part of the contact force on the Equation 2.8 (p. 16) model:
(2.7)
where is the time derivative of the normal overlap and is the damping coefficient, defined
as in Equation 2.10 (p. 16). The value of the damping ratio needed in that equation can be specified
by the user in the Advanced sub-tab of the Solver panel, in which it is listed as Damping Ratio for
Hysteretic Linear Spring Model. Allowed values for this parameter are in the range from 0 to 1. Note
that the higher the value of the damping ratio, the faster will be the dissipation of oscillations.

Two models of tangential forces are compatible with the hysteretic linear spring model: the Linear
spring Coulomb limit model (p. 18) model and the Coulomb limit model (p. 19) model. Moreover,
it works only with two built-in adhesive models in Rocky: the Constant adhesive force model (p. 21)
model, and the Linear adhesive force model (p. 22) model.

2.1.1.2. Linear spring-dashpot model

The linear spring-dashpot model was referred to as linear elastic viscous model in previous versions
of Rocky. This phenomenological model, first proposed in the seminal paper of Cundall & Strack

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 15
Physical models in Rocky

[24] (p. 110), is widely used in DEM, mainly because of its simplicity. The normal contact force in
this model is composed of a linear elastic repulsive force and a damping force, that is:
(2.8)
where:

• is the normal contact stiffness, defined previously for the linear hysteretic spring model in
Equation 2.3 (p. 15).

• is the normal damping coefficient.

• is the contact normal overlap.

• is the time derivative of the contact normal overlap.

The energy dissipation in the linear spring-dashpot model is viscous in nature and due exclusively
to the damping force term in Equation 2.8 (p. 16). The value of the normal damping coefficient
can be determined in a way that the viscous energy dissipation matches the energy dissipation of
an inelastic collision, determined in turn by the value of the coefficient of restitution. In order to
do that, the damping coefficient is defined in Rocky as follows:
(2.9)
where:

• is the damping ratio, a dimensionless parameter whose value is related to the restitution
coefficient (see below).

• is the effective or equivalent mass for the contact, defined as:

(2.10)

where and are the masses of the contacting particles, whereas is the mass of the particle
in contact with a boundary.

In general, there will be one value of the damping ratio for which the energy dissipation on a
collision event modeled with the linear spring-dashpot will replicate the energy dissipation predicted
by the coefficient of restitution. Note that the coefficient of restitution is considered in Rocky to
be a property of the interaction between two materials. The functional relationship between the
damping ratio and the coefficient of restitution, derived from that condition, is:

(2.11)

As can be seen in Figure 2.2: Graph of the relationship between the damping ratio and the resti-
tution coefficient . (p. 17), Equation 2.11 (p. 16) defines the restitution coefficient as a monotonic
function of the damping ratio . Since the inverse of this function cannot be determined analytically,
Equation 2.11 (p. 16) is solved numerically in Rocky in order to find the value of that corresponds
to the value of prescribed by the user.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
16 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Contact force models

Figure 2.2: Graph of the relationship between the damping ratio and the restitution
coefficient .

Equation 2.11 (p. 16) was derived originally by Schwager & Poschel [17] (p. 109), considering that
the end of a collision happens when the contact normal force decreases to zero. It is common in
DEM to see the use of a simpler expression for the relation between and , derived from the
condition that the end of a collision occurs at a later time, when the deformation returns to zero.
It is easy to show, however, that the normal force given by Equation 2.8 (p. 16) turns negative at
that time. Since a negative normal contact force is an attractive one, the assumption of a purely
repulsive contact force is contradicted by that practice. On the other hand, Equation 2.11 (p. 16)
is totally consistent with that assumption and for that reason it was adopted in Rocky.

Although the linear spring-dashpot model is popular in DEM formulations, it tends to be less accurate
than the hysteretic linear spring model because energy dissipation in the real world is plastic rather
than viscous. Its accuracy drops especially when particles have simultaneous multiple contacts,
since the amount of viscous dissipation is accurate only for single contacts.

The linear spring-dashpot model works with the constant adhesive force (p. 21) model and the
linear adhesive force (p. 22) model, as well as the linear spring Coulomb limit model (p. 18) and
the Coulomb limit (p. 19) model for tangential forces.

2.1.1.3. Hertzian spring-dashpot model

The Hertzian spring-dashpot model is similar to the linear spring-dashpot model. The main difference
is that both the elastic and the damping components of the normal force are nonlinear functions
of the overlap in the Hertzian model. The elastic part is based in the classical contact theory de-
veloped by Hertz in the late nineteenth century [25] (p. 110).

The form of the Hertzian spring-dashpot model implemented in Rocky can be written as:
(2.12)
in which the stiffness coefficient is defined as:
(2.13)
where:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 17
Physical models in Rocky

• is the reduced Young's modulus, defined by the expression

(2.14)
in which and are the Young's moduli of the two contacting particles or the particle and
the boundary, depending on the contact type. Moreover, and are the respective Poisson's
ratios.

• is the effective or equivalent radius, defined by the expression:

(2.15)

in which and are the sizes of the contacting particles in a particle-particle collision, whereas
is the size of the particle in a particle-boundary collision.

Following the practice proposed initially by Tsuji et al. [18] (p. 110), the damping coefficient for the
Hertzian model in Rocky is defined in a similar fashion as for the linear spring-dashpot model:
(2.16)
where is the effective mass, defined previously in Equation 2.10 (p. 16), and is the damping
ratio for the Hertzian spring-dashpot model. Antypov & Elliott [23] (p. 110) demonstrated that con-
sidering appropriate variable transformations, the solution for a movement equation based on the
Hertzian model can be mapped onto the solution of an equivalent equation based on the linear
spring-dashpot model. That equivalence is possible only if the damping coefficient for the Hertzian
model is defined as:
(2.17)
where is the same damping ratio used in the linear spring-dashpot model. In Rocky, the value of
is determined solving and then using the resulting value in to obtain . This guarantees that
no matter whether the linear spring-dashpot or the Hertzian model is used, the viscous energy
dissipation in a collision event is equal to the one specified through the coefficient of restitution.

The Hertzian spring-dashpot model works with all three models available for tangential forces,
namely, the linear spring Coulomb limit (p. 18) model, the Coulomb limit (p. 19) model, and the
Mindlin-Deresiewicz (p. 20) model. Moreover, it works with all built-in adhesive models in Rocky,
namely the constant adhesive force (p. 21) model, the linear adhesive force (p. 22) model, and the
JKR adhesive force (p. 23) model.

2.1.2. Tangential force models

The models used in Rocky to calculate the tangential components of the contact forces are described
below.

2.1.2.1. Linear spring Coulomb limit model

The tangential force in this model is elastic-frictional. If the tangential force were considered purely
elastic, its value at time would be given by:
(2.18)
where:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
18 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Contact force models

• is the value of the tangential force at the previous time. Note that the minus sign in this
equation arises from the fact that the tangential force always opposes to the tangential displace-
ment.

• is the tangential relative displacement of the particles during the timestep.

• is the tangential stiffness defined as:

(2.19)
where is the loading normal stiffness defined in Equation 2.3 (p. 15) and is a user-defined
parameter listed as Tangnetial Stiffness Ratio in the corresponding materials interaction editor
panel.

In this model, however, the tangential force cannot exceed the Coulomb's limit. Therefore, the
complete expression for the tangential force is:
(2.20)
where:

• is the contact normal force at time .

• is the friction coefficient, defined as:

(2.21)

in which and are, respectively, the static and the dynamic friction coefficients. These are
properties that the user can define in the corresponding materials interaction editor panel in Rocky.

The sliding is considered to be taking place on the contact the first time the magnitude of the
tangential force exceeds the limit of . Once that force falls below the value of , the
contact is considered non-sliding again.

This tangential model works with all three normal contact models in Rocky.

2.1.2.2. Coulomb limit model

This is the simplest tangential force model implemented in Rocky. The tangential force according
to this model is given by:
(2.22)
where:

• is the friction coefficient defined in Equation 2.21 (p. 19).

• is the normal force at the contact.

• is the tangential component of the relative velocity vector.

The condition of sliding considered for this model is based on the tangential component of the
relative velocity. If that component is below , the contact is considered non-sliding. In the
current version of Rocky, the value of is set to 0.001 m/s.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 19
Physical models in Rocky

The Coulomb limit model works with all three types of normal forces models, i.e., the Hysteretic
linear spring model (p. 13) model, the Linear spring-dashpot model (p. 15) model and the Hertzian
spring-dashpot model (p. 17) model.

2.1.2.3. Mindlin-Deresiewicz model

This model is new to Rocky as of v4.1. The tangential force in this model is given by the expressions:
(2.23)

(2.24)
where:

• is the friction coefficient, defined in Equation 2.21 (p. 19).

• is the normal force.

• is the tangential relative displacement at the contact.

• is the tangential component of the relative velocity at the contact.

• is the maximum relative tangential displacement at which particles begin to slide.

• is the effective mass, defined in Equation 2.10 (p. 16).

• is the tangential damping ratio, which is estimated in Rocky by means of:

(2.25)
where is the coefficient of restitution for the respective materials interaction.

The value of the maximum relative tangential displacement is determined in Rocky using the
expression:
(2.26)
where:

• and are the Poisson's ratios of the two particles or the particle and the boundary, depending
on the contact type.

• is the normal overlap.

It is worth noting that when , the parameter turns to zero in Equation 2.24 (p. 20). It
is easy to show that the magnitude of the tangential force reduces to in that case, and, therefore,
the Mindlin-Deresiecz model becomes equivalent to the Coulomb limit model under that specific
condition.

The Mindlin-Deresiewicz model works only with the Hertzian spring-dashpot (p. 17) model. Moreover,
the Mindlin-Deresiewicz model does not work properly with any rolling resistance model for shaped
(non-spherical) particles. This is due to a known issue that can cause instabilities in the angle of
repose. Therefore, when this model is selected in a problem with shaped particles, the rolling res-
istance must be disabled in the project.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
20 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Adhesive force models

2.2. Adhesive force models

The normal contact models described in section Normal force models (p. 13) are appropriate for simu-
lating non-adhesive and dry granular materials. Unfortunately, quite often granular materials can have
various moisture contents that can cause them to adhere to themselves and other surfaces with which
they come into contact. In order to capture this behavior, the repulsive normal force has to be supple-
mented by the attractive normal force to accurately predict its flow characteristics. For example, this is
required for wet and sticky materials where the adhesion is from liquid bridge forces or other mechanisms.

One important point to note is that cohesion/adhesion of a bulk solid is a function of the stress. The
linear force adhesion contact model in Rocky captures this physical phenomenon by scaling the cohe-
sion/adhesion with the force of contact.

2.2.1. Constant adhesive force model

With proper calibration the constant adhesive force model can be used to simulate the behavior of
adhesive materials that do not exhibit stress consolidation effects, e.g., when adhesion is due to liquid
bridge forces.

Note:

In this version of Rocky, a liquid bridge model is provided via an external Module.
Refer to the Rocky Module Manual for details.

This is the simplest adhesion model in Rocky and is described by the equation:

(2.27)

where:

• is the normal adhesive contact force.

• is the contact normal overlap.

• and are the mass of the particles in contact.

• is the gravity acceleration.

• is a model parameter listed as in the Rocky UI Adhesive Distance. If the distance between
two particles or between a particle and a boundary surface is below , the adhesive force will
be activated. In Rocky, the value of this parameter can be defined in the materials interaction editor
panel.

• is a model parameter listed in the Rocky UI as Force Fraction. The value of the adhesive force
will be equal to the particle gravity force multiplied by the value of . If the force fraction is 1,
that means the adhesive force will be equal to the gravity force on the particle. In the case of
contact between two particles of different mass, the smallest mass is considered for gravity force
calculations.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 21
Physical models in Rocky

The constant adhesive force model works with all three types of normal force models in Rocky, includ-
ing the Hysteretic linear spring model (p. 13) model, the Linear spring-dashpot model (p. 15) model
and the Hertzian spring-dashpot model (p. 17) model.

2.2.2. Linear adhesive force model

Like the constant adhesive force model, the linear adhesive force model requires calibration of the
material behavior. This model is appropriate for granular materials with stress consolidation.

The linear adhesive force model as implemented in Rocky can be described by the following expression:

(2.28)

where:

• is the normal adhesive contact force at the current time.

• is the contact normal overlap at the current time. It is assumed to be positive when the colliding
entities touch each other, and negative when they are separate but close. In this latter case, its
absolute value will give the separation distance between those entities (two particles or a particle
and a boundary surface).

• is a model parameter listed as in the Rocky UI Adhesive Distance. The adhesive force between
two neighboring entities will be greater than zero if and only if the separation distance between
them is less than the value of .

• is a model parameter listed as in the Rocky UI Stiffness Fraction. This parameter is defined
as the ratio of the adhesive stiffness to the contact loading stiffness.

• is the loading contact normal stiffness defined in Equation 2.3 (p. 15).

The linear adhesive model, in essence, behaves like an attractive linear spring. When two neighboring
entities are separate but close, the adhesive force is zero if the actual distance between them is larger
than the adhesive distance. When that threshold is passed and the entities get closer, the adhesive
force increases proportionally to the difference between the adhesive distance and the actual separ-
ation distance. If physical contact is reached, the adhesive force increases further, this time propor-
tionally to the sum of the adhesive distance and the overlap. The coefficient of proportionality is
defined in both cases as the adhesive stiffness, given by .

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
22 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Adhesive force models

Figure 2.3: Examples of force-overlap plots for different adhesive stiffness fractions.

Figure 2.3: Examples of force-overlap plots for different adhesive stiffness fractions. (p. 23) shows
some examples of the force-overlap response of a particle collision with a wall, for both dry and ad-
hesive impacts. The hysteretic linear spring model is used as normal contact force in all cases, and
the stiffness fraction varies from 0 to 0.5, for the linear adhesion model. It is evident that the larger
the contact overlap, the larger the attractive force, therefore allowing an accurate model to represent
the stress consolidation of granular materials.

The linear adhesive model works with all three types of normal force models in Rocky, including the
Hysteretic linear spring model (p. 13) model, the Linear spring-dashpot model (p. 15) model and the
Hertzian spring-dashpot model (p. 17) model.

2.2.3. JKR adhesive force model

The Johnson-Kendall-Roberts[13] (p. 109), JKR, model introduces the effect of adhesion into the Hert-
zian contact model. In the JKR model, the contact area between two particles is slightly larger than
the one predicted by the Hertzian theory. This is the result of a surface energy term that is added to
the total energy of the system.

The adhesive part of the normal force when the JKR model is employed is given by:
(2.29)
where:

• is a model parameter listed as Surface Energy in the Rocky UI. The value of this parameter can
be introduced in a materials interaction editor panel.

• is the effective Young's modulus, defined in Equation 2.14 (p. 18).

• is the radius of contact between particles or between a particle and a boundary.

The contact radius is related to the normal overlap by means of the expression:
(2.30)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 23
Physical models in Rocky

where is the effective particle radius, defined in Equation 2.15 (p. 18).

For a given normal overlap , is solved in Rocky to determine the corresponding value of , in order
to calculate the adhesive force using Equation 2.29 (p. 23).

When the JKR model is enabled, the elastic part of the Hertzian normal force must be corrected, be-
cause the contact radius in the JKR model is different from the radius predicted by the Hertzian
model. The corrected elastic force, expressed as a function of the radius of contact , is given by:
(2.31)

The JKR model has a strong theoretical basis and is widely accepted for adhesive elastic spheres.
Since the surface energy can be measured experimentally, this model could be used without calibration,
in principle, for simulating perfect spheres. In any other case, calibration still will be needed. In Rocky,
the JKR adhesive force model only works with the Hertzian spring-dashpot model (p. 17) model.

2.3. Rolling resistance models

Rolling resistance is the common name used when a moment that opposes the rolling motion of a
particle is introduced into the modeling. This moment is usually incorporated as a practical way to
represent the effect of non-sphericity on rolling spheres or the effect of surface irregularities on other
type of particles. Two rolling resistance models are available in Rocky, which are described in the following
sections.

2.3.1. Type A: constant moment

In this model, a constant moment is applied to the particle in order to represent rolling resistance.
The mathematical expression for this moment is:
(2.32)
where:

• is the rolling resistance coefficient, defined in Rocky as a particle property listed simply as Rolling
Resistance. Ai et al. [15] (p. 109) define this dimensionless parameter as the tangent of the maximum
angle of a slope on which the rolling resistance moment counterbalances the moment produced
by gravity in the particle.

• is the contact normal force.

• is the particle angular velocity vector. The direction of the rolling resistance moment vector will
coincide with the direction of this angular velocity.

• is the particle rolling radius, where is the vector joining the centroid of the particle and the
contact point.

The rolling resistance model type A only should be used in situations when a high angle of repose
is needed without using adhesive force models.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
24 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Rolling resistance models

2.3.2. Type C: linear spring rolling limit

This is an elastic-plastic model that is the recommended one for most simulations that need to include
the effects of rolling resistance. Models of this type usually include a viscous damping term in order
to suppress oscillations. However, as Wensrich & Katterfeld [16] (p. 109) argue, the proper choice of
the rolling stiffness value provides a good behavior of the rolling resistance without the need of ad-
ditional damping. This is the approach followed in Rocky, where the rolling stiffness is defined as:
(2.33)
where is the tangential stiffness, defined in Equation 2.19 (p. 19), whereas is the rolling radius,
given by:

(2.34)

in which and are the rolling radii of the contacting particles, while is the rolling radius of a
particle in contact with the boundary. The rolling radius vector is defined as the vector joining the
centroid of the particle and the contact point at a given time.

If the rolling resistance were purely elastic, the rolling resistance moment would be updated incre-
mentally in the following way:
(2.35)
where:

• is the rolling resistance moment vector at the previous time.

• is the rolling stiffness defined in Equation 2.33 (p. 25).

• is the relative angular velocity vector, which is defined as the difference between the angular
velocities of two contacting particles or the angular velocity of a particle on a boundary, as the
case may be.

• is the simulation timestep.

The updated rolling resistance moment defined in Equation 2.35 (p. 25) is not used directly in the
motion equation for the particles. In the rolling resistance model type C, the magnitude of the rolling
resistance moment is limited by the value which is achieved at a full mobilization rolling angle. The
limiting value is:
(2.36)
where:

• is the rolling resistance coefficient, defined in Rocky as a particle property listed simply as Rolling
Resistance. As stated previously, this dimensionless parameter is defined as the tangent of the
maximum angle of a slope on which the rolling resistance moment counterbalances the moment
produced by gravity in the particle.

• is the rolling radius defined in Equation 2.34 (p. 25)

• is the contact normal force.

The final expression for the rolling resistance moment in model type C is:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 25
Physical models in Rocky

(2.37)

2.4. Breakage models

Rocky includes models for predicting the instantaneous breakage of particles based upon the stressing
energy involved in collisions with walls or other particles. These models work only with polyhedral
convex particles. Therefore, spherical, rounded and concave shapes, as well as rigid fibers and shells,
are not able to break in Rocky when using these models. An important common characteristic of all
these breakage models is that when a particle breaks, the resulting fragments preserve both mass and
volume.As the instantaneous breakage is based on the impact energy, which is the energy accumulated
during loading in a collision, the period in which the overlap increases, there is no possibility of having
viscous dissipation on the contacts when particle mass is decreasing (fragment is formed). If the dissip-
ation is based on outdated (non-broken) mass, it will create an instability. If it is based on fragment
mass, it will generate fictitious energy in the system. The only feasible normal force modelwith non-
viscous dissipation is Hysteretic Linear Spring.

2.4.1. Impact Energy model

Users can override the default calculation of the impact energy with a custom module. For more details,
please refer to the Rocky API Solver Manual.

The impact energy is used in Rocky as the main input parameter for the built-in instantaneous
breakage models; therefore, users will need to implement a custom impact energy calculation only
if they intend to use a custom contact force model along with such breakage models.

Even in that case, users may choose not to implement the calculation of the impact energy. Rocky
will use in such situation a standard calculation based on the impact work, as defined in Equa-
tion 4.10 (p. 75).

2.4.2. Ab-T10 breakage model

The Ab-T10 breakage probability is based on the model posed by Vogel & Peukert [1] (p. 109) and the
subsequent modification proposed by Shi & Kojovic [2] (p. 109). This breakage model treats every
particle as a single entity that can be broken into fragments instantaneously based upon the impact
energy it receives.

In Rocky, the specific impact energy, , is computed by summing the work done by the contact
forces at all contact points in a particle during the loading period. In order to damage the particle,
should be greater than the minimum breakage energy of the particle, . This minimum
breakage energy is related to the particle size through the expression:
(2.38)
where:

• is the reference minimum specific energy value for a reference particle size of this material.
This parameter is referred to as Reference Minimum Specific Energy in the Rocky UI.

• is the reference particle size, referred to as Referece Size in the Rocky UI.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
26 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Breakage models

• is the actual particle size.

In order to take into account the damage caused by successive collisions, the verification of breakage
is made by considering a cumulative value of the specific impact energy, . If is the instantan-
eous value of the specific impact energy at a given time during a loading phase, the value of
will be updated only if and , where is the maximum value of impact energy
registered on the particle until the last time in which the value of was updated. During reloading
periods in collisions with complex loading cycles, the second condition ensures that impact energy
values below are not taken into account more than once as cause of damage. When those
conditions are satisfied, the update is made according to the expression:
(2.39)
where is the specific impact energy at the previous timestep. Whenever the particle is unloaded
and the value of decreases below , the value of is reset to zero, so a new cycle of
loading may begin, in which the value of will be able to increase again.

In the Ab-T10 model, the breakage probability for a given cumulative specific contact energy value
is calculated as:
(2.40)
where:

• is a material constant referred to as Selection Function Coefficient in the Rocky UI.

A particle will break if at any moment the value of computed with Equation 2.40 (p. 27) is
larger than the strength of the particle. When that condition is met and the particle breaks, the frag-
ments are generated following the Voronoi fracture algorithm according to a size distribution that
the user specifies. Two options are currently available: Gaudin-Schumann (p. 31) and Incomplete beta
function (p. 31). For either option, the value of the necessary parameter is calculated according
to the expression:
(2.41)
where:

• is the percentage of fragments passing a screen size of 1/10th of the original particle size .

• is the maximum for a material subject to breakage, referred to as Maximum t10 Value in
the Rocky UI.

New fragments generated by breakage can break further if they are subjected to additional damage,
generating even smaller fragments. In order to prevent existing contacts at the moment of the
breakage to have an abnormal influence on the subsequent breakage of newly generated fragments,
the update of using is skipped during a certain number of timesteps after a breakage event.
Currently, that number of timesteps is set to 25 in Rocky.

For more information about the Ab-T10 breakage model, please refer to the papers of Potapov &
Donahue [3] (p. 109) and Shi & Kojovic [2] (p. 109).

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 27
Physical models in Rocky

2.4.3. Tavares breakage model

This model is based on the PhD work of Prof. L. M. Tavares [7] (p. 109) at the University of Utah and
the further development with his research group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Tavares model extends the functionality of simpler breakage models by adding capabilities that
can make breakage prediction quite realistic in a wide variety of situations. In particular, the model
is useful in describing ore degradation during handling as well as size reduction in different types of
crushers, providing greater confidence in predicting both the proportion of broken particles and
product size distribution.

In the Tavares breakage model, the breakage probability is based on an upper-truncated log-normal
distribution of the specific fracture energy, . This distribution is defined by the expression:

(2.42)

where:

• is the relative specific fracture energy, defined below in Equation 2.43 (p. 28).

• is the median particle specific fracture energy.

• is the variance of the log-normal distribution of fracture energies. This is a model parameter
that must be specified by the user, in the Rocky UI it is listed as .

The relative specific fracture energy is defined as:

(2.43)
where corresponds to the specific impact energy above which all particles would break in a
single impact. In the Rocky UI, the value of is specified indirectly through the ratio ,
listed as .

The particle specific fracture energy is highly dependent on the particle size, . This dependency is
introduced in the model by means of the following correlation between the median specific fracture
energy, , and the particle size [6] (p. 109):

(2.44)

where , , and are model parameters that should be fitted to experimental data. These para-
meters are listed in the Rocky UI as , , and , respectively.

Whenever a particle enters the solution domain in Rocky, a random strength is assigned to it. This
property can be interpreted as the value of at which it will break during a simulation. Then, con-
sidering Equation 2.42 (p. 28)--Equation 2.44 (p. 28), it can be determined the corresponding value
of , the specific fracture energy of the particle. Here, this specific fracture energy will be denoted as
, because this value is considered to determine if the particle will break during the first collision
event. The exact criterion considered for the particle breakage will be described below.

Every time a particle undergoes a collision event, the fracture specific energy will decrease due to
the accumulated damage to the particle during the loading process. Therefore, after every new
loading cycle without breakage, a new particle specific fracture energy is computed based on the
previous one and on an estimation of the accumulated damage during the loading. The mathematical
expressions considered for this are [7] (p. 109):

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
28 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Breakage models

(2.45)

(2.46)

where:

• is the particle specific fracture energy after loading cycles without breakage. Therefore,
may be interpreted as the value of computed at the end of the previous loading cycle.

• is the fractional damage in the particle during the th loading cycle.

• is the damage accumulation coefficient, a model parameter listed as in the Rocky UI.

• is the instantaneous specific impact energy in the particle at the end of the th loading cycle.

Let's define as the instantaneous specific impact energy at a given time . In Rocky, that instant-
aneous impact energy is computed by taking into account the work done by all contact forces acting
on the particle at that time. This includes the work done by elastic and dissipative normal forces, as
well as the work done by elastic tangential forces.

Now, let's consider that a particle is in its th loading cycle. Whenever the value of is greater
than , that is, the specific fracture energy at the end of the previous loading cycle, the particle
will break. If the unloading of the particle begins before that breakage condition is satisfied, a new
value of specific fracture energy may be computed with Equation 2.45 (p. 29) and Equation 2.46 (p. 29).
This new threshold value for breakage in a subsequent loading cycle is calculated whenever
decreases in the unloading below , which is the minimum specific energy for breakage. This is a
user input parameter, listed in the Rocky UI as e min.

When a particle breaks, the geometries of the resulting fragments are generated by means of the
Voronoi fracture algorithm, according to a size distribution specified by the user between the two
options available: Gaudin-Schumann (p. 31) and incomplete beta function (p. 31). The value of the
parameter, needed in either of those distributions, is calculated according to the expression:
(2.47)
where:

• is the percentage of fragments passing a screen size of 1/10th of the original particle size .

• and are model parameters listed as A and b', respectively, in the Rocky UI.

• is the value of the specific impact energy at the instant of breakage.

• is a measure of the specific fracture energy of the broken particles.

Regarding the specific fracture energy in Equation 2.47 (p. 29), two alternatives are currently
available in Rocky. The first one is to use the value of the current specific impact energy at the instant
of breakage, . As this term will cancel out with the numerator in Equation 2.47 (p. 29), with this
option the value of will become independent of the specific impact energy of the broken particle.
In the Rocky UI, this option is provided via the Energy for t10 Calculation parameter, and is listed
as Current Particle Energy(the default option).

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 29
Physical models in Rocky

The second option available is to use the value of the median specific fracture energy of the broken
particles , defined as [7] (p. 109):
(2.48)
This option is listed as Median Specific Fracture Energy (e50b) in the Rocky UI.

As was the case with the Ab-T10 model, some preventive measures are also taken in order to avoid
excessive re-breakage of fragments resulting from previous breakage events. First, in order to rule
out any influence of existing contacts on the breakage of new fragments, calculations of damage are
skipped during 25 timesteps after the breakage event that produced them. Second, in order to reduce
the available energy for damaging newly formed fragments, a parameter listed as Fragments Energy
Factor was introduced into the modeling. The value defined for this parameter will multiply the value
of the instantaneous specific contact energy when considering the breakage criterion for fragments.

For more information about the Tavares breakage model, please refer to the papers previously cited
and also to Tavares & King [8] (p. 109), and Carvalho & Tavares [5] (p. 109).

2.4.4. Breakage for large deformations

Besides the mechanisms of breakage based on fracture energy described in previous sections, particles
may also break in Rocky when its deformation exceeds a certain preset value. This additional mech-
anism is introduced in order to prevent some artifacts related to low-stiffness particles that can exper-
ience large overlaps during a simulation.

This additional breakage mechanism is activated by default in Rocky, but users may disable it if ne-
cessary through the option Set Breakage Overlap Factor, which is found in the Advanced sub-tab
of the Solver panel. When this option is enabled, users will be able to set a value to the Breakage
Overlap Factor. From that point onward, the value of the ratio of the overlap to the minimum fragment
size will be monitored for every contact in the simulation. Whenever that ratio exceeds the value of
the Breakage Overlap Factor, the Rocky solver will perform one of two possible actions. If the related
particle or fragment is large enough so that its breakage is possible, it will be broken at once. On the
other hand, if breakage is not possible because the size of the particle or fragment is too close to the
minimum fragment size, it will be removed from the simulation. The minimum fragment size is a user
input listed as Minimum Absolute Size on the Breakage | Fragment Distribution sub-tab of the particle
group being specified.

Note:

The particle or fragment will be removed if its volume is smaller than 3 times the volume
of the smallest fragment allowed in a simulation.

When a particle breaks because of a large overlap, the resulting fragment size distribution is determined
according to the same model chosen for the primary breakage model. If necessary, the value of the
parameter is computed with the respective value of impact energy at the moment of breakage.

2.4.5. Fragment size distribution models

Regardless of the type of instantaneous fragmentation model that is selected, once the particle reaches
the breakage point, Rocky generates fragments preserving both the total particle mass and volume,
using one of the available distribution models.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
30 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Breakage models

In general, the number and size of fragments will be dependent upon the particle?s original size, on
the value of the parameter, and the value of the minimum admissible fragment size.

This last parameter is controlled by two user inputs, listed in the Rocky UI as Minimum Absolute
Size and Minimum Absolute Size Ratio , respectively. The first one allows users to specify the minimum
absolute size in absolute terms, whereas the second does it in relative terms. The minimum absolute
size allowed for fragments in Rocky will be the largest value between the Minimum Absolute Size
value and the product of theMinimum Absolute Size Ratio and the size of the particle or fragment
being broken in the breakage event. When generating the fragments at a breakage event, no fragment
is allowed to have a size smaller than the resulting value from that operation.

Allowing the generation of too small fragments would be inadvisable mainly because the computation
time may increase beyond reasonable limits. The reason for this is twofold: the total number of objects
that must be tracked in the simulation may grow exponentially, whereas the timestep may need to
be reduced significantly in order to keep the simulation process stable.[1] A side effect of limiting the
minimum absolute size of fragments is that the actual size distribution satisfies the prescribed size
distribution[2] only for fragments larger than approximately 2.5 times the specified minimum absolute
size.

In the same line of preventing the generation of too small fragments, an additional safeguard para-
meter is defined as the Minimum Volume Fraction for Fragment Disabling. When a generated
fragment is detected to have an actual volume smaller than the value of that parameter multiplied
by the minimum volume allowed for a fragment, such fragment is removed from the system.

2.4.5.1. Gaudin-Schumann
The full fragment size distribution is determined from the value of by assuming a Gaudin-
Schumann distribution with unitary slope:
(2.49)
where:

• is the cumulative percentage of the mass of passing fragments.

• is the screening sieve size.

• is the size of the broken particle.

2.4.5.2. Incomplete beta function

The full fragment size distribution is determined from the value of by assuming an incomplete
beta function distribution:

(2.50)

where:

[1] Roughly speaking, the stable timestep is proportional to the size of the smaller particle in
a simulation.
[2] Given by for the Gaudin Schumann distribution and by for the incomplete beta distribution.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 31
Physical models in Rocky

• is the percentage of fragments passing a screen size of th of the original size .

• and are model parameters fitted to experimental data. In Rocky, the user can introduce
values for these parameters, corresponding to different values of , in a table provided in the
corresponding data editor panel.

Figure 2.4: Examples of fragment size distributions for different values of .

Figure 2.4: Examples of fragment size distributions for different values of . (p. 32) shows examples
of fragments size distributions obtained with parameters fitted to experimental data for limestone
[5] (p. 109). Marker points in the plot correspond to values computed with Equation 2.50 (p. 31),
using the values of and reproduced in the same figure. In Rocky, intermediate values of the
fragment size distribution are determined by means of linear interpolation of the values computed
with Equation 2.50 (p. 31).

2.5. Wear model

Rocky can be used also as a tool for the prediction of abrasive wear of solid surfaces due to the action
of impacting particles. The wear model implemented in Rocky is based on Archard's wear law [27] (p. 110).
This phenomenological law relates the volume loss of material to the work done by the frictional forces
on the surface of the material. Archard?s law is usually expressed as [28] (p. 110):
(2.51)
where:

• is the total volume of material worn from the surface.

• is the work done by the tangential forces over the surface.

• H is the hardness of the material subjected to wear.

• k is a dimensionless empirical constant.

For the purpose of implementation in Rocky, Archard's law is considered in the incremental form:
(2.52)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
32 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Wear model

where:

• is the volume of material worn during a simulation timestep.

• is the tangential or shear work done by the contact forces over the boundaries during a timestep,
at particle-to-boundary contacts.

• is a constant provided by the user. In Rocky, every imported boundary in a problem can be
defined with a different value of the constant , listed in the UI as Volume/Shear Work Ratio.

Figure 2.5: Schematic depiction of the wear of a surface. (p. 33) illustrates schematically the application
of Equation 2.52 (p. 32) in Rocky. Since all boundaries in Rocky are defined as triangulated surfaces, the
effect of removing the volume is achieved by displacing their vertices inwards. The distance that
every vertex is displaced is calculated in order to make the volume variation equal to the value of
calculated with Equation 2.52 (p. 32). It is worth noting that during this process the topology of the
boundary triangulation is maintained unchanged. Because of this, in order to capture adequately geo-
metry changes, it is desirable that regions expected to suffer wear present triangulations sufficiently
refined.

Figure 2.5: Schematic depiction of the wear of a surface.

The tangential work done by the particles colliding with a boundary is computed triangle by triangle.
Vertices adjacent to triangles that receive more shear work will displace more and, consequently, these
regions will show more wear in a simulation. The tangential work per triangle is calculated by adding
the tangential work contributions of all collisions occurring in a triangle during a simulation timestep.
Conventionally, the work that produces wear over a boundary at a single particle-to-boundary contact
is considered to be one half of the total work done by the respective tangential contact force. That is:
(2.53)
where:

• is the tangential component of the contact force, calculated by one of the Rocky's tangential force
models.

• is the sliding distance computed during a simulation timestep, . The sliding distance is the re-
lative displacement parallel to the tangential plane, at a particle-to-boundary contact.

In general, the actual period of life of wear in industrial processes is much longer than what is usually
reasonable to simulate using DEM. This problem can be circumvented by shortening the simulation
time while increasing the wear rate C several orders of magnitude. A suitable value of C can be determ-
ined by following two heuristic rules [28] (p. 110):

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 33
Physical models in Rocky

1. C must satisfy the constraint of proportionality of Equation 2.52 (p. 32). In other words, increasing
C by a factor and reducing the simulation time by the same factor must preserve the wear charac-
teristics.

2. The entire simulation time must be sufficiently long, so the statistical variance associated with discrete
events is small in the DEM output data.

Both rules are violated when extremely large values of C are used, producing fast changes in geometry
that strongly disturb the motion of particles.

2.6. Thermal model

If the thermal model is enabled in Rocky, an additional equation for thermal energy balance is solved
along with the equations governing the motion of particles. In the current implementation of Rocky,
the temperature is assumed to be uniform in standard single-element particles (non-flexible). This means
that no radial nor circumferential temperature variation is admitted inside any of these particles, which
is reasonable if they are small and/or made of highly conductive materials. On the other hand, for multi-
element flexible particles, which are formed by connected elements as described in chapter Flexible
particles in Rocky (p. 49), the temperature may have variation between elements. However, the temper-
ature of each element making up a flexible particle is considered to be uniform also.

