No abstract

The Beverloo scaling for the gravity flow of granular materials through orifices has two distinct universal features. On the one hand, the flow rate is independent of the height of the granular column. On the other hand, less well-known yet more striking, the flow rate is fairly insensitive to the material properties of the grains (density, Young's modulus, friction coefficient, etc.). We show that both universal features are lost if work is done on the system at a high rate. In contrast to viscous fluids, the flow rate increases during discharge if a constant pressure is applied to the free surface of a granular column. Moreover, the flow rate becomes sensitive to the material properties. Nevertheless, a new universal feature emerges: the dissipated power scaled by the mean pressure and the flow rate follows a master curve for forced and unforced conditions and for all material properties studied. We show that this feature can be explained if the granular flow in the silo is assumed to be a quasistatic shear flow under the μ(I)-rheology.

We investigate, at a laboratory scale, the collapse of cylindrical shells of radius R and thickness t induced by a granular discharge. We measure the critical filling height for which the structure fails upon discharge. We observe that the silos sustain filling heights significantly above an estimation obtained by coupling standard shell-buckling and granular stress distribution theories. Two effects contribute to stabilize the structure: (i) below the critical filling height, a dynamical stabilization due to granular wall friction prevents the localized shell-buckling modes to grow irreversibly; (ii) above the critical filling height, collapse occurs before the downward sliding motion of the whole granular column sets in, such that only a partial friction mobilization is at play. However, we notice also that the critical filling height is reduced as the grain size d increases. The importance of grain size contribution is controlled by the ratio d= ffiffiffiffiffi Rt p . We rationalize these antagonist effects with a novel fluid-structure theory both accounting for the actual status of granular friction at the wall and the inherent shell imperfections mediated by the grains. This theory yields new scaling predictions which are compared with the experimental results.

We study experimentally the collective motion of grains inside a U shaped tube undergoing vertical oscillations, and we develop a very simple quantitative model that captures relevant features of the observed behaviour. The height difference between the granular columns grows with time when the system is shaken at sufficiently low frequencies. The system exhibits two types of growth: exponentially divergent (type I) and exponentially saturating (type II), depending on the size of the grains. The type I growth can be quenched by removing the air whereas the type II behavior can occur in the absence of air. There is a good agreement between the model proposed and our experimental results.