Digital twins of waste particles for waste bulk simulations

Targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and mandatory future recycling rates, as defined in the European Union's circular economy package require more effective and efficient (mechanical) waste treatment processes, and therefore a better understanding of the processes and affordable metrology for material flow monitoring. Digital twins of waste particles can make a significant contribution by enabling the calibration of more complex discrete element method simulations and the generation of artificial training data for vision-based monitoring. Concrete implementation concepts for these applications are presented in this work. Furthermore, first results on the generation of particle twins, the collection of reference data for intensive DEM properties, and the digitisation of particle geometries are discussed: the former still poses significant challenges, while the latter has already been successfully implemented for some test particles using photogrammetry.