Script for Computing Radial and Tangential Velocity Components of a Particle

Overview

This EDEMpy Python script calculates the radial and tangential velocity components of a particle with reference to a line in space. As illustrated in Figure 1, the position vector is the location of the particle and is orthogonal to the reference line. v_radial is the projection of the particle’s velocity vector (v) on to the position vector, and will therefore be parallel to the position vector. v_tangential is the difference between v and v_radial.

The script along with an example simulation can be found here.

Figure 1 - Radial and Tangential Velocity Components of a Particle

  0 = vector magnitude

  1 = x-component

  2 = y-component

  3 = z-component

The script writes custom properties for the EDEM simulation deck and should therefore be executed either from another EDEM instance or otherwise externally. 

Table 1 - Comparison Between Radial and Tangential Velocity in a Cone Test

Radial Velocity	Tangential Velocity

Pre-Requisite

EDEM 2022.3

Usage/Installation Instructions

The settings of the script are contained in Velocity_analyst_settings.txt and defined in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Radial and Tangential Velocity Script Settings Key