In Rocky, the temperature variation of a particle or element over time is determined by solving the
differential equation:
(2.54)
in which, and are, respectively, the mass and the specific heat of the particle or element , while
is the overall heat transfer rate between it and its surroundings. For instance, in all DEM problems,
accounts for the conduction heat transfer rate that occurs during the contact with other particles or
boundaries. Additionally, if the problem being solved includes fluid flow, the heat transfer rate between
the particle and the fluid phase, , is included in as well. Moreover, if is an element of a flexible
particle, the heat transfer rate across the inter-element joints must be considered also. Then, for the
most general case we can write:

(2.55)

where is the instantaneous heat transfer rate from another particle or a wall through a contact c,
whereas is the instantaneous heat transfer rate from the other element of the same particle con-
nected to through a joint j. In this equation, is the number of contacts that has with other
particles or walls at a given time, while is the number of joints at which connects itself with other
elements.

Another option available when the thermal model is enabled in Rocky is the Thermal Integration Model,
which ignores any conduction inside the particle and assumes only that all particles have a single
temperature. The default option in Rocky updates the particle temperature values through numerical
integration of Equation 2.54 (p. 34)for every single particle on the simulation. The final expression used
in Rocky is the following:

(2.56)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
34 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Thermal model

2.6.1. Contact heat transfer rate

In Rocky, we consider that the heat conduction between a particle in contact with another particle
or a wall occurs exclusively through the contact area between them. Considering that the temperature
of a given particle is and the temperature of the contacting particle or wall is , the heat transfer
rate is modeled through the linear expression:

(2.57)
where is the contact conductance. Batchelor & O'Brien [32] (p. 110) proposed the following expression
for the thermal contact conductance between two particles of uniform temperature, based on the
analytical solution of an analogous irrotational flow problem:
(2.58)
where is the equivalent thermal conductivity of the contact and a is the radius of the contact
surface, which is depicted schematically in Figure 2.6: Heat transfer between two colliding
particles. (p. 35). In order to determine the value of the contact radius, Batchelor & O'Brien considered
the Hertz theory, according to which we have:
(2.59)
where:

• is the instantaneous normal contact force between the two particles or the particle and the wall.

• is the equivalent radius, defined in Equation 2.15 (p. 18).

• is the effective Young's modulus, defined in Equation 2.14 (p. 18).

Figure 2.6: Heat transfer between two colliding particles.

Equation 2.58 (p. 35) and Equation 2.59 (p. 35) are used in Rocky at particle-boundary contacts as
well, considering the appropriate definitions for the involved parameters. Regarding the equivalent
thermal conductivity used in Equation 2.58 (p. 35), as the thermal conductivities of the particle and
its neighbor can be different in a general case, in Rocky it is defined as the harmonic mean:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 35
Physical models in Rocky

(2.60)
where and are the thermal conductivities of the two contacting entities.

2.6.2. Joint heat transfer rate

The heat transfer rate between two elements of a flexible particle connected by a virtual joint is
modeled in Rocky as:
(2.61)
where and are the temperatures of the two connected elements, while is the joint equivalent
conductance, given by:
(2.62)
where Hp and are the partial thermal conductances at each side of the joint, approximated re-
spectively as:
(2.63)

(2.64)

In these expressions, and are the distances from the centroid of the joint to the centroid of the
respective element, as shown in Figure 2.7: Heat transfer between two elements in a flexible
fiber. (p. 36) , in a flexible fiber example. Additionally, is the thermal conductivity of the joint,
defined as:
(2.65)
where is the thermal conductivity of the particle's material and is a user input parameter, listed
in the Rocky UI on the Composition sub-tab for the Particle set as Conductivity Ratio. This parameter
allows users to make fine adjustments to the joint's thermal conductivity without modifying the
particle's thermal conductivity, which is used in the calculation of the contact conductance as well.
Allowed values for the conductivity ratio are in the range from 0.01 to 100.

Figure 2.7: Heat transfer between two elements in a flexible fiber.

In Equation 2.63 (p. 36) and Equation 2.64 (p. 36), is the effective area of the joint. In most cases,
will be the area of the section that connects two elements. For straight fibers, it will be the area
of the circular section of the cylindrical part of the elements. For shells, it will be the area of a rectan-
gular face connecting two prismatic elements. For solid particles, it will be the area of the triangular
face connecting two tetrahedral elements.

The case of multi-branched custom fibers is the one that poses certain difficulties for defining .
The main difficulty is that several sphero-cylinder elements can meet at a given point, each one
having a different diameter, as depicted in the example of Figure 2.8: Example of a multi-branched

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
36 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Thermal model

custom fiber. In this case, the number of coincident elements =4. For the joint between the green
and blue elements, is the cross sectional area of the blue element (the one with the smallest
diameter). (p. 37). As an element may be connected to more than one element at one of its ends,
this reduces the effective area for transferring heat to any of the connected elements at that place.
Therefore, we define the following effective area for those cases:
(2.66)
where is the smallest cross sectional area between the two elements connected by the given
joint, while is the number of fiber elements that meet at the same point were that joint is located.

Figure 2.8: Example of a multi-branched custom fiber. In this case, the number of coincident
elements =4. For the joint between the green and blue elements, is the cross sectional
area of the blue element (the one with the smallest diameter).

2.6.3. Thermal conduction correction models

Decreasing stiffness in order to speed up a simulation has the undesired side effect of abnormally
increasing the predicted heat exchange. When the contact stiffness is decreased using the Numerical
Softening Factor , the contact area and the collision time are increased, both causing an artificial
rise of the heat transferred through a contact. In order to counteract those adverse effects, Rocky in-
cludes two correction strategies proposed initially by Morris et al..

The correction is valid for static systems. When enabled by the user in the Thermal tab of the Physics
panel, this correction model replaces the reduced Young's modulus of particles or boundaries by the
actual values specified by the user for the respective materials, when calculating the contact radius
using .

The correction is indicated for simulations with non-resting particles. This model extends by also ap-
plying a further correction factor to the area-corrected contact radius during collisions in order to
mitigate the adverse thermal effect caused by artificially longer contact times between softened
particles.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 37
Physical models in Rocky

This model was deduced by considering the theoretical exchanged heat rate during a collision between
two particles for the actual and softened cases, and provides the following correction factor for the
collision time:
(2.67)
where:

• is the collision time between the softened particles.

• is the collision time between the actual particles.

The correction factor also equals to the ratio of the actual and area-corrected thermal contact
conductances between the colliding particles. Therefore for a Hertzian collision model it can also be
interpreted as a multiplier to the instantaneous, area-corrected contact radius between softened
particles during the simulation.

Still considering a Hertzian collision model, can be simplified to:

(2.68)
where is the Numerical Softening Factor of the simulation. Thermal conduction correction
models (p. 38) is employed by Rocky when the Morris et al. Area+Time correction model is enabled
by the user.

2.7. Coarse-grain model

Coarse-grain modeling (CGM) is a method used to reduce the total number of particles in a simulation
by using larger particles to represent groups of the original (smaller) particles. Modifications on the
contact, adhesion and other models are necessary to compute the interactions on this scaled-up system
in a way that will allow the dynamics of this scaled-up system to be similar with the original system.

Important:

When CGM is enabled, the results might differ significantly from those without CGM. This is
due to an uncertainty that is incorporated within the numerical results, for the CGM is a
mathematical manipulation to artificially increase the size of the particles. This kind of
mathematical modeling needs to be used with care and evaluating if the results make
physical sense.

The scaled-up particle, usually referred to as a parcel, is defined by the original particle characteristics
(material, shape, size, etc.) and by a scale-factor. Because these characteristics can be unique per particle
group, each particle group can have its own scale factor. This multiplies the original particle size
to define the parcel size and, consequently, the number of original (smaller) particles the parcel repres-
ents. Due to the scale-factor to volume relationship, the parcel represents original particles.Fig-
ure 2.9: A collection of small (original) particles is replaced by a larger parcel (scaled-up particle). The
parcel mass is the sum of the original particle masses. In this example = 2. (p. 39) shows the
concept of the parcel.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
38 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Coarse-grain model

Figure 2.9: A collection of small (original) particles is replaced by a larger parcel (scaled-up
particle). The parcel mass is the sum of the original particle masses. In this example =
2.

In case a particle size distribution is used for the original particle size of the group, the same scale factor
will be used for all particles generated on that group. The final PSD will have the same shape of the
original particle size distribution, but each parcel in the DEM simulation will have the size scaled by
times the original particle size.

It is important to note that each parcel will represent a collection of smaller particles with the same
characteristics, including size. So, in cases where a PSD is defined, each parcel will represent collection
of original particles with a specific size, not a group of particles with the entire original size distribution.
It is important to note that given that reference of the particle-particle statistics is the particle inside
the parcel, the number of collisions of the parcel is equal to the number of collisions of each interior
particle. Therefore, the statistics calculations do not need to be changed. In order to preserve the stat-
istics of the original system, the ratio between the particle size and the characteristic length of the
problem must be much less than 1.

Besides reducing the number of particles used within the simulation, the CGM approach used in Rocky
also allows the usage of larger time steps for the calculations. The increase of the time step comes from
the scaling-up of the overlap between two particles in contact. This overlap is scaled up by the factor
. As the velocities of the parcels are similar to the velocities of the original particles, the contact
time is also increased by a factor of .

The CGM approach used by Rocky is based on the work of Bierwisch et al.. The original work defines a
procedure to identify modifications that need to be applied to the contact force and adhesion models
to be used on the scaled-up system. Using the modified versions of these models, when two parcels
collide, the kinetic energy variation due to the contact will be the same as contacts of the original
particles.

The kinetic energy variation of the system , is defined according to:

(2.69)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 39
Physical models in Rocky

where, and are the relative velocities of the particles before and after the contact, respectively,
and is the effective mass of the contact.

Considering a constant effective contact mass, in order to conserve the kinetic energy variation, the
velocity variation of the scaled-up system during the contact must be kept the same as in the original
system.Figure 2.10: Eight contacts of the original system are represented by a single contact on the
scaled-up system with = 2. (p. 41) illustrates this concept. On the left side of the image, the ori-
ginal system is shown. On this system, a number of contacts of the original particles are happening.
The velocities before and after the contact are shown. The two groups of particles are scaled-up, each
group of particles (blue and green) will be represented by a single parcel on the scaled-up system. On
the right side of the image, this scaled-up system is represented. The velocities of the scaled-up system
are supposed to be the average velocity of the particles of the original system, before and after the
contact.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
40 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Coarse-grain model

Figure 2.10: Eight contacts of the original system are represented by a single contact on the
scaled-up system with = 2.

As the mass of the parcels is equal to the sum of the mass of the original particles, if they have the
same average relative velocity of the original system, then the kinetic energy is conserved.

The procedure defined within the work of Bierwisch et al. uses dimensional analysis on the momentum-
impulse equation, which for the contact normal direction is given by:
(2.70)

The modifications necessary on each contact force and adhesion model for the scaled system are defined
by the dimensional analysis when substituting the normal force, by the desired contact normal force
model expressions and by equations of the chosen adhesive model. This process is repeated for

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 41
Physical models in Rocky

each contact force and adhesive model available. Typically the modifications needed are just the inclusion
of the scale-factor multiplying some of the physical properties used on the calculations. The same pro-
cedure can be used on the tangential contact force models.

2.7.1. Contact frictional forces

When performing the dimensional analysis to determine the contact frictional force model modifications
necessary for the scaled system, it was discovered that these contact force models implemented in
Rocky are self-similar, which means that they do not need to be modified to satisfy the Bierwisch et
al. model constraint. These models are:

• Normal contact force:

– Hysteretic Linear Spring

– Linear Spring Dashpot

– Hertzian Spring Dashpot

• Tangential contact force:

– Linear Spring Coulomb Limit

– Coulomb Limit

– Mindlin-Deresiewicz

2.7.2. Adhesive forces

The Constant adhesive force model needs to be adjusted according to the dimensional analysis. The
CGM version of this model calculates the adhesive force as:

(2.71)

The Linear adhesive force model does not require any modification. All other adhesive force models,
including JKR and Velocity Dependent, are not currently compatible with CGM.

For all adhesive force models that are compatible with CGM, the effective adhesive distance used,
, is the Adhesive Distance set in the Rocky UI multiplied by the CGM Scale Factor, .
Whenever we have two particles groups with two different CGM Scale-Factor, the Adhesive Distance
between these two particles is corrected by the harmonic mean of the two CGM Scale-Factor .

2.7.3. Contact heat transfer

For thermal enabled simulations, the model constraint is that the temperature variation experienced
by two parcels exchanging heat during contact should be the same as the temperature variation of
the one that would happen during a collision between two original particles the parcels represent.

Figure 2.11: Eight contacts of the original system with energy transfer are represented by a single
contact on the scaled-up system with = 2. (p. 44) shows this constraint. Again, on the left side

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
42 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Coarse-grain model

of the image the original system is shown. A number of contacts of original particles are happening
(just one contact is shown, the ellipsis indicates that there are a number of this same contact happen-
ing). One set of particles have a higher temperature (indicated by the red color) and the other set
have lower temperatures (indicated by the blue color). During the contact, the particles exchange
heat and after the contact they have closer temperatures (indicated by the lighter colors of each
group). On the scaled-up system, the parcels initially have their temperature defined as the averaged
temperature of the collection of original particles they represent. The thermal constraint for CGM is
that their temperatures at the end of the contact, should be the same as the post-contact averaged
temperature of the collection of the original particles.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 43
Physical models in Rocky

Figure 2.11: Eight contacts of the original system with energy transfer are represented by
a single contact on the scaled-up system with = 2.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
44 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Coarse-grain model

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 45
Physical models in Rocky

In order to identify the changes necessary on the contact heat transfer models, the same procedure
of dimensional analysis was applied to the particle thermal energy conservation equation, given by:
(2.72)

Here, is the specific heat of the particle material. The heat transfer rate is calculated applying the
contact heat conduction model.

The dimensional analysis shows that the thermal conduction model implemented in Rocky needs one
modification to make it similar and present the expected result. This modification is the correction
of the equivalent contact thermal conductivity Equation 2.60 (p. 36). The value of the thermal con-
ductivity of each particle has to be multiplied by the group CGM scale factor. Changing Equa-
tion 2.60 (p. 36) into Equation 2.73 (p. 46).

(2.73)

2.7.4. Radl et al. kinetic energy dissipation model

When particles are moving rapidly (not on a bed or settled over a conveyor belt) with fast contacts,
the usage of Coarse Grain Modeling can underestimate the total energy dissipation on the system
because of missed contacts on the scaled-up system.Figure 2.12: Two groups of particles scaled up
with CGM. Particles within the smaller circles represent four contacts that were missed due to the
scalingup process: three due to intra-particle collisions and one due to an inter-parcel collision.
= 2. (p. 47) illustrates these missed contacts.

The first type of missed contacts is the intra-parcel contact. The parcel velocity is the the average
velocity of the original particles it represents, but each individual particle could have a different velocity
on the original system. These different velocities lead to contacts between particles on the original
system. These contacts are shown in the original system, marked by smaller circles inside each group.

The second type of contact missed by the scaling up are some inter-parcel contacts. When two groups
of particles pass by each other closely, some particles on the periphery of each group may collide,
as highlighted by the smaller circle between the two groups on the original system. shows that in
this case, the contacts were missed on the scaled-up system.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
46 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Coarse-grain model

Figure 2.12: Two groups of particles scaled up with CGM. Particles within the smaller circles
represent four contacts that were missed due to the scalingup process: three due to
intra-particle collisions and one due to an inter-parcel collision. = 2.

To better represent the outcome of these missed collisions, the Radl et al. model introduces a correction
to the parcels' velocity at each time step. This velocity correction simulates the effect of the energy
dissipated by the missed collisions. The corrected velocity, is calculated using the expression:

(2.74)

In Equation 2.74 (p. 47) is the particle relaxation time, or damping time, and is the mass weighted
averaged velocity of the parcels in the vicinity.

The particle relaxation time is calculated using the expression:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 47
Physical models in Rocky

(2.75)

where is the volume fraction of particles within a given search radius, is the Sauter mean
particle size, and is the number of particles each parcel represents.

Also in Equation 2.75 (p. 48), is the shutoff function, designed to turn off the model when the
particles are on a settled bed of particles, or moving on a bed with slow contacts, given by Equa-
tion 2.76 (p. 48). is the radial distribution function, which provides the probability of the missed
contacts. This function is shown in Equation 2.77 (p. 48). Finally, is the damping function, which
represents the fraction of energy lost on a missed contact, given by Equation 2.78 (p. 48).

(2.76)

(2.77)

(2.78)

In Equation 2.76 (p. 48) and Equation 2.77 (p. 48), is the Close Packing Volume Fraction of the
particles, the maximum volume fraction the particles are allowed to reach, which is defined by the
user. In Equation 2.76 (p. 48), is the particle Volume Fraction Limit at which the model will
be shut off, by default the value is set to 95% and is the Exponent Limit which default value is set
to 8.

The calculation of the averaged quantities and local volume fraction are based on the properties of
near parcels. These near parcels are identified using a search algorithm similar to the one used to
identify particle neighbors for contact calculations, described in section Contact detection (p. 95).
This near parcel search uses a spherical region around each parcel, with the radius defined by the
radius of the sphere that circumscribes the largest parcel and a Search Distance Multiplier, which
is provided by the user. The parcels that are inside the sphere centered on a given parcel are considered
neighbors within the calculations. This list of near parcels is updated when the parcels travel a distance
larger than a limit value, this value is calculated using the same circumscribed sphere and an Update
Distance Multiplier, which is also provided by the user.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
48 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 3: Flexible particles in Rocky
Rocky offers three different shape categories that can be modeled as flexible particles: fiber, shell, and
solid. Flexible particles in Rocky are, in fact, composite particles formed by connecting simple shapes,
herein called elements. The elements are sphero-cylinders in fibers, rounded triangular prisms in shells,
and tetrahedra in solid particles. Two adjacent elements in a flexible particle are connected by means
of a deformable entity, the joint. When a joint is subject to linear and angular deformations, it reacts
exerting forces and moments over the connected elements, opposing to the deformations. Those forces
and moments hold the elements together forming a unitary particle, otherwise those elements would
be ordinary separate particles. In this approach only the joints can deform, as the individual elements
that make up a composite particle are rigid, as any other particle in Rocky.

