For granular materials with low thermal conductivity heat transfer occurs through interstitial gases as well as through physical contacts. Existing particle based models are ill suited to dense systems so a multi-scale approach has been used to correlate the local packing structure to the gas contribution to conductive heat transfer in dense granular systems.
Heat transfer in granular materials is a common occurrence in many industrial applications. One such application is the heating of recycled asphalt product (RAP).
