Density inversion in rapid granular flows: the supported regime

This paper presents numerical findings on rapid 2D and 3D granular flows on a bumpy base. In the supported regime studied here, a strongly sheared, dilute and agitated layer spontaneously appears at the base of the flow and supports a compact packing of grains moving as a whole. In this regime, the flow behaves like a sliding block on the bumpy base. In particular, for flows on a horizontal base, the average velocity decreases linearly in time and the average kinetic energy decreases linearly with the travelled distance, those features being characteristic of solid-like friction. This allows us to define and measure an effective friction coefficient, which is independent of the mass and velocity of the flow. This coefficient only loosely depends on the value of the micromechanical friction coefficient whereas the infuence of the bumpiness of the base is strong. We give evidence that this dilute and agitated layer does not result in significantly less friction. Finally, we show that a steady regime of supported flows can exist on inclines whose angle is carefully chosen.     

Dispersive flow of disks through a two-dimensional Galton board

We report here an experimental and numerical study of the flow properties of disks driven by gravity through a hexagonal lattice of obstacles, i.e. a Galton board. During the fall, particles experience dissipative collisions that scatter them in random directions. A driven-diffusion regime can be achieved under certain conditions. A characteristic length of the motion and its dependence on geometrical parameters of the system is analyzed in the steady regime. The influence of collective effects on the dispersion process is investigated by comparison between single- and many-particle flows. The characterization of the dynamics and the diffusive properties of the flow in a system like a Galton board can be expanded to other granular systems, particularly static solid particle mixers and will give some insight in understanding granular mixing.     

Effective potentials of dissipative hard spheres in granular matter

We present an experimental study of the spatial correlations of a quasi-two-dimensional dissipative gas kept in a non-static steady state via vertical shaking. From high temporal resolution images we obtain the Pair Distribution Function (PDF) for granular species with different restitution coefficients. Effective potentials for the interparticle interaction are extracted using the Ornstein-Zernike equation with the Percus-Yevick closure. From both the PDFs and the corresponding effective potentials, we find a clear increase of the spatial correlation at contact with the decreasing values of the restitution coefficient.     

Nonlinear dynamics of density waves in granular flows through narrow vertical channels

We study granular flows through narrow channels driven by gravity in the framework of the kinetic theory for dissipative dense gases. We derive equations of motion for quasi-one-dimensional systems. In a certain range of flow density, the steady homogeneous regime is found to be unstable against the formation of density waves. We show moreover that near the onset of the instability, the governing equation for the flow density is a mixture of the Korteweg-de-Vries equation, which leads to soliton, and the Bürger equation which exhibits spatio-temporal chaos. The competition between chaos and solitons may lead either to regular spatially ordered density waves or to chaotic dynamics. We argue that these two types of dynamics can be encountered experimentally according to the channel width and the dissipative properties of the granular media. Received: 11 March 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 3 July 1998     

Constitutive relations for steady flows of dense granular liquids

The micropolar model is a continuum-mechanical model suited to describe a collection of particles interacting via forces and couples. When applied to dense granular liquids that model must display some specific features because of the peculiarities of the frictional forces. We want here to stress on some of those specific features including the existence of two kinds of fluctuating kinetic energies (for translation and rotation), their evolution equations in which enters the mean dissipation rate, and how an estimation (or numerical calculation) of the dissipation rate can lead to the constitutive laws of dense granular liquids in steady flows.     

Kinematic segregation of granular mixtures in sandpiles

We study the segregation of granular mixtures in two-dimensional silos using a recently proposed set of coupled equations for surface flows of grains. We study the thick flow regime, where the grains are segregated in the rolling phase. We incorporate this dynamical segregation process, called kinematic sieving, free-surface segregation or percolation, into the theoretical formalism and calculate the profiles of the rolling species and the concentration of grains in the bulk in the steady state. Our solution shows the segregation of the mixture with the large grains being found at the bottom of the pile in qualitative agreement with experiments. Received: 6 July 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 13 August 1998     