Prior to v4.3, the only rheological model available in Rocky for flexible particles was the linear elastic
model, with the option of adding viscous dissipation. As of v4.3, additional models and options are
available, which are described later in this chapter.

3.1. Flexible particle types

3.1.1. Flexible fibers

Fiber is a category of particle shapes that are mainly one-dimensional. At any time, the main geometry
of a fiber can be described by a line or a group of lines in a three-dimensional space. As shown in
Figure 3.1: a) Schematic representation of a flexible straight fiber. (b) Forces and moments that a joint
exerts on the two contiguous fiber elements. (p. 49) (a), the central line of a straight fiber is subdivided
into a certain number of segments, that will give rise to the same number of sphero-cylindric elements.
The end points of a segment coincide with the center points that generate the hemispherical cap
surfaces at both ends of an element. Moreover, in the undeformed initial state of a fiber, the location
of the end points of two adjacent elements always coincide.

Figure 3.1: a) Schematic representation of a flexible straight fiber. (b) Forces and moments
that a joint exerts on the two contiguous fiber elements.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 49
Flexible particles in Rocky

When modeling the dynamics of a flexible fiber, forces and moments opposing deformations are
considered acting at the end points of the centerline segments of two adjacent sphero-cylinders.
These forces and moments are supposed to be the reaction to deformations of a joint entity that
connects those points. As depicted schematically in Figure 3.1: a) Schematic representation of a flexible
straight fiber. (b) Forces and moments that a joint exerts on the two contiguous fiber elements. (p. 49)
(b), the forces and moments acting on the two elements connected by a joint have the same mag-
nitude, but opposite directions. The magnitude of the joint forces and moments will be a function
of the linear and angular deformations, and sometimes of the velocity of deformation as well. They
normally will tend to bring the fiber back to its undeformed state.

Figure 3.2: Relative displacement vector and definition of the normal direction.

The linear deformation of a joint, caused by the relative translational movement of the connected
elements, is quantified by the relative displacement vector . As illustrated in Figure 3.2: Relative
displacement vector and definition of the normal direction. (p. 50), this vector joins the end points
of the two adjacent centerline segments, which are coincident in the undeformed state of the fiber.
In order to write the model equations for the tensile and shear forces, it is usually needed to decom-
pose the displacement, as well other magnitudes, into normal and tangential components. The normal
direction for such decomposition is defined by the unit vector , where and are unit
vectors parallel to the direction of the two elements connected by the joint, as depicted in Figure 3.2: Re-
lative displacement vector and definition of the normal direction. (p. 50).

Figure 3.3: Decomposition of the relative displacement vector.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
50 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Flexible particle types

Figure 3.3: Decomposition of the relative displacement vector. (p. 50) illustrates how a vectorial
magnitude, such as the relative displacement , is decomposed into normal and tangential com-
ponents, given the normal direction defined above. The normal component will be given by:
(3.1)
while the tangential component can be obtained as:
(3.2)

There are two type of angular deformations between elements in fibers. The first one is the torsional
deformation, which arises when two adjacent elements rotate a different angle about its own axis.
The second one is bending, in which one element rotates relative to the other in the same plane
defined by their centerlines. The angle depicted in is a bending angle.

Figure 3.4: Example of a multibranched custom fiber. Six coincident joints are located at point
A.

Besides the straight fiber shapes described previously, Rocky can deal also with fibers of complex
multibranched geometries, as the one depicted in Figure 3.4: Example of a multibranched custom
fiber. Six coincident joints are located at point A. (p. 51), which are referred to as custom fibers. In
order to define the geometry of a custom fiber, users must provide the appropriate data by means
of an auxiliary file. The minimum data required consists of the coordinates of the end points for each
segment on the fiber's centerline, besides the diameter of the corresponding sphero-cylinder element.
As shown in the referred figure, elements with different diameters are allowed in this type of fiber.
Despite this fact, the center point of the hemispherical cap surfaces will always coincide with the end
points of segments in the centerline geometry of the fiber.

Multibranched geometries arise when the end points of more than two centerline segments coincide
at the same location. An example of this is can be seen at point A in Figure 3.4: Example of a mult-

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 51
Flexible particles in Rocky

ibranched custom fiber. Six coincident joints are located at point A. (p. 51), where the end points of
four segments coincide. A joint will connect every possible combination of two segments meeting
at a same point in a custom fiber's centerline. Therefore, in the example shown in Figure 3.4: Example
of a multibranched custom fiber. Six coincident joints are located at point A. (p. 51), six joints will
coincide at point A. Each one of those joints will behave exactly as a joint in a straight fiber, exerting
forces and moments opposing to variations in the relative positions of the elements to which it links.

Depending on the number of total elements specified for the flexible custom fiber, each segment in
the provided centerline geometry can still be subdivided into smaller segments. Therefore, a flexible
custom fiber can be interpreted as the union of several flexible straight fibers.

3.1.2. Flexible shells

The geometry of shell particles is generated by assigning a uniform thickness to a user-provided two-
dimensional surface mesh. The modeling of flexible shells is an extension of the modeling of fibers
described in the previous section. As depicted in Figure 3.5: Portion of a flexible shell. (p. 52), every
element making up a flexible shell is a sphero-triangle, which is a thin triangular prism with rounded
borders. The thickness of each one of these elements is equal to the thickness specified for the shell
particle as a whole, whereas the radius of the rounded parts is equal to one half of that thickness.

Figure 3.5: Portion of a flexible shell.

As with flexible fibers, a joint entity is considered to be acting between any two connected shell
elements. When a shell is in its undeformed state, the corresponding edges of the base triangles of
any two connected elements will coincide, as depicted in Figure 3.7: Angular deformations in a shell
joint. The orange arrows indicate the rotation axes. (p. 54)(a). The joint's linear deformation is computed
considering the translational displacements of the midpoints of those corresponding edges, analogously
to the fiber case shown in Figure 3.2: Relative displacement vector and definition of the normal direc-
tion. (p. 50).

As a response to linear and angular deformations, a joint will react by exerting forces and moments
opposing to those deformations. Again the situation will be similar to the one described for flexible
fibers, as depicted in Figure 3.6: Forces and moments exerted by a joint between two shell ele-
ments. (p. 53). The main difference is that three scalar components of moment arise between shell
elements, because of the three angular deformations possible in the case of shell geometries. As

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
52 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Flexible particle types

shown also in the referred figure, the forces are supposed to be acting at the midpoint of the base
triangle's edge adjacent to the joint.

Figure 3.6: Forces and moments exerted by a joint between two shell elements.

Three angular deformations can be considered between two shell elements, as illustrated in Fig-
ure 3.7: Angular deformations in a shell joint. The orange arrows indicate the rotation axes. (p. 54),
around three mutually orthogonal axes. Two of them are bending deformations: , around an axis
parallel to the common edge, and , around an axis perpendicular to that edge but in a plane
containing it. The third one is a torsional deformation, , around an axis perpendicular to the other
two.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 53
Flexible particles in Rocky

Figure 3.7: Angular deformations in a shell joint. The orange arrows indicate the rotation
axes.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
54 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Flexible particle types

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 55
Flexible particles in Rocky

3.1.3. Flexible solid particles

Both built-in and custom polyhedral shapes can be turned into flexible solid particles in Rocky. In order
to be treated as a flexible particle, a polyhedral shape is subdivided into tetrahedral elements. Unlike
fiber and shell elements, elements making up solid particles do not include any rounded parts.
Therefore, the tetrahedral mesh that represents a solid particle in its undeformed state is equivalent
to conventional meshes used, for instance, in the finite element method (FEM).

When modeling a flexible solid particle, a joint entity is considered to be acting between any two
tetrahedral elements that have a coincident triangular face in the undeformed state of the particle.
Any of those joints behave in the same way described previously for fibers and shells. The linear de-
formation vector is computed considering the translational displacements of the centroids of the
connected triangular faces. There are, in general, three deformation angles. One torsional angle, whose
axis is orthogonal to the plane of the triangular faces, and two bending angles, similarly to what was
described for shell elements. Joints in flexible solid particles exert forces and moments over the
constituent elements in the same way as in shells. This is illustrated schematically in Figure 3.8: Forces
and moments exerted by a joint between two tetrahedral elements. (p. 56). The normal and tangential
components of the joint forces act at the centroid of the triangular connected faces. The joint moments
are decomposed also in a torsional component and two bending components, acting with opposite
orientations on each connected element.

Figure 3.8: Forces and moments exerted by a joint between two tetrahedral elements.

3.2. Joint models

3.2.1. Linear elastic model

The linear elastic model is the default model for joints in Rocky. In this model, each force and moment
is directly proportional to the corresponding linear or angular joint deformation:
(3.3)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
56 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint models

(3.4)
(3.5)
(3.6)
(3.7)
where:

• and are, respectively, the normal, the tangential, the torsional, and the two
bending stiffnesses associated to the joint, defined below.

• and are, respectively, the normal and tangential relative displacements between the center
points associated to the joint on the two connected elements.

• , and are the torsional angle and the first and second bending angles, respectively, as
defined in the previous sections. In the fiber case there is only one bending angle , so
Equation 3.7 (p. 57) is disregarded in that case.

The five stiffnesses present in the previous equations are calculated in Rocky using the following ex-
pressions:
(3.8)
(3.9)
(3.10)
(3.11)

(3.12)
where:

• and are the normal and tangential stiffnesses per area unit, respectively, defined below.

• , , and are, respectively, the area, the polar second moment of area, and the two planar
second moments of area of the cross section of the joint. In fibers, this cross section is a circle of
the same diameter of the connected elements. If those elements are of different diameters, only
the smaller diameter is used in the calculations. In shells, the cross section is a rectangle whose
dimensions are the length of the corresponding triangle's edge and the shell thickness, respectively.
In solid particles, the cross section is equal to the triangular face common to two tetrahedral elements
connected by the joint.

• , , and are the values of the user-defined elastic ratios for each type of joint deformation:
normal, tangential, torsion and bending, respectively. These values will be available for input in
the Rocky UI only if the checkbox is enabled for the corresponding particle group. Otherwise, all
four values will be equal to the value specified for , the only option available in that case. Allowed
values for these parameters are in the range for fibers, and for any other
particle.

For fibers and shells, the stiffnesses per area unit are computed using these expressions:
(3.13)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 57
Flexible particles in Rocky

(3.14)

where:

• is the Young's modulus attributed to the joint. In most cases, it will be considered equal to the
Young's modulus specified for the particle's material. The only exception is the case of custom
fibers, for which it can be calculated using described below.

• is a characteristic length for the joint. For fibers, it is defined as the average length of the sphero-
cylinder elements that make up a fiber. For shells, it is defined as times the average length
of the edges on the triangular mesh that defines the main geometry of the shell.

• is the Poisson's ratio specified for the particle's material.

The Young's modulus attributed to the joints can be made non-uniform defining an extra parameter
for each segment in a custom fiber's centerline. This parameter is a Young's modulus multiplier whose
value can be specified at an optional column in the file defining the fiber's geometry. For a joint
between two elements with multipliers and , respectively, the Young's modulus value will be
computed as:
(3.15)
where is the Young's modulus specified for the particle's material.

Solid flexible particles pose a special case in the determination of the elastic properties for joints. In
Rocky, these properties are determined using curves obtained numerically by Potapov & Campbell.
Those curves, reproduced in Figure 3.9: (a) Dimensionless Young's modulus and (b) Poisson's ratio as
a function of the stiffness ratio for composite bodies formed by Delaunay tetrahedra. Extracted from
Potapov & Campbell (1996). (p. 59), relate the dimensionless Young's modulus and the Poisson's
ratio with the joint stiffness ratio , respectively.

The joint stiffness ratio is defined as:

(3.16)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
58 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint models

Figure 3.9: (a) Dimensionless Young's modulus and (b) Poisson's ratio as a function of the
stiffness ratio for composite bodies formed by Delaunay tetrahedra. Extracted from Potapov &
Campbell (1996).

The dimensionless Young's modulus is defined here as:

(3.17)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 59
Flexible particles in Rocky

where is the characteristic length of the particle's tessellation, which in Rocky is considered equal
to the average length of the edges of all tetrahedral elements that make up the particle.

In order to determine values of and using the Potapov & Campbell curves, the following pro-
cedure is considered:

1. Considering , the value of the Poisson's ratio of the particle's material, the value of the stiffness
ratio is determined as the corresponding abscissa in curve (b) of Figure 3.9: (a) Dimensionless
Young's modulus and (b) Poisson's ratio as a function of the stiffness ratio for composite bodies
formed by Delaunay tetrahedra. Extracted from Potapov & Campbell (1996). (p. 59).

2. That value of is then used to determine the corresponding value of the dimensionless Young's
modulus from curve (a) in Figure 3.9: (a) Dimensionless Young's modulus and (b) Poisson's ratio
as a function of the stiffness ratio for composite bodies formed by Delaunay tetrahedra. Extracted
from Potapov & Campbell (1996). (p. 59).

3. The corresponding value of for the joint is determined using Equation 3.17 (p. 59).

4. Finally, the value of is determined using Equation 3.16 (p. 58)

3.2.2. Joint damping model

The viscous damping model for joints is not a model that can be used alone, but it complements
other joint models in order to add or increase energy dissipation. For instance, the linear elastic
model described in the previous section does not include any energy dissipation mechanism by itself.
Therefore, when used in isolation, it can produce simulations in which the elements of flexible particles
may oscillate endlessly, even after the action of all external forces ceases. In order to overcome that
situation, joint viscous forces and moments can be added through this model, that will dissipate energy
and will reduce internal oscillations in flexible particles.

The joint viscous forces and moments in Rocky are defined, respectively, as:
(3.18)
(3.19)
(3.20)
(3.21)
(3.22)

where:

• and are, respectively, the normal, the tangential, the torsional, and the two
bending damping coefficients associated to the joint, defined below.

• and are, respectively, the normal and tangential relative velocities between the center
points associated to the joint on the two connected elements. The absolute velocity at each center
point is the sum of the velocity of the element's center of mass and the tangential velocity due
the rotation of the element around that center of mass.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
60 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint models

• , and are the three scalar components of the relative angular velocity between the
connected elements. The axes associated to those components are the same axes considered in
the decomposition of the angular deformations.

The normal and tangential damping coefficients for the joint are determined, respectively, using the
expressions:
(3.23)

(3.24)
where:

• is a user input parameter listed as Damping Ratio | Joint in the Rocky UI. Allowed values are
in the [0, 1] interval. The higher the value of , the faster must be the decay of oscillations.

• is the effective mass of the joint, which is determined with Equation 2.10 (p. 16), considering
the masses of the two connected elements.

Finally, the damping coefficients for the angular movements are calculated using the expressions:
(3.25)
(3.26)

(3.27)
where , , and are, respectively, the area, the polar second moment of area, and the two planar
second moments of area of the cross section of the joint.

In order to enable the viscous damping model, it is only necessary to specify a value of the damping
ratio larger than zero. Although this model was introduced in Rocky as a complement to the linear
elastic model, it can be used with any other joint model, as a mechanism of additional energy dissip-
ation.

3.2.3. Bilinear elastoplastic model

Since Rocky v4.3, the bilinear elastoplastic model is included as a joint model option in Rocky, in order
to simulate the behavior of flexible particles that may suffer permanent deformations when submitted
to large external forces. This model may be especially useful for the simulation of industrial and agri-
cultural fibers, although it can be applied also in Rocky to flexible shells. Only angular deformations
are considered in the implementation of this model in Rocky, since usually they are more significant
than axial tensile or compression deformations on the dynamics of fibers, especially bending.

Considering any of the angular directions, the basic relationship between the joint moment and
the angular deformation according to the bilinear elastoplastic model can be written as:

(3.28)

where:

• is the joint stiffness in the purely elastic regime. Its value will be given by either Equa-
tion 3.10 (p. 57), Equation 3.11 (p. 57) or Equation 3.12 (p. 57), depending on the deformation
direction being considered.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 61
Flexible particles in Rocky

• is the joint stiffness in the elastoplastic regime, computed with below.

• is the threshold angle that marks the end of the purely elastic regime and the beginning of the
elastoplastic regime, during the loading phase. This is an input parameter of the model that is listed
in the Rocky UI as either or , depending on which deformation direction is being considered.

The value of the stiffness in the elastoplastic regime is related to the value on the purely elastic regime,
through the expression:
(3.29)
where is a model parameter listed in the Rocky UI as . Admissible values for this parameter are in
the [0, 1] interval. In the limit , the model will behave as a elastic-perfectly plastic model, while
in the other end, , there would not be change of regime at all and the model would reduce to
the linear elastic model. For any other intermediate value of the plastic ratio, the response of the
model will be as the green line in Figure 3.10: Typical loading-unloading-reloading cycle for the bilinear
elastoplastic model in Rocky. (p. 62) , with a sudden reduction of slope at .

Figure 3.10: Typical loading-unloading-reloading cycle for the bilinear elastoplastic model in
Rocky.

If at any point during the elastoplastic regime the angular deformation begins to diminish, the un-
loading trajectory will follow a different path from the loading. The unloading path will have initially

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
62 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint models

the same slope of the purely elastic regime, as illustrated by the purple line in Figure 3.10: Typical
loading-unloading-reloading cycle for the bilinear elastoplastic model in Rocky. (p. 62). If during the
unloading the angle is reduced a value larger than , the path will change the slope again to ,
the one defined for the elastoplastic regime. Any reloading initiated during this regime will follow a
path like the blue line in Figure 3.10: Typical loading-unloading-reloading cycle for the bilinear
elastoplastic model in Rocky. (p. 62) . Again, the path begins with a slope equal to , as in the
elastic regime, until it switches to when the angle variation is equal to . If at any point of a
line with slope the angle variation is reversed, the new path will preserve the slope, only the ori-
entation will be the opposite. The cycle described here follows the kinematic hardening rule.

