Multiscale analysis of thermomechanical behaviour of granular materials
Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and in various industries, such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and ceramics. Their thermomechanical behaviours are governed by the interactions between solid particles, as well as between particles and the surrounding media (gas or liquid). Although granular materials have been investigated extensively, there are still some unsolved challenging issues concerning the thermomechanical behaviours, including heat generation (i.e. self-heating) and transfer, and thermal effects on material properties and process performance. Furthermore, the unique thermomechanical attributes have led to emerging applications with granular materials, such as additive manufacturing, powder coating, high quality composites, insulation and efficient thermal processing for energy conservation, but there is a lack of mechanistic understanding of thermomechanical behaviour of granular materials in these emerging applications. MATHEGRAM will hence deliver a timely, concerted research and training programme to address these challenges, bringing together a multi-disciplinary and inter-sectorial consortium consisting of 6 leading academic institutes, 4 non-academic beneficiaries and 6 partner organisations from 8 EU member states. Our vision is to develop robust new numerical models and novel experimental techniques that can predict and characterise heat generation and transfer, as well as thermal effects in granular materials. The enhanced mechanistic understanding of granular materials will enable them to be used in diverse industries, while also achieving energy conservation and CO2 emission reduction. We will also train a cohort of 15 ESRs with balanced gender, who will be the next generation scientific and technological leaders with competency and the research and transferable skills to work effectively across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries.