Sheng Jiajun¹，Zheng Zhengding¹， Zhou Ziyang¹， Wu Pengmin²

1.Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Equipment and Control Technology of Ministry of Education， Hubei Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission and Manufacturing Engineering， Wuhan University of Science and Technology， Wuhan 430081， China； 2.Coking Engineering Construction Standard Institute， MCC5 Group Shanghai Corporation Limited， Shanghai 201999， China

Abstract

Objective By integrating the micro-parameters and morphological characteristics of refractory mortar particles and taking the angle of repose as the response value， a discrete element parameter calibration method is established to provide high-fidelity input parameters for the CFD-DEM optimization design of refractory mortar pumping systems.

Methods Refractory mortar particles with particle sizes of 20， 300， and 550 μm were selected as research objects， and discrete element models of refractory mortar particles with three morphologies， namely quasi‑circular， quasi‑block， and quasi‑conical， were established. Numerical values of the angle of repose were obtained through physical experiments. Significant influencing factors among the parameters to be calibrated were screened out using Plackett-Burman experimental design. The reasonable value ranges of the significant factors were narrowed down by the steepest ascent experiment. Finally， response surface analysis was carried out via Box-Behnken experiments to obtain a second-order regression equation model， and the optimal parameter combination of significant influencing factors reflecting the accumulation characteristics of refractory mortar particles was determined.

Results and Discussion The average angle of repose of refractory mortar particles measured through multiple groups of physical stacking experiments was 41.87°. The results of the Plackett-Burman experiment showed that among the seven parameters to be calibrated， particle surface energy and the rolling friction coefficient between particles were highly significant influencing factors on the angle of repose， the static friction coefficient between particles was a significant influencing factor， and the coefficient of restitution between particles， the coefficient of restitution between particles and the pipe wall， the static friction coefficient between particles and the pipe wall， and the rolling friction coefficient between particles and the pipe wall were insignificant influencing factors. The steepest ascent experiment further narrowed the reasonable value ranges of particle surface energy， the rolling friction coefficient between particles， and the static friction coefficient between particles. The optimal parameter combination was determined by the Box‑Behnken response surface methodology， namely the particle surface energy was 0.004 J/m²， the static friction coefficient between particles was 1.096， and the rolling friction coefficient between particles was 0.17， with the insignificant influencing factors set at their median values. Based on the optimal parameter combination， discrete element simulation verification was performed using the EDEM software， and the average angle of repose obtained from the simulation experiments was 42.23°. The relative error between each simulation result and the experimental result was less than 5%， and the relative error of the total samples was 0.68%.

Conclusion Simulation experiments are carried out using the optimal parameter combination determined by the discrete element parameter calibration method for refractory mortar particles. The resulting angle of repose shows a high fitting degree with the experimental value， enabling accurate prediction of the actual accumulation behavior of refractory mortar particles. This provides high-precision simulation input parameters for the CFD-DEM optimization design of pumping systems.

Keywords： refractory mortar particle； angle of repose； discrete element； parameter calibration

Get Citation: Sheng Jiajun， Zheng Zhengding， Zhou Ziyang， et al. Calibration of simulation parameters for refractory mortar particles based on discrete element method［J］. China Powder Science and Technology， 2026， 32（4）： 1-13.

Received: 2025-09-22, Revised: 2026-04-02, Online: 2026-06-02.

DOI：10.13732/j.issn.1008-5548.2026.04.011

CLC No.：TB4；TF576

Type Code: A

Serial No.：1008-5548（2026）04-0001-13