3.2.3.1. Cycle with failure

An additional option available for the bilinear elastoplastic model is a sudden reduction on the
moment value, when the angular deformation reaches the threshold value , in addition to the
change on the stiffness value. This model feature may represent an instantaneous reduction in the
resistance capacity of the joint to angular deformations, due to material failure.

This option is activated when the checkbox With Failure is turned on in the Rocky UI. The effect
of this feature can be seen on the diagram of , where the value of the moment has a reduction of
the first time the angular deformation attains the value during loading. The magnitude of
the moment reduction is given by:
(3.30)
where is a model parameter listed in the Rocky UI as Failure Ratio, which accepts values in the
[0, 1] interval. A zero value for this parameter means no moment reduction at all, while will
imply a reduction to zero in the resistance capacity of the joint.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 63
Flexible particles in Rocky

Figure 3.11: Cycle of loading-unloading-reloading for the bilinear elastoplastic model with
failure.

Figure 3.11: Cycle of loading-unloading-reloading for the bilinear elastoplastic model with fail-
ure. (p. 64) shows an example of a cycle of deformation when the failure option is enabled for the
bilinear elastoplastic model. After the failure moment reduction, the behavior of the paths of un-
loading and reloading is similar to the ones described for the cycle without failure. The difference
is in the extension of the portion with slope on the unloading and reloading paths. As depicted
in , there will be a change to a slope when the variation on the moment will reach a value
equal to .

3.3. Element damping

A flexible particle in Rocky can be thought of as a complex system with multiple modes of vibration.
In general, the number of individual normal modes of vibration will be a multiple of the number of
elements that make up the flexible particle. Each one of those vibration modes has associated a specific
frequency, whose value will depend on various factors, such as the geometry and the material properties
of the particle. When the motion of a flexible particle is locally perturbed by a collision, the resulting
relative motion of the elements that form the particle can be considered as a superposition of the
normal modes of vibration.

The joint damping forces and moments described in section Joint damping model (p. 60) are effective
in reducing only the vibration modes of higher frequencies. Therefore, that approach will be successful
in completely removing internal oscillations only when the number of elements forming the flexible
particles is low. As the number of elements grows, it is common to observe that oscillations of low
frequencies remain almost unaffected by the application of the joint damping. This may be unsuitable

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
64 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Element damping

for some applications because usually those low-frequency oscillations are the most noticeable, as their
amplitudes are larger than the ones of high-frequency oscillations.

In order to improve the capability of suppressing oscillations efficiently in all the frequency spectrum,
Rocky 4.5 introduced a complementary damping option. This additional form of damping is named as
element damping because damping forces are applied directly on each one of the elements forming a
flexible particle. In this approach, an element damping force is defined by the expression:
(3.31)
where:

• is the translational velocity of the element e.

• is the translational velocity of the parent particle that contains the element e.

• is the element damping coefficient, which is defined later on in Equation 3.33 (p. 66).

Figure 3.12: Damping force proportional to the relative element velocity in relation to the parent
particle's velocity.

Figure 3.12: Damping force proportional to the relative element velocity in relation to the parent particle's
velocity. (p. 65) illustrates how this force is related to the velocities and . As a matter of fact, the
difference is actually the velocity of the element relative to a frame of reference moving with
the center of mass of the parent particle. If that particle is moving as a rigid body, with all elements
having the same velocity, no damping force will be applied to the elements, according to Equa-
tion 3.31 (p. 65). On the other hand, when the particle collides and the velocity of an element is per-
turbed, an element damping force will be applied opposing to the relative velocity at all times.
Its net effect will be to reduce that relative velocity, making the element velocity gradually approach
the velocity of the parent particle. As time passes, if no new perturbations arise, all elements of the
particle will tend to move with the same velocity, that is, the whole particle will tend to move as a rigid
body again, without internal deformations.

The velocity of the center of mass of the parent particle is defined as:

(3.32)

where and are the masses and velocities of the elements that make up the particle, respectively.

The element damping coefficient is calculated in Rocky using the expression:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 65
Flexible particles in Rocky

(3.33)
where:

• is the mass of the element .

• is the fundamental frequency of vibration of the whole particle, that is, the lowest frequency
among all the frequencies associated to the vibration modes of the particle. Rocky will estimate this
fundamental frequency based on the shape of the flexible particle and its physical properties.

• is the element damping ratio, which is a user input listed in the Rocky UI as Damping Ratio |
Element. It determines the intensity of the applied element damping, its allowed values are in the
interval [0,1].

When both the joint and element damping are applied in conjunction, any internal oscillations in flexible
particles will be removed some time after they were generated. The higher the values of the damping
ratios, the faster the oscillations will be reduced after a collision. However, each type of damping can
be applied also separately. As mentioned earlier, the joint damping will be effective in removing high-
frequency oscillations, while the element damping will be more effective in the low-frequency range.

3.4. Joint breakage models

Joint breakage models are used to determine if a joint between two elements in a flexible particle was
loaded beyond its resistance capacity and, therefore, is no longer able to keep those elements joined.
This type of discrete breakage differs from the instantaneous breakage models for non-flexible particles
in that the resulting fragments can be only individual elements or groups of elements that originally
made up a flexible particle. When a joint breakage model is active for a flexible particle group, every
single joint in a flexible particle is evaluated for breakage. If after verifying the breakage criterion at a
joint it is determined that it must fully break, the joint is deactivated and the previously joined elements
become separate entities. In that way, if all joints in a flexible particle end up breaking apart, the
number of resulting fragments will be the number of elements that originally formed that particle.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
66 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint breakage models

Figure 3.13: Vertices related to an undeformed joint between two elements of (a) a flexible fiber,
(b) a flexible shell and (c) a flexible solid.

For the purpose of analyzing joint breakage only, the concept of joint vertex is considered in Rocky.
These are the points where a joint breakage criterion is actually verified. The relative position of the
joint vertices for the three types of flexible particles in Rocky is illustrated in Figure 3.13: Vertices related
to an undeformed joint between two elements of (a) a flexible fiber, (b) a flexible shell and (c) a flexible
solid. (p. 67). The simplest case is that of fibers, in which there is only one vertex and it coincides with
the joint's center point. For the joints in flexible shells, on the other hand, the two joint vertices initially
coincide with vertices of the joined triangle elements. After the breakage of the joint starts, the position
of those vertices may change, as will be described later on. Finally, as shown in Figure 3.13: Vertices
related to an undeformed joint between two elements of (a) a flexible fiber, (b) a flexible shell and (c)
a flexible solid. (p. 67)(c), the joint between two tetrahedral elements in a solid particle has initially
three vertices, which coincide with vertices of those elements. However, if the joint breakage is partial,
those vertices can be displaced and even more vertices can be generated in the joint. This process of
partial breakage is described below.

As only one vertex is associated to a joint in a fiber, when the criterion for joint breakage has been met
at that point, the joint will break fully and instantaneously. On the other hand, joint breakage on shells
and solid particles can be partial; consequently, a finite lapse of time can exist between the beginning
of the joint breakage and the complete separation of the joined elements. The process of partial joint
breakage is illustrated in Figure 3.14: Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell (p. 68) for
a joint in a flexible shell. In this example it is assumed that the breakage criterion is based on a limit
value for the tensile stress at the joint, although the process would be similar with other criteria as well.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 67
Flexible particles in Rocky

Figure 3.14: Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell

In the general case, when both translational and rotational displacements of the joined elements are
considered in conjunction, it is expected a linear variation of the stress along the joint, as depicted in
Figure 3.14: Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell (p. 68)(a). If with a given deformation
state all values of tensile stress become larger than the limit stress for breakage at the same time, the
joint will fully break instantaneously. On the other hand, it is more likely to occur a situation as the one
depicted in Figure 3.14: Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell (p. 68)(b), with the ac-
tual stress being larger than the limit stress only in a portion of the joint. This characterizes a partial
joint breakage in Rocky.

As shown schematically in Figure 3.14: Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell (p. 68)(b),
when the breakage criterion is satisfied only in a portion of the joint, Rocky will consider that only that
portion breaks. For the subsequent time iterations, Rocky will recalculate the geometrical properties of
the joint based on the new joint length. Moreover, the joint vertex adjacent to the broken portion will
be relocated to the point where the actual stress is equal to the breakage stress limit. In following time
iterations, the joint breakage is analyzed only in the remaining portion of the joint, reducing it further
in portions where the breakage criterion is satisfied. This process continues until the joint length reduces
to zero, at which point the joint is considered fully broken and it is then deactivated.

An equivalent partial breakage process is considered in solid flexible particles as well. The difference in
relation to the previously described process for flexible shells is purely geometric. As shown in Fig-
ure 3.13: Vertices related to an undeformed joint between two elements of (a) a flexible fiber, (b) a
flexible shell and (c) a flexible solid. (p. 67)(c), the joints in these types of particles have associated initially
a triangular shape. When one of those joints is deformed, the distribution of stresses will be linear over
that shape, possibly with stress values that exceed the breakage limit in a portion of it. Rocky will consider
that this portion of the joint has broken and will remove it from the joint. Thus, the joint area will be
reduced and the associated triangular shape will possibly be transformed into a quadrilateral. Further
partial breakage events will reduce even more the joint area and transform its shape into an irregular
polygon. In this process, more vertices at which the breakage criterion is verified will be added to the
joint. As in the shell case, the geometrical properties of the joint will be recalculated at each partial

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
68 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint breakage models

breakage event. The described process will continue until the breakage criterion has been satisfied in
the whole extension of the joint. At that moment the joint will be fully broken and, consequently, it
will be disabled.

As shown in Figure 3.14: Example of partial breakage of a joint in a flexible shell (p. 68), the determination
of the stress variation along a joint in a flexible shell is made considering the instantaneous positions
of the triangles located in the midplanes of the sphero-triangle elements. As these entities do not have
thickness, the effect of the deformations associated to the bending around the first bending axis and
the torsion are not taken into account in that calculation. As the stresses associated to those deformations
are proportional to the shell thickness, which is usually much smaller than the size of the triangles, the
influence of them on the breakage process is normally minor. However, Rocky users have now the option
of including those deformations on the breakage calculations, if they consider it necessary. In order to
do that, the checkbox Include Rotational Deformations must be turned on. In such case, the following
stress is added to the tensile stress:
(3.34)
where:

• is the joint normal stiffness per area unit, defined in section Linear elastic model (p. 56).

• s maximum linear deformation caused by the bending angular deformation , see below.

• is the shell thickness.

Figure 3.15: Tensile deformation due to bending around the first bending axis, for a joint in a
flexible shell

Similarly, the following stress related to the torsion deformation is added to the shear stress, if the
breakage criterion is based on that stress component:
(3.35)
where:

• is the joint tangential stiffness per area unit, defined in section Linear elastic model (p. 56).

• is maximum linear deformation caused by the torsion angular deformation .

• is the shell thickness.

When the checkbox is enabled for flexible fibers, the same additional stresses described above are
considered. In that case, the expressions for calculating those stresses are the same of Equa-
tion 3.34 (p. 69) and Equation 3.35 (p. 69), replacing the shell thickness by the fiber diameter. On the
other hand, for solid flexible particles, the linear deformations caused for all three angular deformations

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 69
Flexible particles in Rocky

are always considered for the calculation of stresses, since in that case there is no internal simplification
on the geometrical representation of the tetrahedral elements.

The following sections describe the joint breakage criteria currently implemented in Rocky.

3.4.1. Tensile stress criterion

When this criterion is selected, only tensile stresses at the joint will be verified in order to determine
if a joint or a portion of a joint will break. The condition of breakage in this case can be expressed
as:
(3.36)
where:

• is the joint normal stiffness per area unit, defined in section Linear elastic model (p. 56).

• is the instantaneous displacement of a vertex of the joint, in the normal direction.

• is the tensile stress limit for joint fracture, which is a user input listed as Tensile Stress Limit
in the Rocky UI.

Tensile stress criterion model is available in Rocky to either Straight or Custom Fiber and Custom
Shell.

3.4.2. Shear stress criterion

In this criterion, only the shear stress generated at the joint is analyzed for determining if a joint or
a portion of a joint will break. The shear stress criterion is formulated as:
(3.37)
where:

• is the joint tangential stiffness per area unit, defined in section Linear elastic model (p. 56).

• is the instantaneous displacement of a vertex of the joint, in the tangential direction.

• is the shear stress limit for joint fracture, which is a user input listed as Shear Stress Limit in
the Rocky UI.

Shear stress criterion model is available in Rocky to either Straight or Custom Fiber and Custom Shell.

3.4.3. Tensile or shear stress criterion

This is a combination of the previous two criteria. At every vertex of a joint both conditions, given
by Equation 3.36 (p. 70) and Equation 3.37 (p. 70), are verified and if any of them is satisfied, the joint
breaks locally at the vertex. When this criterion is selected, both the Tensile Stress Limit and the
Shear Stress Limit must be specified.

Tensile or shear stress criterion model is available in Rocky to either Straight or Custom Fiber and
Custom Shell.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
70 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Joint breakage models

3.4.4. Von Mises stress criterion

This criterion is formulated in terms of the von Mises stress, which is a scalar value of stress computed
with the stress tensor components. Using the known forces at a joint vertex, this criterion can be
expressed as:
(3.38)
where:

• and are the joint normal and tangential stiffness per area unit, respectively, defined in
section Linear elastic model (p. 56).

• and are the instantaneous displacements of a vertex of the joint, in the normal and tangential
directions, respectively.

• is the von Mises stress limit for joint fracture, which is a user input listed as von Mises Stress
Limit in the Rocky UI.

Von Mises stress criterion model is available in Rocky to either Straight or Custom Fiber and Custom
Shell.

3.4.5. Griffith surface energy

This criterion is more suitable for modeling the breakage of flexible solid particles. It is based on a
balance between the potential energy stored in a joint when it is deformed and the energy released
when a fracture propagates. This latter energy is related to the surface energy, which is a input
parameter of the model. For further details, please refer to the papers of Potapov & Campbell.

Griffith surface energy model is available in Rocky to Straight or Custom Fiber, Custom Shell, Solid
Polyhedron, Solid Custom Convex Polyhedron and Solid Custom Concave Polyhedron.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 71
 Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
72 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 4: Statistics modules in Rocky
in Rocky collect relevant instantaneous data from the simulation during finite lapses of time, and then
associate derived statistical information from that data to different entities, in order to let users visualize
it in useful ways. Such statistical information, besides being usually more meaningful than simple in-
stantaneous data, may provide a deeper insight into the dynamics of the simulated particulate processes.

Currently, Rocky includes four modules of collision statistics, one module of CFD coupling statistics, and
two forms of energy spectra curves. All of them are described throughout this chapter.

4.1. Statistics types in Rocky

For the sake of presentation, the statistics provided by Rocky can be classified into two main groups:
event-based and integral-type statistics. The specifics of each one of these groups is described in the
following sections.

4.1.1. Event-based statistics

An individual value that characterizes an event in a simulation, typically a collision, can be taken as
a random variable that Rocky can record during a simulation. Based on these recorded values, Rocky
will calculate statistics that may allow users to characterize the probability distributions associated
to such random variables.

Let be a random variable that has a single observed value per event, . Considering that is the
number of events that occurred during a time collection interval, the statistics calculated by Rocky
based on the collected data are the following:

(4.1)

(4.2)

(4.3)

(4.4)

The values of these statistics can assist users in the characterization of the probability distribution
associated to the random variable . For instance, the mean is a measure of the central tendency of
the variable for the set of observed values. The standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of
the observed values in relation to the mean. Moreover, the value of the skewness indicates how much

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 73
Statistics modules in Rocky

and in which direction a distribution departs from symmetry. Finally, the value of the kurtosis indicates
how tall and sharp the central peak of a distribution is.

4.1.2. Integral-based statistics

These statistics are based on integral expressions including physical magnitudes that vary during
period of time. Two typical examples are the statistics based on the work and on the impulse, both
of which are related to applied forces over particles or boundary triangles.

4.1.2.1. Works
Three types of work are considered in collision statistics modules, which in Rocky are called dissip-
ation work, impact work, and shear work, respectively. The dissipation work is numerically equal to
the amount mechanical energy transformed irreversibly into other forms of energy during a collision.
On the other hand, the impact work is related to the energy considered in breakage models for
quantifying the damage on the particle's material that might lead to breakage. Finally, the shear
work is the one used to predict the abrasive wear of surface boundaries in Rocky.

The primary source of energy dissipation during a collision is related to the inelastic nature of the
contact force. The dissipation work done by this force during a collision is calculated as:

(4.5)

where is the total contact force and is the instantaneous relative velocity at the contact point.
The total contact force is given by the expression:
(4.6)
in which and are, respectively, the normal and tangential components of the contact force,
calculated by any of the corresponding contact models described in sections Normal force mod-
els (p. 13) and Tangential force models (p. 18). Additionally, is the normal unit vector of the
contact.

When a rolling resistance model is enabled in the simulation, there will be a contribution of the
rolling resistance moment to the energy dissipation. This contribution will be given by the work:

(4.7)

where is the rolling resistance moment, calculated by any of the models described in section
Rolling resistance models (p. 24), whereas is the relative angular velocity, defined in the
aforementioned section.

Similarly, when an adhesion model is active, the adhesive force may produce some energy dissipation
as well. The associated work in this case will be given by:

(4.8)

where is the adhesive force calculated considering one of the available adhesion models in
section Adhesive force models (p. 21), while is the overlap.

In the most general case, the total dissipation work associated to a collision, considered in all collision
statistics modules, will be given by the sum:
(4.9)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
74 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Statistics types in Rocky

Normally, the main contribution to the dissipation of energy in a collision will be the work made
by the normal component of the contact force. In a normal-force-overlap diagram of a simple col-
lision, as the one depicted in Figure 4.1: Normal-force-overlap diagram of a simple collision. (p. 75),
that work will be numerically equal to the green area enclosed by the curve. As can be seen in that
diagram, the work made during the loading portion of the collision, represented by the area below
the curve OA, is larger than the dissipation work. The work made during the loading will coincide
with the maximum energy transferred in a collision, and because of that it is usually considered
when analyzing the material damage that may lead to the breakage of particles. In Rocky this work
is called impact work, and it is defined in general as:

(4.10)

Figure 4.1: Normal-force-overlap diagram of a simple collision.

