Segregation during flow of granular materials is important from an industrial point of view. Granular materials segregate during flow due to their physical properties (such as size, shape, and density). A considerable work has been done on granular segregation in the past (two decades). This chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, a review of work done on heap formation is presented. Experimental work during heap formation by intermittent feeding is reported in the second part. The system used is a simplified model for the feeding of raw materials to a blast furnace, which is widely used for the manufacture of iron and steel. Experiments carried out using 2-D system and steel balls of size 1 and 2 mm are used as model granular materials. Image analysis is done to detect the position of each particle using an in-house computer code. Accuracy and efficiency of image analysis techniques were found to be good enough as we have used 1 and 2 mm spherical steel balls for all the cases studied. The chapter ends with concluding remarks.
Part of the book: Progress in Fine Particle Plasmas