Dynamics of fully nonlinear drift wave-zonal flow turbulence system in plasmas

We present numerical simulations of fully nonlinear drift wave-zonal flow (DW-ZF) turbulence systems in a nonuniform magnetoplasma. In our model, the drift wave (DW) dynamics is pseudo-three-dimensional (pseudo-3D) and accounts for self-interactions among finite amplitude DWs and their coupling to the two-dimensional (2D) large amplitude zonal flows (ZFs). The dynamics of the 2D ZFs in the presence of the Reynolds stress of the pseudo-3D DWs is governed by the driven Euler equation. Numerical simulations of the fully nonlinear coupled DW-ZF equations reveal that short scale DW turbulence leads to nonlinear saturated dipolar vortices, whereas the ZF sets in spontaneously and is dominated by a monopolar vortex structure. The ZFs are found to suppress the cross-field turbulent particle transport. The present results provide a better model for understanding the coexistence of short and large scale coherent structures, as well as associated subdued cross-field particle transport in magnetically confined fusion plasmas.     

Discrete Element Method studies of the collision of one rapid sphere on 2D and 3D packings

We performed numerical simulations of one-bead collision on the surface of a static granular medium. The simulations have been done for two- and three-dimensional packings of beads. The effect of the incident bead velocity, the shot angle, the mechanical parameters and the packing structure are analyzed for ordered and disordered 2D packings and only disordered 3D packings. The 2D results are in good agreement with experimental available data. The 3D simulations give good preliminaries results about the shock-wave propagation through the stacking and provides new insights in the ejection process (“splash function”).     

Dynamical and thermodynamical stability of two-dimensional flows: variational principles and relaxation equations

We review and connect different variational principles that have been proposed to settle the dynamical and thermodynamical stability of two-dimensional incompressible and inviscid flows governed by the 2D Euler equation. These variational principles involve functionals of a very wide class that go beyond the usual Boltzmann functional. We provide relaxation equations that can be used as numerical algorithms to solve these optimization problems. These relaxation equations have the form of nonlinear mean field Fokker-Planck equations associated with generalized “entropic” functionals [P.H. Chavanis, Eur. Phys. J. B 62, 179 (2008)].     

Effects of Fractal Size Distributions on Velocity Distributions and Correlations of a Polydisperse Granular Gas

By the Monte Carlo method, the effect of dispersion of disc size distribution on the velocity distributions and correlations of a polydisperse granular gas with fractal size distribution is investigated in the same inelasticity. The dispersion can be described by a fractal dimension D, and the smooth hard discs are engaged in a two- dimensional horizontal rectangular box, colliding inelastically with each other and driven by a homogeneous heat bath. In the steady state, the tails of the velocity distribution functions rise more significantly above a Gaussian as D increases, but the non-Gaussian velocity distribution functions do not demonstrate any apparent universal form for any value of D. The spatial velocity correlations are apparently stronger with the increase of D. The perpendicular correlations are about half the parallel correlations, and the two correlations are a power-law decay function of dimensionless distance and are of a long range. Moreover, the parallel velocity correlations of postcollisional state at contact are more than twice as large as the precollisional correlations, and both of them show almost linear behaviour of the fractal dimension D.     

Intermittent granular flow and clogging with internal avalanches

The dynamics of intermittent granular flow through an orifice at the bottom of a granular bin and the associated clogging due to formation of arches blocking the outlet, is studied numerically in two dimensions. When the hole size is less than the grain diameter, only a single grain is removed from the system so that the system self-organizes to a steady state and the distribution of the grain displacements decays as power laws. On the other hand, when hole sizes are within few times of the grain diameter, the outflow distributions are also observed to follow a power law. Received 21 July 1999 and Received in final form 17 September 1999     

Statistical mechanics of geophysical turbulence: application to jovian flows and Jupiter’s great red spot

We propose a parameterization of 2D geophysical turbulence in the form of a relaxation equation similar to a generalized Fokker–Planck equation [P.H. Chavanis, Phys. Rev. E 68 (2003) 036108]. This equation conserves circulation and energy and increases a generalized entropy functional determined by a prior vorticity distribution fixed by small-scale forcing [R. Ellis, K. Haven, B. Turkington, Nonlinearity 15 (2002) 239]. We discuss applications of this formalism to jovian atmosphere and Jupiter’s great red spot. We show that, in the limit of small Rossby radius where the interaction becomes short-range, our relaxation equation becomes similar to the Cahn–Hilliard equation describing phase ordering kinetics. This strengthens the analogy between the jet structure of the great red spot and a “domain wall”. Our relaxation equation can also serve as a numerical algorithm to construct arbitrary nonlinearly dynamically stable stationary solutions of the 2D Euler equation. These solutions can represent jets and vortices that emerge in 2D turbulent flows as a result of violent relaxation. Due to incomplete relaxation, the statistical prediction may fail and the system can settle on a stationary solution of the 2D Euler equation which is not the most mixed state. In that case, it can be useful to construct more general nonlinearly dynamically stable stationary solutions of the 2D Euler equation in an attempt to reproduce observed phenomena.     

