Granular materials, such as soils, agricultural seeds, metallic and ceramic powders and pharmaceutical powders, are ubiquitous in nature and have many industrial applications. They possess unique physical properties and a complicated flow behaviour, which is determined both by interactions between the particles and by interactions with the surrounding media (i.e. liquids or gases). Depending on their stress states and density, granular materials can behave both liquid- or solid-like. Although extensive research has been devoted to understanding their complex behaviour and how to process and use these materials, our understanding of the thermomechanical behaviour of granular materials remains very limited, particularly in the following three areas:
1) How temperature increases within granular materials without the application of external heating sources, as a result of friction, particle deformation or particle-particle reactions, and then transfers among the granular materials — heat generation and transfer. Previous studies have primarily focused on heat transfer between granular materials and surrounding media;
2) How the accumulation of heat and subsequent temperature rise affect the physical properties of granular materials — thermal effects. Previous studies have often assumed that physical properties such as microstructure, flow and mechanical properties are temperature-independent and have ignored the fact that most of these properties are temperature-dependent;
3) How the thermomechanical attributes of granular materials can be effectively utilised in emerging applications, e.g. additive manufacturing, powder coating, heat regulation/insulation, and catalysis — processing and applications.
While PhD research in granular materials has clear potential in industrial applications in a range of sectors, much of the traditional research training that takes place in universities occurs without commercial and industrial context in a single scientific discipline and without due consideration of gender balance; so early stage researchers, in particular female ones, can miss out on the opportunity to gain insights into solving industrial challenges. This narrowness of exposure leads to researchers thinking of a future career either only in academia or only in the industrial sector that is most closely related to their PhD projects. Moreover, the lack of gender balance in conventional PhD training results in many talented female researchers missing their opportunities to embark on a science and technology career in such a fascinating field.
In order to address these challenges, the overall objectives of MATHEGRAM are 1) to perform a concerted and systematic programme of multidisciplinary research training in order to thoroughly understand the thermomechanical behaviour of granular materials and hence determine the more efficient use of these materials in different industrial sectors, e.g. through more realistic modelling and thorough experimental validation; and 2) to train the next generation of professional engineers/scientists.
