Define the Geometries

The next step in setting up the model is to define the conveyor and factory Geometries used in the model.

To define the Geometries:
  1. Import the conveyor Geometry that has already been created and is ready to be imported into EDEM.
    1. Right-click Geometries in the Creator Tree and then select Import Geometry.
    2. Navigate to the file conveyor_hopper.stl and import it.
    3. In the Geometry Import Parameters dialog box, set Choose Units to Millimeters.
    4. Ensure that the Merge Sections checkbox is not selected and that all the mesh settings have the default values.
    5. Click OK.
    6. Select and right-click or press F2 to rename each section appropriately as follows:
      • belt
      • hopper
      • lower hopper
      • guide_1
      • guide_2
  2. Specify the conveyor kinematics.
    1. Select belt in the Creator Tree Geometries section.
    2. Right-click and then select Add Motion > Add Conveyor Translation (New Motion 1) and set up the Specification properties as follows:


      This creates an acceleration of 1 m/s2 between 1 and 3 s of simulation time.

    3. Right-click belt to add a second Conveyor Translation (New Motion 2) and set up the second motion as follows:


      Note: The second motion is set to have a constant velocity of 2 m/s starting at 3 s. The motion of the belt is defined by the Start and End points. In this case, the values have been input manually. However, you can also use the Pick tool to pick a Start and End point values. The Display Vector checkbox, if selected, shows the direction of the selected motion in the Viewer.


  3. Create the particle factory plate.
    Note: Particle factories are used to define where, when and how particles will appear in a simulation. All factories must be based on a section of Geometry (whether 'real' or 'virtual'). This defines the area or volume in the model that produces the particles.
    1. Right-click Geometries in the Creator Tree.
    2. Select Add Geometry > Polygon and then enter the name 'factory_plate' into the highlighted field.
    3. Select the polygon and in the General section of the Detailed View set the type to Virtual, since the plate is not a physical part of the machinery.
    4. Expand factory_plate in the Creator Tree and select the Transform subsection.
    5. Set the position as follows:


    6. Select the Polygon subsection and specify the Number of Edges and Dimensions of the polygon as follows:


  4. Create the particle factory.
    1. Right-click factory_plate in the Creator Tree.
    2. Click Add Factory.
    3. Select the newly created factory and ensure that the Factory Type is set to 'dynamic'. If not, right-click the new factory in the Creator Tree and then select Change Factory Type.
    4. In the Particle Generation section, select Total Mass and set the value to 500 kg.
    5. In the Generation Rate section, select Target Mass and set the rate to 50 kg/sec.
  5. Set the initial parameters for the factory.
    1. In the Parameters section, ensure that you have selected 'rock' from the Material dropdown list.
    2. Set the Position to 'random' to ensure that the particles are randomly created over the entire area of the plate.
    3. Set the Velocity to fixed and click the icon to set the velocity in the z-direction to -2 m/s.
    4. Select File > Save.