On granular surface flow equations

Conservation equations are written for surface flows (either fluid or granular). The particularity of granular surface flows is then pointed out, namely that the depth of the flowing layer is not a priori fixed, leading to open equations. It is shown how some hypothesis on the flowing layer allows to close the system of equations. A possible hypothesis, similar to that made for a fluid layer, but inspired from granular flow experiments, is presented. The force acting on the flowing layer is discussed. Averaging over the flowing depth, as in shallow water theory, then allows to transform these conservation laws into equations for the evolution of the profile of a granular pile. Apart from their interest for building models, these conservation laws can be used to measure experimentally the effective forces acting on a flowing layer. Received 25 July 1998 and Received in final form 14 January 1999     

Ghost Fluid方法与双介质可压缩流动计算

应用带有Isobaric修正的GhostFluid方法配合LevelSet方法计算可压缩双介质无粘流动.该方法可以消除计算流体界面时所产生的数值跳动和耗散,且编程上比界面跟踪法简单.应用WENO格式数值求解欧拉方程和LevelSet方程,对由刚性气体状态方程所支配的一二维双介质流动进行数值计算,得到了分辨率较高的计算结果.     

Nearly smooth granular gases

Hydrodynamic equations for nearly smooth granular gases are derived from the pertinent Boltzmann equation. The angular velocity distribution field needs to be included in the set of hydrodynamic fields. The angular velocity distribution is strongly non-Maxwellian for the homogeneous cooling state and any homogeneous steady state. In the case of steady wall-bounded shear flows the average spin (created at the boundaries) has a finite penetration length into the bulk.     

Bäcklund Transformations,Solitary Waves,Conoid Waves and Bessel Waves of the (2+1)-Dimensional Euler equation

Some simple special Bäcklund transformation theorems are proposed and utilized to obtain exact solutions for the (2+1)-dimensional Euler equation. It is found that the (2+1)-dimensional Euler equation possesses abundant soliton or solitary wave structures, conoid periodic wave structures and the quasi-periodic Bessel wave structures on account of the arbitrary functions in its solutions. Moreover, all solutions of the arbitrary two dimensional nonlinear Poisson equation can be used to construct exact solutions of the (2+1)-dimensional Euler equation.     

Bidisperse granular avalanches on inclined planes: A rich variety of behaviors

Experiments were performed to provide insight into the flow behavior and structure of bimodal mixtures of grains in gravity-driven, free-surface flows. Unsteady unconfined flows were produced by releasing instantaneously a dry granular mass, composed of two particle sizes, over a rough inclined plane. As a result of size segregation, the small particles are found at the bottom of the flow and final deposit, the large particles are found at the free surface, but also on the lateral borders and at the front of the flow. The lateral and vertical inhomogeneous repartitions of particles lead to two main effects that are completely absent in monodispersed flows. The outline effect results from the accumulation of large beads on the periphery of the flow depending on the value of the relative friction of each particle species on the plane. This effect in turn causes a narrowing of the flow and/or an increase of length of the final deposit. The interface effect results of the interaction between layers of different size particles and causes the modification of the thickness of the deposit. These effects occur simultaneously and their combination leads to a great variety of behaviors. In this investigation, evidence of the diversity of behaviors is presented as the size ratio, relative friction and concentration of each particle species are varied.     

On Two-Dimensional Sonic-Subsonic Flow

A compensated compactness framework is established for sonic-subsonic approximate solutions to the two-dimensional Euler equations for steady irrotational flows that may contain stagnation points. Only crude estimates are required for establishing compactness. It follows that the set of subsonic irrotational solutions to the Euler equations is compact; thus flows with sonic points over an obstacle, such as an airfoil, may be realized as limits of sequences of strictly subsonic flows. Furthermore, sonic-subsonic flows may be constructed from approximate solutions. The compactness framework is then extended to self-similar solutions of the Euler equations for unsteady irrotational flows.