For the built-in contact models in Rocky, particularized expressions derived from are used in order
to compute the impact work. For instance, the expression used along with the hysteretic linear
spring model is the following:

(4.11)

where is total contact force given by Equation 4.6 (p. 74), while is the loading equivalent
stiffness, defined in Equation 2.3 (p. 15). This expression includes a small contribution of the tan-
gential component of the contact force, since includes that component.

The shear work, employed also in the wear model described in section Wear model (p. 32), is calcu-
lated in Rocky using the expression:

(4.12)

where is the component of the contact force on the tangential plane, whereas is the sliding
distance, that is, the displacement parallel to the tangential plane of the contact. In this case the
integral is defined over the entire collision interval.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 75
Statistics modules in Rocky

Finally, for particles colliding with moving boundaries, the work made by contact forces against
the boundary's motion is also calculated. This work is defined by the integral:

(4.13)

where is the total contact force, while is the boundary velocity at the contact point. This work
is defined over an entire collision , and can be either positive or negative. It will be positive if the
boundary transfers energy to the particles and negative if the flow of energy is in the opposite
direction.

The values of all integrals defined in this section are approximated numerically using the
trapezoidal rule, which is formally second-order accurate. The values of work defined herein are
used by the different collision statistics modules in order to calculate derived properties. Those
derived properties involve sums of the works associated to all collisions occurred during a data
collection interval. When a collision extends across several data collection intervals, the partial values
of the integrals up to the end of a given interval are summed to the corresponding statistics on
that interval. In that way, values of integral-based statistics are influenced only by variations that
occurred strictly during the corresponding collection data interval. After the partial value of an in-
tegral is registered for output at the end of a data collection interval, the corresponding accumu-
lator is reset to zero in order to prevent taking into account the same collision data more than
once.

4.1.2.2. Impulses
The computation of forces and/or stresses in the statistics modules requires the values of the impulses
associated to the applied forces. The definition and the actual calculation of those impulses is
straightforward. For the collision statistics modules, for instance, the impulses associated to the
components of the contact force during a collision are calculated as:

(4.14)

where is the simulation timestep, while is either the normal or tangential contact force as
calculated using the corresponding normal or tangential model. The sum in the preceding expression
comprehends the entire duration of the collision. Moreover, for the purpose of computing impulses
on particles, every force component is treated independently as if it were a pure scalar.

Similarly, if the simulation includes adhesive forces, the corresponding impulse will be given by:

(4.15)

The impulse associated to the total force exerted over a boundary triangle during a collision is re-
gistered also, exclusively for the determination of FEM forces in boundary collision statistics. This
impulse, expressed as a vector in Cartesian coordinates, is defined as:

(4.16)

where is the contact force, defined in Equation 4.6 (p. 74), is the adhesive force, is the
contact normal unit vector, and is the simulation timestep.

For the exclusive use in the CFD coupling statistics module, the following impulse is calculated,
based on the coupling force magnitude:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
76 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Collision statistics modules

(4.17)

where is one of the CFD coupling interaction forces acting over a particle, whereas is
the time interval over which the referred impulse is calculated. This time interval is defined later
on in section CFD coupling particle statistics (p. 87).

4.1.2.3. Frequency
Although the definition of the collision frequency displayed in collision statistics modules is not
based on an integral expression, it is listed here for the sake of completeness. This frequency is
calculated as:
(4.18)

where is the total number of collisions registered on the data collection region, during the data
collection time interval. Moreover, is the data collection time interval, which is the time lapse
between two consecutive outputs.

4.2. Collision statistics modules

Since Rocky v4.4, four collision statistics modules are available in Rocky. The main difference between
them is the spatial scope of the data collection and the way data is associated to geometrical entities
for the purpose of visualization and post-processing. This is shown schematically in Figure 4.2: Four
built-in collision statistics modules in Rocky. (p. 77).

Figure 4.2: Four built-in collision statistics modules in Rocky.

In the first module, boundary collision statistics, collision data is collected and displayed per boundary
triangle. The equivalent module on the particle side is inter-particle collision statistics, in which data is
collected and displayed per particle. On the other hand, intra-particle collision statistics only registers
collisions involving particles belonging to a given particle group,[1] and associates the data to vertices
on its surface, according to the actual position of the collision points relative to the particle. Finally,
inter-group collision statistics gathers collision data from all collisions involving a pair of particle groups

[1] A particle group in Rocky is a category of particles of the same shape and sharing the same
properties.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 77
Statistics modules in Rocky

or a particle group-boundary pair. The specifics of each one of these modules are described later in this
chapter.

The lapse of time in which all collision statistics modules collect collision data is the interval between
two consecutive output times. Although statistical properties are generated from collision data registered
during a data collection interval, they still will be associated to an output time for the purpose of visu-
alization and post-processing. As indicated schematically in Figure 4.3: Data collection time inter-
val. (p. 78), if two output times i and i+1 delimit the data collection interval i, the statistical properties
generated from collision data collected in that interval will be associated to the output time i+1. In
other words, any statistical property available at a given output time corresponds to the interval delimited
by that output time and the previous one.

Figure 4.3: Data collection time interval.

As mentioned previously, each collision statistics module considers a different geometric entity as a
spatial unit for collecting collision data. This spatial unit is called herein data collection region. For instance,
on boundary collision statistics, this region is the surface of a triangle making up a boundary. On inter-
particle collision statistics, the data collection region is the whole surface of a particle.

It is important to specify what is defined as a collision event in the collision statistics modules available
in Rocky. In general, a collision event occurs whenever a particle's surface touches the surface of another
particle or a boundary. The collision begins at the instant that an overlap between two surfaces arises,
and finishes when that overlap decreases to zero. The values of all variables associated to a collision
event are registered only when the collision finishes. Because of that, in long-lasting collisions it is
possible that those values may be registered in data collection intervals ahead of the intervals in which
the collisions actually began.

Particles with complex shapes, such as concave polyhedral or multi-branched fibers, can touch another
particle or boundary at multiple locations. As each of these different contacts can begin at a different
time or have a different duration, every one of these contact locations are considered a separate collision
event. Multiple contact locations can arise also as a consequence of the discretized representation of
the surfaces of particles and boundaries. Such representation includes triangles, edges, and vertices,
and whenever any of those entities on one surface touches an entity on another surface, an individual
collision event will be registered.

4.2.1. Boundary collision statistics

When the boundary collision statistics module is enabled, data from all particle-boundary collisions
is collected in order to calculate statistics that will be available for visualization on the surface of
boundaries. The data collection units are the boundary triangles in this case. This means that a given

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
78 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Collision statistics modules

statistical value displayed on a boundary triangle is representative of data from all collisions involving
that triangle that occurred during a data collection interval.

The available properties in boundary collision statistics are listed in Table 4.1: Available boundary
collision statistics, as of v4.4 (p. 79) . When duration, impact velocity or sliding distance are enabled,
all four statistics will be available for visualization: mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis.
Herein, the collision duration is defined as the time period in which an actual overlap exists between
the two colliding entities. On the other hand, the impact velocity is defined as the relative velocity
between the colliding entities at the instant that the contact begins. Moreover, the sliding distance
is the distance that a particle moves relative to the boundary during a collision, in a direction parallel
to the boundary triangle where the collision occurs.

Table 4.1: Available boundary collision statistics, as of v4.4

Property Type Calculation

Duration event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) - Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Normal
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Tangential Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Sliding Diatance event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) - Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Frequency Equation 4.29 (p. 83)
Intensity : Dissipation integral-based Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using
from Equation 4.9 (p. 74)
Intensity : Impact integral-based Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using
from Equation 4.10 (p. 75)
Intensity : Shear integral-based Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using
from Equation 4.12 (p. 75)
Intensity integral-based
Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using from
Equation 4.13 (p. 76)
Stress : Normal integral-based Equation 4.31 (p. 84) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Stress : Tangential integral-based Equation 4.31 (p. 84) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Stress : Adhesive integral-based Equation 4.31 (p. 84) using from
Equation 4.15 (p. 76)
FEM Forces integral-based Equation 4.24 (p. 80) -
Equation 4.25 (p. 81)

In Rocky, intensity is defined as power transferred per unit area. The basis for the calculation of the
intensities are the works made by the contact forces during a collision, whose calculation was described
in section Works (p. 74). All forms of intensity provided by boundary collision statistics are computed
per boundary triangle, using the following expression:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 79
Statistics modules in Rocky

(4.19)

where is the area of the boundary triangle and is the data collection time interval. The sum
involves all collisions occurred during that time interval against the boundary triangle. As specified
in , an intensity will correspond to each work defined in section Works (p. 74). An important detail
that must be taken into account is that the work used in Equation 4.19 (p. 80) is only the part of the
collision work that can be attributed to the boundary side. The work in a particle-boundary collision
is divided between the particle and the boundary according to the expressions:
(4.20)

(4.21)
where is a splitting factor. For the splitting of both the dissipation and the impact work, that factor
is defined as:
(4.22)
where and are the stiffnesses attributed to the particle and the boundary, respectively,
defined similarly to Equation 2.5 (p. 15) and Equation 2.6 (p. 15). Regarding the shear work, it is dis-
tributed evenly with a splitting factor . Finally, the work is attributed entirely to the
boundary, therefore, is considered in that case.

Regarding the stresses listed in , the expression used to compute them is equivalent to the one con-
sidered for intensities, being necessary only to replace the works by impulses. Therefore, the corres-
ponding expression is:

(4.23)

where are the impulses, computed using either Equation 4.14 (p. 76) or Equation 4.15 (p. 76).

Boundary collision statistics is able to record also average collision forces acting over boundaries.
These forces can be exported to a third-party software to perform structural analysis using the finite
element method (FEM). Usually, boundary conditions for that kind of analysis are nodal forces, that
is, forces acting on the vertices of the triangles making up the boundaries. Therefore, in order to fa-
cilitate the transfer of data to a finite element software, Rocky provides those nodal values of forces,
based on collected forces per boundary triangle. These latter ones are determined using the expression:
(4.24)

where is any of the Cartesian components of the vector impulse computed with
Equation 4.16 (p. 76). As in other cases, the sum in this equation includes all collisions registered
against the boundary triangle during the data collection interval .

In order to obtain the nodal values of force, it is considered that collisions over a boundary triangle
are randomly distributed, so the resulting force on the boundary triangle can be split evenly between
its three vertices. Therefore, a component of the combined force on one of those vertices will be
given by:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
80 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Collision statistics modules

(4.25)

where is the number of triangles surrounding a vertex , while is a component of the average
force on every one of those triangles, obtained using Equation 4.24 (p. 80).

FEM forces are the only properties that the boundary collision statistics module associates exclusively
to boundary vertices, for both visualization and exportation purposes. All other properties are associated
primarily to boundary triangles, although there exists also the option of displaying them as a node-
based field representation over the boundary surfaces. For this, vertex values are computed as averages
of the values corresponding to the surrounding triangles.

In situations with multiple contact points, the solver applies a factor to reduce the contact forces in
order to avoid the collision force growing too much. This reduction factor is applied by the collision
statistics during the collision count. That’s why, in some cases, it is possible to have a full collision in
one triangle, and a half collision in the next triangle. In order to reduce these situations, you could
increase the triangle size.

4.2.1.1. Corrections when CGM is enabled

When the Enable Coarse-Graining checkbox is selected, the following properties calculated by
the Boundary Collision Statistics module are modified, in order to account for the CGM scale-up:

• Frequency As every contact on the scaled-up system represents (where is the CGM
scale-factor) contacts in the original system, the computed frequency is multiplied by .

• Duration Time on contacts with CGM scaling-up is increased by a factor of ; therefore, in

order to compensate that, the registered duration of each collision is divided by .

• Sliding Distance The sliding distance computed at each collision is divided by .

The other statistics are kept the same, particularly intensities and stresses, which are integral
quantities and are self-similar in this case.

4.2.1.2. Curves
Additionally to the visualization of the spatial distribution of intensities and stresses over the
boundary surfaces, Rocky provides also time curves in which each point is the integrated value of
a given property over a whole boundary at a given output time. For example, the integration of
an intensity over a boundary will give rise to a power curve:

(4.26)

where is a value of intensity computed with Equation 4.19 (p. 80), on a triangle of area
located on a boundary , while is the number of triangles making up that boundary.

The integration of the stresses over a boundary allows Rocky to determine the total forces acting
on it. For instance, the normal force curve is obtained via the integration:

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 81
Statistics modules in Rocky

(4.27)

where is the normal stress computed with Equation 4.23 (p. 80) in the boundary triangle of
area .

When the Cartesian components of the force are available at the boundary vertices, because they
were calculated through Equation 4.25 (p. 81), the components of the total force over a whole
boundary are obtained using:

(4.28)

4.2.2. Intra-particle collision statistics

The intra-particle collision statistics module keeps track of all collisions involving particles that belong
to a given particle group. Then, depending on the collision location over a particle's surface, it asso-
ciates the collected data to a geometric entity of the discretized representation of the surface, for
the purposes of visualization. Since all particles in a particle group have the same shape, the statistics
can be displayed over the surface of a single particle of the group. However, it is important to note
that every value displayed at a given location is representative of all collisions that occurred at that
location, on any particle of the group.

As of v4.4, intra-particle collision statistics is available for polyhedral single-sized rigid particles and
for both flexible fibers and flexible solid particles. As illustrated in Figure 4.4: Data collection region
for intra-particle collision statistics on (a) rigid polyhedral particles and (b) flexible fibers. (p. 82), the
data collection region for polyhedral particles is a non-planar region around a vertex on the particle
surface, while for flexible particles it is the whole surface of an element making up the particle. In the
case of a polyhedral particle, statistics values are associated to the surface vertices, therefore, the
color displayed at a vertex is related to the value attributed to that location. Colors at points other
than vertices are determined via interpolation, so the visual representation of the available statistics
usually shows a smooth variation over the particle's surface. On the other hand, the statistics calculated
for flexible particles are represented as a single color per element.

Figure 4.4: Data collection region for intra-particle collision statistics on (a) rigid polyhedral
particles and (b) flexible fibers.

It is worth discussing now the criteria considered to associate the collision data to a vertex in poly-
hedral particles. The simplest case is when a collision point coincides with a vertex on the particle's

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
82 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Collision statistics modules

surface. Obviously, in that event the data is associated directly to that vertex. On the other hand, if
the contact point is located on an edge, the association is made to the nearest vertex on that edge.
Moreover, when a collision point is located inside a triangle, a barycentric subdivision of the triangle
is considered in order to determine to which vertex the collision data must be associated. In this kind
of subdivision, a triangle is divided into three sub-regions of equal area, each one limited by two line
segments whose endpoints are the triangle centroid and an edge midpoint, as shown in Figure 4.5: Con-
struction of a data collection region on a polyhedral particle. (p. 83). If a collision point lies on one
of these sub-regions, then the collision data is associated to the corresponding vertex.

Figure 4.5: Construction of a data collection region on a polyhedral particle.

lists the available intra-particle collision statistics and the way they are calculated. The duration and
impact velocity statistics are defined and computed exactly in the same way described in section
1.1 (p. 78), for the boundary collision statistics module. Regarding the integral-based statistics, there
is an important difference that must be taken into account, however. A value attributed to a vertex
or to an element is the result of the accumulation of collision data coming from, potentially, all
particles belonging to the particle group. Therefore, in order to transform that cumulative value into
an average value representative of a single particle in the group, we need to divide it by the number
of particles that belongs to the group in the simulation, , at the moment of storing the information.
So, for example, the average collision frequency must be defined as:
(4.29)

The average impact and dissipation intensities are calculated using the expression:

(4.30)

where is the area of the data collection region around a vertex, for polyhedral particles, or the
area of the entire surface of an element, for flexible particles.

Equation 4.30 (p. 83) takes into account only the work made by the considered particle. In particle-
boundary collisions, the dissipation and the impact work are divided as specified in Equation 4.20 (p. 80)
- Equation 4.22 (p. 80). The splitting of those works in particle-particle collisions is made analogously,
since it is enough to replace boundary properties by the ones of the second particle in the referred

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 83
Statistics modules in Rocky

equations. On the other hand, the shear work is distributed evenly between the colliding entities in
both particle-boundary and particle-particle collisions.

Finally, the average components of the stress listed in are calculated using the expression:

(4.31)

where is either the impulse of the normal or the tangential contact force, calculated as in , or the
adhesive impulse, calculated with Equation 4.15 (p. 76) . The other parameters are the same as de-
scribed above.

Table 4.2: Available intra-particle collision statistics, as of v4.4

Property Type Calculation

Duration event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Normal Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Tangential Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Frequency Equation 4.29 (p. 83)
Intensity : Dissipation integral-based Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using
from Equation 4.9 (p. 74)
Intensity : Impact integral-based Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using
from Equation 4.10 (p. 75)
Intensity : Shear integral-based Equation 4.30 (p. 83) using
from Equation 4.12 (p. 75)
Stress : Normal integral-based Equation 4.31 (p. 84) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Stress : Tangential integral-based Equation 4.31 (p. 84) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Stress : Adhesive integral-based Equation 4.31 (p. 84) using from
Equation 4.15 (p. 76)

4.2.3. Inter-particle collision statistics

The statistics computed by the inter-particle collision statistics module involves data collected from
collisions that occurred on the entire surface of a particle. That is, during a data collection interval,
all collisions involving any particle within the simulation will be tracked and the statistics calculated
with the collected data will be associated to the particle itself. The generated statistics will appear as

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
84 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Collision statistics modules

additional particle properties in the Rocky UI. They can be visualized on a 3D view window as any
other particle property in Rocky, mapping the property value to a color scale.

