EDEM API - Collision Energy Loss Model

Overview

Attached to this post you will find the source code and the compiled dll and so files for the calculation of the collision energy loss. The model calculates the normal, tangential and total energy loss of a collision. The energy loss calculation is based on the work of the damping components of the normal force, tangential force, and torque. The collision energy loss has been used in the mining industry in which the comminution efficiency of ball and SAG mills is related to the energy loss.

The work of the normal damping force is given by:

in which Fnd is the damping component of the normal force, v is the relative velocity between the two elements and the subscripts t and t-1 indicate the current and previous timestep, respectively.

The work of the tangential damping force, and torque are given, in a similar way, by:

in which Ftd is the damping component of the tangential force, Td is the damping component of the torque and ω is the angular velocity of an element.

Update April 2025: The energy loss model has been updated to version 3.8 of the API. This means that the API only works on EDEM 2025.0 or newer versions. This new version of the API uses the new counter properties, which means that users now not only have access to the total energy loss but also have access to the energy loss distribution in the form of a histogram.

Usage/Installation Instructions

To use the API, put the dll/so (Windows/Linux) file in the same folder as your .dem file. If you want to run the simulation using the GPU, you also have to put the .cu file in that same folder.

While in the Creator, go to the Physics section and add the model as a particle-particle or particle-geometry contact model. Once the model is added, click on the wheel icon and set the parameters used to create the energy loss histogram. If the model is added as both particle-particle and particle-geometry, the parameters in both GUIs must be the same.