Discharge procedures of spherical particles with 5 sizes and 3 different physical properties (non-adhesive soft and hard, and adhesive hard) within a flat bottomed silo have been simulated using the Distinct Element Method. Three particles on the central line have been selected and their velocities ahve been traced for the three systems. The amounts of discharge have been recorded throughout the procedure. The predicted results show there is no significant difference with the hard and soft systems except the soft one has a significant larger critical time step, this suggests we can use soft modulus to simulate hard ones so as to speed up the iteration without loosing accuracy. Comparison of teh hard with and without adhesion provides similar phenomena but a significant delay for the adhesive because of adhesion. Free gravitational fall, a special feature in plug flow, was detected during the soft system discharge proceeded.
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