Table 4.3: Available inter-particle collision statistics, as of v4.4

Property Type Calculation

Duration event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Normal Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Tangential Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Frequency Equation 4.18 (p. 77)
Power : Dissipation integral-based Equation 4.32 (p. 85) using
from Equation 4.9 (p. 74)
Power : Impact integral-based Equation 4.32 (p. 85) using
from Equation 4.10 (p. 75)
Power : Shear integral-based Equation 4.32 (p. 85) using
from Equation 4.12 (p. 75)
Force : Normal integral-based Equation 4.33 (p. 85) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Force : Tangential integral-based Equation 4.33 (p. 85) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Force : Adhesive integral-based Equation 4.33 (p. 85) using from
Equation 4.15 (p. 76)

lists the current available statistics provided by the inter-particle collision statistics module. All event-
based statistics and the collision frequency are calculated as described for boundary collision statistics
in section Boundary collision statistics (p. 78), the only difference is that the data comes from the
collisions registered against a particle's surface during a data collection interval.

The dissipation power along with the impact and shear power are calculated using the expression:
(4.32)
using the appropriate work, as indicated in Table 4.3: Available inter-particle collision statistics, as of
v4.4 (p. 85). Again, the sum will involve all registered collisions against the particle's surface, during
the interval. The same considerations made in section Intra-particle collision statistics (p. 82)
regarding the splitting of a collision's work between particles or particle and boundary apply here.

Similarly, the average normal, tangential, and adhesive forces are computed by means of:
(4.33)

where is a component of the contact impulse, computed as in Equation 4.14 (p. 76) , or the adhesive
impulse, defined in Equation 4.15 (p. 76).

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 85
Statistics modules in Rocky

4.2.4. Inter-group collision statistics

The inter-group collision statistics module classifies all collisions that occurred during a data collection
interval, taking into account which group a colliding particle belongs to, Let's remember again that
a particle group is a category of particles of the same shape and sharing the same properties. and
considering all possible combinations of groups and boundaries.

Let's illustrate this by means of an example: a simulation that includes 3 particle groups (P1, P2, P3),
and 2 boundaries (B1, B2). Any collision in that simulation will involve a pair of particles or a pair
particle-boundary belonging to one of the 12 combinations listed in Table 4.4: All possible pair com-
binations for a set of 3 particle groups and 2 boundaries. (p. 86).

Table 4.4: All possible pair combinations for a set of 3 particle groups and 2 boundaries.

P1 - P1 - P1 - P1 - P1 -
P1 P2 P3 B1 B2
P2 - P2 - P2 - P2 -
P2 P3 B1 B2
P3 - P3 - P3 -
P3 B1 B2

For all or part of such combinations, the inter-group collision statistics module will generate time
curves from data collected in all collisions involving particles (or a particle and a boundary) of the
given pair. The curves generated by this module are listed together with the built-in particle curves
in the Rocky UI.

The available categories of curves in inter-group collision statistics as of v4.4 are listed in
Table 4.5: Available curves for intergroup collision statistics, as of v4.4 (p. 86). In the case of the energy
curves, each point is obtained by simply summing the corresponding works computed in all collisions
registered involving particles (or a boundary) of the corresponding pair, during a data collection in-
terval. Expressed mathematically:

(4.34)

where is either the dissipation, the impact, or the shear work per collision.

Table 4.5: Available curves for intergroup collision statistics, as of v4.4

Property Type Calculation

Duration event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Normal Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Velocity : Impact : event-based Equation 4.1 (p. 73) -
Tangential Equation 4.4 (p. 73)
Frequency Equation 4.18 (p. 77)
Energy : Dissipation integral-based Equation 4.34 (p. 86) using
from Equation 4.9 (p. 74)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
86 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 CFD coupling particle statistics

Property Type Calculation

Energy : Impact integral-based Equation 4.34 (p. 86) using
from Equation 4.10 (p. 75)
Energy : Shear integral-based Equation 4.34 (p. 86) using
from Equation 4.12 (p. 75)
Force : Normal integral-based Equation 4.35 (p. 87) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Force : Tangential integral-based Equation 4.35 (p. 87) using from
Equation 4.14 (p. 76), for
Force : Adhesive integral-based Equation 4.35 (p. 87) using from
Equation 4.15 (p. 76)

The forces listed in must be interpreted actually as average values of the mean forces acting on all
collisions Table 4.5: Available curves for intergroup collision statistics, as of v4.4 (p. 86) involving a
given pair, during a data collection interval. The expression used to calculate those average values
is:

(4.35)

where is the corresponding impulse in a collision involving the given pair, calculated as in either
Equation 4.14 (p. 76) or Equation 4.15 (p. 76).

4.3. CFD coupling particle statistics

CFD coupling particle statistics is a module introduced in Rocky v4.5. It collects instantaneous values
from particle-fluid interaction variables and calculates with them average values that then are associated
to the particles. This originates new particle properties that users may visualize in a 3D view window
and post-process at their convenience.

Table 4.6: Available CFD coupling particle statistics, as of v4.5

Property Calculation
Drag Force Equation 4.36 (p. 88) with from equation of the DEM-CFD Coupling
Technical Manual
Lift Force Equation 4.36 (p. 88) with from equation of the DEM-CFD Coupling
Technical Manual
Vitrtual Mass Force Equation 4.36 (p. 88) with from equation of the DEM-CFD
Coupling Technical Manual
Pressure Gradient Force Equation 4.36 (p. 88) with from equation of the DEM-CFD
Coupling Technical Manual
Flow Induced Torque Equation 4.38 (p. 88) with from equation of the DEM-CFD Coupling
Technical Manual

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 87
Statistics modules in Rocky

Property Calculation
Convective Heat Transfer
Equation 4.39 (p. 88) with from equation of the DEM-CFD Coupling
Rate
Technical Manual

The currently available statistics are listed in Table 4.6: Available CFD coupling particle statistics, as of
v4.5 (p. 87). All of them are integral-based statistics that represent average values of particle-fluid inter-
action magnitudes measured during an output interval. For instance, the average CFD interaction forces
are calculated as:
(4.36)

where is the impulse associated to the interaction force , which, in turn, is approximated as
indicated in Equation 4.17 (p. 77) . The time interval is the time of residence of the particle p
during the output interval. Normally it will be equal to the output interval itself, , except in the
case in which the particle entered the simulation at some point within that interval. In that case
will be equal to , where is the output time which the statistics are associated to, while
is the time at which the particle was released into the simulation. The previous definition can
be condensed into the expression:
(4.37)

Equivalent expressions are used to calculate the average values of the flow-induced torque and the
convective heat transfer rate. In the case of the flow-induced torque, the average value is calculated
as:
(4.38)

where is the instantaneous value of the flow-induced torque and is the simulation timestep.

For the convective heat transfer rate, its average is calculated using the expression:

(4.39)

where is the instantaneous value of the convective heat transfer rate.

The expressions that define the instantaneous values of each one of the interaction magnitudes men-
tioned above are indicated in Table 4.6: Available CFD coupling particle statistics, as of v4.5 (p. 87). All
of them are included in the DEM-CFD Coupling Technical Manual; for further details about how those
magnitudes are calculated please refer to that manual.

Each one of the statistics offered by the CFD coupling particle statistics module can be enabled indi-
vidually in the Rocky UI. A given statistics may be enabled even if the related interaction variable is not
active in the CFD coupling calculations performed by Rocky. If that is the case, the related statistics will
have zero values for all particles at all output times. However, users must be aware that those statistics
still will occupy memory and disk space, for that reason they must be careful and enable only statistics
related to active variables.

4.4. Energy spectra modules

Energy spectra is another analysis tool present in Rocky, which provides a very detailed view of how
the energy is transferred between particles in a simulation. In energy spectra plots, the collision data

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
88 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Energy spectra modules

collected during a simulation is classified based on the energy levels of the individual collisions and
then displayed accordingly.

Perhaps one of the most important applications of energy spectra is the prediction of how much of the
power consumed in a comminution process actually promotes particle fragmentation. Energy spectra
plots can assist users in that analysis without the computational cost of simulating processes involving
an actual breakage model.

Three types of energy associated to collisions are considered in energy spectra plots. These energy
types are the same already considered in the inter-group collision statistics modules described in section
Inter-group collision statistics (p. 86):

• Dissipated energy. The fraction of the mechanical energy of the particle or particles transformed irre-
versibly into other forms of energy during a collision.

• Impact energy. The maximum energy transferred during a collision, considered in the instantaneous
breakage models to quantify the damage of the particles' material.

• Shear energy. The work done by the tangential contact forces during a collision, used in the abrasive
wear model of boundary surfaces.

These energies have correspondence with the works defined previously in section Works (p. 74). In fact,
for a given collision, the numerical value of each one of these energies is equal to the corresponding
work defined there. Therefore, for a detailed description of the way the works are calculated in Rocky,
please refer to that section.

Rocky comes by default with two energy spectra modules. In the first one, contacts energy spectra, the
energy values are collected collision-wise during the simulation and categorized by particle group pair.
Conversely, in particles energy spectra the energy values are always related to particles, which are classified
by size and particle group. The following two sections detail the specifics of these two energy spectra
types.

4.4.1. Contacts energy spectra

Each one of the energy spectra plots generated by this module involves one of the energy types
mentioned earlier, herein written in a generic way as . That energy is represented in the horizontal
axis of the plot, whereas a related physical magnitude per unit time, , is represented in the vertical
axis, as depicted in Figure 4.6: Schematics of a typical contact-based energy spectra plot. The two
extra points located at the extremities of the interval include data from collisions whose
energies fall outside that interval. (p. 90). In all of the equations below, is used to indicate one of
the three energy types considered in energy spectra, namely, impact, shear, and dissipated energy.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 89
Statistics modules in Rocky

Figure 4.6: Schematics of a typical contact-based energy spectra plot. The two extra points
located at the extremities of the interval include data from collisions whose energies
fall outside that interval.

The contacts energy spectra module follows the same approach considered in the inter-group collision
statistics module to classify collision energy data. Therefore, an individual contact-based energy
spectra curve will be generated potentially for each pair of particle groups present in a simulation.
And similarly for every particle-group-boundary pair.

In order to construct an energy spectra plot, Rocky divides the horizontal axis into a certain number
of bins or buckets of equal length when represented in a logarithmic scale. The range of values in the
horizontal axis is determined by and , which are user inputs listed Minimum Energy as
and Maximum Energy in the Rocky UI. Moreover, the number of bins into which the interval
is divided is determined by , a parameter which is listed as Number of Bins in the
Rocky UI. The position of the division points between bins along the horizontal axis are determined
by the expression:
(4.40)

As mentioned earlier, the main purpose of an energy spectra plot is to provide insight into the distri-
bution of the energies of all collisions that occurred in a simulation up to a given time. As depicted
in Figure 4.6: Schematics of a typical contact-based energy spectra plot. The two extra points located
at the extremities of the interval include data from collisions whose energies fall outside
that interval. (p. 90), to each one of the bins defined above will correspond a point in the graph. The
horizontal coordinate of the point associated to the bin i will be given by . The vertical
coordinate will come from the sum of energies or other associated data from all collisions which
had an energy value during the time interval associated to the energy spectra plot. It is
possible that energy values of some collisions can fall outside of the plot range during

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
90 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Energy spectra modules

a simulation. Data of those collisions is still collected and associated to the extra plot points located
at the extremities of the energy interval. More specifically, if for a collision, its data is attributed
to the point with as horizontal coordinate, whereas if , its data goes to the point .

In plots which have the power represented in the vertical axis, the vertical coordinate of each
point in a graph is calculated as:
(4.41)
where is the output time to which the plot corresponds, whereas is the time at which the
energy data began to be registered. The value of can be specified in the Rocky UI through Start
Time. Another parameter that controls when the energy data begins to be collected is Time Delay
After Release. Data of any collision occurring to a particle is ignored after its entrance into the simu-
lation, during a time lapse equal to the value of that parameter. The sum in Equation 4.41 (p. 91)
comprehends all collisions that fulfill the time constraint cited above and involves particles that belong
to a given pair of particle groups or a pair particle-group-boundary. As mentioned before, each curve
in a contact-based energy spectra plot is always related to one of such pairs.

Figure 4.7: Overlap-time diagram of a collision with multiple loading-unloading periods.

Another group of plots generated is related to the energy registration rate. In that case, the vertical
coordinates of each point of those plots is given by:
(4.42)

where gives the number of registration events of energies whose values fall into a given bin,
during the time period in which the collection of energy data is allowed. Here it is important to note
that different energy types can be registered at different times during a collision. For instance, impact
energy is always registered at the end of a loading period. On the other hand, the dissipated energy
is registered only when a collision finishes. Because of that, impact can be registered more times than
dissipated and shear energy, since some collisions can present multiple loading-unloading periods.
For instance, in the example depicted in , the impact energy will be registered at points B, C, and D,
while the dissipated and shear energies will be registered only at point E.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 91
Statistics modules in Rocky

Cumulative power is a third category of plots generated by the contacts energy spectra module. A
cumulative power curve is generated from the power values given by Equation 4.41 (p. 91), as showed
schematically in Figure 4.8: Example of a cumulative power curve (in purple) generated from a power
distribution curve (in green). (p. 92) . The vertical coordinate of each point in a cumulative power
curve is given by:

(4.43)

That is, the vertical coordinate of a cumulative power point results from the sum of the vertical co-
ordinates of all points in the power curve located to the right, up to the given point.

Figure 4.8: Example of a cumulative power curve (in purple) generated from a power distribution
curve (in green).

4.4.2. Particles energy spectra

Particles energy spectra curves are cumulative power curves similar to the ones described in the
previous section, but constructed considering collision energy values tracked and classified through
particles instead of contacts. In a collision, only a fraction of a collision energy is attributable to the
deformation of a colliding particle. Therefore, the distribution of energy values per particles might
provide an alternative perspective to the one given by contact-based energy spectra curves. Addition-
ally, when a particle size distribution is defined for a particle group, particle-based energy spectra
curves are categorized according to prescribed particle size ranges.

shows a typical energy spectra plot based on particle energy values. Specific energy values are rep-
resented in the horizontal axis, whereas cumulative specific power values are represented in the
vertical axis. For a given particle p, the specific energy is defined as:
(4.44)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
92 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Energy spectra modules

where is the particle's mass, and is the energy per particle in a single registration event. As
previously stated, is used to indicate one of the three types of energy considered in energy spectra
plots: impact, shear, or dissipated.

Figure 4.9: Schematics of a typical particles energy spectra plot.

If at some point a particle is colliding simultaneously with several other particles, will be the sum
of the fractions related to the particle p of the energies on all those collisions. That is:

(4.45)

where is the fraction of the the collision energy that is attributable to the particle p. The splitting
of the collision energy between two colliding particles or between a particle and a boundary is made
using the splitting factor defined in , following exactly the same process described in section
Boundary collision statistics (p. 78).

The range in the horizontal axis and its subdivision in bins is determined by , and nb. These
parameters are listed in the UI as Minimum Specific Energy, Maximum Specific Energy, and Number
of Bins, respectively. The subdivision of the horizontal axis is identical to one described for contacts
energy spectra, the only difference is that it is made in terms of specific energy rather than energy.
Two extra points are considered also at the extremities for taking account of collision specific energies
outside the interval .

The vertical coordinate of a point in a particles energy spectra plot is the cumulative specific power
associated to an energy level, which is given by:

(4.46)

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 93
Statistics modules in Rocky

where the specific power for each bin is determined as:

(4.47)

The sum in the numerator of this last equation includes all particles energy registrations for which
the corresponding specific energy falls into the interval associated to the bin i. Additionally,
that sum includes only energies from particles of size in the size range s, defined here as .
In a similar way, the sum in the denominator only includes particles in that size range. Finally, in
that expression is the time lapse in which energies from particle p are allowed to be registered. This
time lapse is given by:
(4.48)
where is the output time to which the plot corresponds, while is the time when energy
data begins to be registered. On the other hand, is the lapse of time after the release of particle
p in which energy data must be ignored for the construction of the energy spectra curves. The values
of these last two parameters can be specified in the Rocky UI through the module parameters listed
as Start Time and Time Delay After Release, respectively.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
94 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 5: Miscellaneous Topics
5.1. Contact detection
Broadly speaking, contact detection comprehends all geometrical calculations related to the interaction
among particles and between particles and boundaries. Geometrical data needed for the calculation of
contact forces is computed during the contact detection phase. Since Rocky deals with several types
of particle shapes, including custom polyhedral shapes of arbitrary complexity, contact detection can
easily take up a significant percentage of the total processing time.

In order to optimize processing time, contact detection operations are performed in two independent
stages, as indicated in the flowchart shown in Figure 5.1: Contact detection stages in the general algorithm
in Rocky. (p. 96). The first stage is a rough search that aims to determine a list of the particles that are
closest to every particle in the simulation. Since this is a costly operation, it is performed only after
some number of simulation timesteps, as indicated in the referred flowchart. In the second stage, which
is performed in every timestep, the exact distances between neighbor particles are computed. In fact,
all relevant geometrical information regarding every pair of neighbor particle-particle or neighbor
particle-boundary is calculated in this stage, taking into account the most recent positions of the particles
in the simulation.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 95
Miscellaneous Topics

Figure 5.1: Contact detection stages in the general algorithm in Rocky.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
96 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Contact detection

Figure 5.2: Neighborhood region of a particle in Rocky.

In Rocky, neighbors of a particle are all particles located at a distance less than a predetermined value,
herein called neighboring distance. This is illustrated schematically in Figure 5.2: Neighborhood region
of a particle in Rocky. (p. 97). The actual geometry of the particles is not taken into account in the first
stage of neighbor detection. Since this operation must involve every pair of particles in the simulation,
considering their actual geometry would be infeasible. Instead, in order to determine if a particle is in
the neighborhood region of another, bounding spheres are considered around every particle. Therefore,
a particle will be included into the list of neighbors of another if the distance between their bounding
spheres is less than .

In the second stage of contact detection, neighbor pairs of particle-particle or particle-boundary are
examined in detail for determining the relevant geometric parameters needed in the physical contact
models. Here, the actual geometries of the particles are considered, therefore, the complexity of the
calculations will depend on the type of particles employed in the simulation. By far, the simplest case
is the contact between spherical particles. On the other hand, contact calculations between polyhedral
particles, as those depicted in Figure 5.3: Exact distance calculation between neighbor particles. (p. 98),
are more difficult, since multiple scenarios must be examined. For instance, the contact between poly-
hedra might be vertex-to-vertex, vertex-to-edge, vertex-to-face, edge-to-edge, edge-to-face, or even
face-to-face. An extra level of complexity is added when the particles are concave, since in this case
multiple contacts can arise between the same pair of particles.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 97
Miscellaneous Topics

Figure 5.3: Exact distance calculation between neighbor particles.

Regardless of the actual complexity of the algorithms, the end result is the set of all relevant geomet-
rical parameters associated to a contact, such as the distance between particles, the application point
of the contact forces, the orientation of the normal to the contact, etc. Physical contact will arise
whenever the calculated distance between two particles or between a particle and a boundary is neg-
ative. The distance in this case is the normal overlap, needed for the calculation of the normal contact
force.

After some number of timesteps, the list of neighbors for all particles in the simulation must be updated.
Otherwise, some collisions between non-neighbor particles could arise and the simulation would not
be able to detect them. Therefore, as illustrated in Figure 5.4: Before updating neighbor lists, the max-
imum distance that any pair of non-neighbor particles can move relative to each other is
. (p. 99), in order to prevent missing collisions, the maximum distance that any pair of non-
neighbor particles can move relative to each other is , the neighboring distance. Whenever
that distance is reached, the lists of neighbors of all particles in the simulation must be updated. Since
the computation of the exact distance can be expensive, a simplified approximate upper bound is
computed in Rocky, which guarantees that no collision will be missed in the simulations.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
98 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Contact detection

Figure 5.4: Before updating neighbor lists, the maximum distance that any pair of non-neighbor
particles can move relative to each other is .

The neighboring distance plays an important role on the performance of the contact detection
algorithms in Rocky. Figure 5.5: Two cases with different magnitude of the neighboring distance
(p. 100) illustrates two opposite cases regarding the magnitude of . In the first case,
when the neighboring distance is low, the size of the neighbors lists will be small and, therefore, the
processing time in the second stage of detection will be also low. This is because only a few pairs of
particles will need to be processed. However, this situation will demand more frequent updates of the

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 99
Miscellaneous Topics

neighbor lists, and, consequently the total processing time of the first stage of contact detection may
be high. On the other hand, in the situation depicted in Figure 5.5: Two cases with different magnitude
of the neighboring distance (p. 100)(b), when the value of is relatively large, the
opposite behavior is usually observed. In this case, the elevation in the number of neighbors per particle
will produce a significant increase in the processing time of the second stage. But, at the same time,
less frequent updates of the neighbor lists will be needed, therefore, the amount of processing time of
the first stage will decrease.

Figure 5.5: Two cases with different magnitude of the neighboring distance

Users can override the default value of determined internally in Rocky. This parameter can
be specified in the Advanced sub-tab of the Solver panel, where it is listed as Neighboring Distance.
As can have a huge impact on the total processing time of a simulation, users must be very
careful when specifying its value.

5.2. Timestep calculations

The timestep is one of the main factors that determine the amount of time required for the completion
of a simulation in Rocky. The simulation timestep should be large enough to ensure reasonable comple-
tion time, but small enough to guarantee the accuracy and stability of the simulation.

It is a customary practice in DEM to set the timestep size as a fraction of the oscillation period of a
equivalent mass-spring system, , where and are critical values of mass and stiffness, re-
spectively. That period of time will approximate the duration of the shortest possible collision among
all possible combinations of particles and boundaries. The timestep value is chosen in a way that even
that shortest collision may be solved numerically with a reasonable resolution.

In Rocky, the timestep value is calculated automatically at the beginning of a simulation, using the ex-
pressions listed below for each normal contact model. If necessary, however, users can override that
value and set a new one determined by their own means. In order to do so, the Fixed Timestep option
must be turned on from the Advanced sub-tab of the Solver panel. Enabling this option allows the
subsequent Timestep value to be defined. Users must be aware, however, that the timestep value is a
critical parameter in Rocky, so its manual modification is not recommended in general, because it may
lead to either instability of the solution process or excessively long simulation times.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
100 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Timestep calculations

5.2.1. Timestep for the hysteretic linear spring model

In the hysteretic linear spring model, the loading and the unloading stages of the contact occur with
two different values of stiffness, and , respectively. Therefore, the calculation of the timestep
takes into account those two stages independently. That calculation can be summarized into the
following expression:
(5.1)
where:

• is the effective mass, defined in Equation 2.10 (p. 16).

• is the minimum number of timesteps per loading cycle, which is a user input parameter listed
as Loading N-steps in the Rocky UI.

For using Equation 5.1 (p. 101), all particle-particle and particle-boundary possible combinations are
examined, searching for the critical values of and . That equation guarantees that,
during any collision, the loading portion will be discretized with at least timesteps, while the
unloading will comprehend at least 4 timesteps.

5.2.2. Timestep for the linear spring-dashpot model

In the linear spring-dashpot model, the contact stiffness for the loading and the unloading have the
same value. Hence, it is enough to analyze the loading for determining the timestep when that
model is used. The expression considered for that is simply:
(5.2)
where all parameters have the same definition as in Equation 5.1 (p. 101). All particle-particle and
particle-boundary possible contacts are examined for finding the minimum value of .

5.2.3. Timestep for the Hertzian spring-dashpot model

The Hertzian spring-dashpot model is a nonlinear model, so the contact stiffness depends on the
normal overlap . The expression for the contact stiffness on this model is:
(5.3)

When the Hertzian spring-dashpot model is used, the timestep is determined by means of:
(5.4)
in which is estimated considering that the magnitude of the maximum overlap is 10% of the ef-
fective radius . Again, all particle-particle and particle-boundary possible combinations are examined
for finding the minimum value of .

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 101
Miscellaneous Topics

5.2.4. Numerical softening factor

As previously mentioned, the size of the timestep is one of the main factors that determine how
much processing time a simulation will demand. It would be desirable to increase the timestep as
much as possible, without compromising stability or accuracy, in order to speed up a simulation.

As described in previous sections, the timestep is always inversely proportional to the square root of
a critical stiffness. Because of this, one of the techniques most frequently used in order to speed up
a DEM simulation is the reduction of the stiffness. Rocky allows the users to use this technique through
a global reduction factor that multiplies all stiffness values computed in the different models. This
parameter is listed in the Rocky UI as Numerical Softening Factor, which is located on the Momentum
tab of the Physics panel.

As an example, reducing the value of the numerical softening factor from 1 to 0.01 will increase the
timestep approximately 10 times. This change may speed up the simulation in that proportion also.
However, users must be very careful when specifying values for the numerical softening factor. Values
that are too low can lead to very large overlaps, and therefore, serious stability and accuracy issues
in a simulation.

5.3. Sieve size calculation

The sieve size of a particle is defined as the dimension of the smallest square aperture through which
the particle can pass, as depicted in Figure 5.6: Sieve size of a polyhedral particle. (p. 103). For polyhedral
and custom solid particle shapes, Rocky uses an approximate method to estimate the sieve size.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
102 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Sieve size calculation

Figure 5.6: Sieve size of a polyhedral particle.

As a first step, the major axis of the particle is determined. In order to do this, all possible pairs of vertices
on the particle's geometry are considered, looking for the two most distant vertices. In the algorithm
implemented in Rocky, it is considered that the major axis of the particle will pass through those two
vertices.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 103
Miscellaneous Topics

Figure 5.7: Example of a slice considered for determining sieve size candidates.

In the second stage of the algorithm, the largest particle dimension perpendicular to the major axis is
sought. This will be the sieve size of the particle. In order to determine that, a sequence of slices of the
particle's geometry is considered. As depicted in Figure 5.7: Example of a slice considered for determining
sieve size candidates. (p. 104), each one of those slices is limited by two planes orthogonal to the major
axis passing through the end points of an edge.

Then, all vertices contained between the two limiting planes are projected orthogonally onto any of
those planes. The next step will be to determine the sieve size candidate associated to the slice. In order
to do that, the distances between the projections of both vertices at the ends of the edge i and the
projections of all other vertices are calculated. The sieve size candidate associated to the slice i will be
the largest of those distances, , as depicted in Figure 5.8: Projection of the vertices onto an ortho-
gonal plane to the major axis. (p. 105).

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
104 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Particle orientation

Figure 5.8: Projection of the vertices onto an orthogonal plane to the major axis.

In the end, the estimated sieve size will be the maximum value among the sieve size candidates determ-
ined considering the slices associated to all edges on the particle's geometry. That is:
(5.5)

The described algorithm works well for irregular particles, for instance, those representing rocks or rock
fragments. For regular simple shapes, such as cubes or parallelepipeds, the algorithm usually will over-
estimate the sieve size.

5.4. Particle orientation

During a simulation, Rocky solves the motion equations for every single particle, updating its position
and orientation in relation to a global reference frame. One of the forms of representation that Rocky
uses for describing mathematically the orientation of a particle is the axis-angle formalism. In this kind
of representation, the orientation of a particle is defined by the orientation of an attached local frame
of reference which rotates an angle about an axis determined by a unit vector , as illustrated in
Figure 5.9: Axis-angle representation of a rotation in a 3D space. (p. 106).

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 105
Miscellaneous Topics

Figure 5.9: Axis-angle representation of a rotation in a 3D space.

For example, users must employ this representation for specifying the initial orientation of a particle,
when it enters the solution domain. Moreover, Rocky provides at output times the instantaneous values
of the components of the unit vector and the angle , as particle properties. Using those values,
magnitudes related to the orientation of a particle can be precisely calculated as a post-processing
operation. In order to do that, it is useful to calculate the rotation matrix:

(5.6)

Where:

(5.7)

The effect of multiplying the rotation matrix by a vector expressed in the particle's local coordinates
is to rotate that vector the angle around the axis defined by . This operation, for instance, allows
the coordinates that define the geometry of a particle to be transformed to the global system of refer-
ence, with the orientation defined by and . As an illustration of this, Figure 5.10: Examples of the
orientation of a particle represented with the axisangle formalism. (p. 107)(b) shows three orientations
of a particle in the global frame of reference, for three sets of values of and . Figure 5.10: Examples
of the orientation of a particle represented with the axisangle formalism. (p. 107)(a) shows the same
particle when the orientation of the local frame of reference XYZ coincides with the orientation of the
global frame xyz.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
106 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Particle orientation

Figure 5.10: Examples of the orientation of a particle represented with the axisangle formalism.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 107
 Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
108 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Bibliography
[1] Lutz Vogel and Wolfgang Peukert. From single particle impact behaviour to modelling of impact
mills. Chemical Engineering Science. 60 (18). 5164–5176. 2005.

[2] Fengnian Shi and Toni Kojovic. Validation of a model for impact breakage incorporating particle size
effect. International Journal of Mineral Processing. 82 (3). 156–163. 2007.

[3] Alexander Potapov and Timothy Donahue. Technical Report Rocky DEM, Inc.: Computer simulation of
coal breakage in conveyor transfer chutes with Rocky discrete element method package. 2012.

[4] Tavares, Luis and King, R.P. Single-particle fracture under impact loading. International Journal of
Mineral Processing. 54. 1–28. 1998.

[5] Carvalho, Rodrigo M. and Tavares, L. M.. Predicting the effect of operating and design variables on
breakage rates using the mechanistic ball mill model. Minerals and Engineering. 43. 91–101. 2013.

[6] Tavares, L. M. and Carvalho, R. M.. Modeling breakage rates of coarse particles in ball mills. Mineral
Engineering. 22. 650–659. 2009.

[7] Tavares, L. M.. Analysis of particle fracture by repeated stressing as damage accumulation. Powder
Technology. 90 (3). 327–339. 2009.

[8] Tavares, L. M. and King, R. P.. Modeling of particle fracture by repeated impacts using continuum
damage mechanics. Powder Technology. 123 (2). 138–146. 2002.

[9] Malone, K. F. and Xu, B. H.. Determination of contact parameters for discrete element method simu-
lations of granular systems. Particuology. 6. 521–528. 2008.

[10] Tsuji, Y. and Kawaguchi, T. and Tanaka, T.. Discrete particle simulation of two-dimensional fluidized
bed. Powder Technology. 77. 79–87. 1993.

[11] Pasha, M. and Dogbe, S. and Hare, C. and Hassanpour, A. and Ghadiri, M.. A linear model of elasto-
plastic and adhesive contact deformation. Granular Matter. 16. 151–162. 2014.

[12] Massih Pasha. "Modelling of flowability measurement of cohesive powders using small quantities".
PhD Thesis. University of Leeds. 2013.

[13] Johnson, K. L. and Kendal, K. and Roberts, A. D.. Surface energy and the contact of elastic solids.
Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 324. 301–313.
1971.

[14] Johnson, K. L.. Contact mechanics. Cambridge University Press. 1985.

[15] Ai, J. and Chen, J. F. and Rotter, J. M. and Ooi, J. Y.. Assessment of rolling resistance models in discrete
element simulations. Powder Technology. 206. 269–282. 2010.

[16] Wensrich, C. M. and Katterfeld, A.. Rolling friction as a technique for modelling particle shape in
{DEM}. Powder Technology. 217. 409–417. 2012.

[17] Schwager, T. and P\"{o}schel, T.. Coefficient of restitution and linear-dashpot model revisited.
Granular Matter. 60 (18). 465–469. 2007.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 109
Bibliography

[18] Tsuji, Y. and Tanaka, T. and Ishida, T.. Lagrangian numerical simulation of plug flow of cohesionless
particles in a horizontal pipe. Powder Technology. 71. 239–250. 1992.

[19] Walton, O. R. and Braun, R. L.. Viscosity, granular-temperature, and stress calculations for shearing
assemblies of inelastic, frictional disks. Journal of Rheology. 30. 948–980. 1896.

[20] Barrios, G. K. P. and Carvalho, R. M. and Tavares, L. M.. Modeling breakage of monodispersed particles
in unconfined beds. Minerals Engineering. 24. 308–318. 2011.

[21] Guo, Y. and Wassgreen C. and Curtis, J. S. and Xu, D.. A bonded sphero-cylinder model for the discrete
element simulation of elastic-plastic fibers. Chemical Engineering Science. 175. 118–129. 2018.

[22] Potapov, A. V. and Campbell, C. S.. A three-dimensional simulation of brittle solid fracture. Interna-
tional Journal of Modern Physics. 7 (5). 717–729. 1996.

[23] Antypov, D. and Elliott, J. A.. On an analytical solution for the damped Hertzian spring. Europhysics
Letters. 94 (5). 2011.

[24] Cundall, P. A. and Strack, D. L.. A discrete numerical model for granular assemblies. Geotechnique.
29 (1). 47–65. 1979.

[25] Hertz, H.. {\"Uber} die ber\"uhrung fester elastischer k\"orper ({On} the contact of elastic solids).
English translation, Macmillan, London, 1896.. 92. 156–171. 1896.

[26] Qiu, X. and Potapov, A. and Song, M. and Nordell, L.. Prediction of wear of mill lifters using discrete
element method. "2001 SAG Conference Proceedings". 2001.

[27] Archard, J. F.. Wear theory and mechanisms. "Wear control handbook". American Society of Mechan-
ical Engineers. 1980.

[28] Qiu, X., Potapov, A., Song, M., and Nordell, L.. Prediction of wear of mill lifters using discrete ele-
mentmethod.. SAG Conference Proceedings. 2001.

[29] Lommen, S. and Schott, D. and Lodewijks, G.. {DEM} speedup: stiffness effects on behaviour of bulk
material. Particuology. 12. 107–112. 2014.

[30] Brown, S.. Measures of shape: skewness and kurtosis. https://brownmath.com/stat/shape.htm.

2008–2017.

[31] Vargas, W. L. and McCarthy, J. J.. Heat conduction in granular materials. AIChE Journal. 47 (5).
1052–1059. 2001.

[32] Batchelor, G. K. and O'Brien, R. W.. Thermal or electrical conduction through a granular material.
Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A.. 355. 313–333. 1977.

[33] Morris, A. B. and Pannala, S. and Ma, Z. and Hrenya, C. M.. Development of soft-sphere contact
models for thermal heat conduction in granular flows. AIChE Journal. 62 (12). 4526–4535. 2016.

[34] Bierwisch, C. and Kraft, T. and Riedel, H. and Moseler, M.. Three-dimensional discrete element
models for the granular statics and dynamics of powders in cavity filling. Journal of the Mechanics
and Physics of Solids. 6257. 10–31. 2009.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
110 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
[35] Radl, S. and Radeke, C. and Khinast, J. G. and Sundaresan, S.. Parcel-Based Approach for the Simu-
lation of Gas-Particle Flows.. Proceedings of the 8th international Conference on CFD in the Oil and
Gas, Metallurgical and Process Industries.. 124–134. 2011.

[36] Ottosen, N. S. and Ristimaa, M.. The mechanics of constitutive modeling. Elsevier. 2005.

[37] Potapov, A. V. and Campbell, C. S.. Computer simulation of impact-induced particle breakage.
Powder Technology. 81. 207–216. 1994.

[38] Potapov, A. V. and Campbell, C. S. and Hopkins, M. A.. A two-dimensional dynamic simulation of
solid fracture. {Part I}: description of the model. International Journal of Modern Physics. 6 (3).
371–398. 1995.

[39] Jeffrey, A. and Dai, H. H.. Handbook of mathematical formulas and integrals. Academic Press. 2008.

[40] Schmidt, M.. Modellierung der Zerkleinerung in Profilwalzenbrechern. Technischen Universit t Ber-
gakademie Freiberg. 2011.

[41] Mikami, T. and Kamiya, H. and Horio, M.. Numerical simulation of cohesive powder behavior in a
fluidized bed. Chemical Engineering Science. 53 (10). 1927–1940. 1997.

[42] Nase, S. T. and Vargas, W. L. and Abatan, A. A. and McCarthy, J. J.. Discrete characterization tools
for cohesive granular material. Powder Technology. 116. 214–223. 2001.

Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 111
 Release 2025 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
112 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.