Collapse dynamics of dry granular columns: from free-fall to quasi-static flow

Abstract

Gravity-driven collapses involving large amounts of dense granular material, such as landslides, avalanches, or rockfalls, in a geophysical context, represent significant natural hazards. Understanding their complex dynamics is hence a key concern for risk assessment. In the present work, we report experiments on the collapse of quasi-two-dimensional dry granular columns under the effect of gravity, where both the velocity at which the grains are released and the aspect ratio of the column are varied to investigate the dynamics of the falling grains. At high release velocity, classical power laws for the final deposit are recovered, meaning those are representative of a free-fall like regime. For high enough aspect ratios, the top of the column undergoes an overall free-fall like motion. In addition, for all experiments, the falling grains also spread horizontally in a free-fall like motion, and the characteristic time of spreading is related to the horizontal extension reached by the deposit at all altitudes. At low release velocity, a quasi-static state is observed, with scaling laws for the final geometry identical to those of the viscous regime of granular-fluid flow. The velocity at which the grains are released governs the collapse dynamics. Between these two asymptotic regimes, the higher the release velocity, the smaller the impact on the collapse dynamics. The criterion V ≥ 0.4 √ gH0, where H0 is the initial height of the column, is found for the mean release velocity V not to influence the granular collapse.