Secondary Circulation in Granular Flow Through Nonaxisymmetric Hoppers

On the computation of steady hopper flows III: Model comparisons

Gravity flows of granular materials through hoppers are considered. For hoppers shaped as general nonaxisymmetric cones, i.e., “pyramids”, the flow inherits some simplified features from the geometry: similarity solutions can be constructed. Using two different plasticity laws, namely Matsuoka-Nakai and von Mises, those solutions are obtained by solving first order nonlinear partial differentia...

The sands of time run faster near the end

Grains exiting an underwater silo exhibit an unexpected surge in discharge rate as they empty. This contrasts with the constant flow rate of dry granular hoppers and the decreasing flow rate of pure liquids. Here we find that this surge depends on hopper diameter and happens also in air. The surge can be turned off by fixing the rate of fluid flow through the granular packing. With no flow cont...

Outflow and clogging of shape-anisotropic grains in hoppers with small apertures.

Outflow of granular material through a small orifice is a fundamental process in many industrial fields, for example in silo discharge, and in everyday's life. Most experimental studies of the dynamics have been performed so far with monodisperse disks in two-dimensional (2D) hoppers or spherical grains in 3D. We investigate this process for shape-anisotropic grains in 3D hoppers and discuss th...

Density waves in the flows of granular media.

We study density waves in the flows of granular particles through vertical tubes and hoppers using both analytic methods and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We construct equations of motion for quasi one-dimensional systems. The equations, combined with the Bagnold’s law for friction, are used to describe the time evolutions of the density and the velocity fields for narrow tubes and hoppe...

Numerical Determination of Flow Corrective Inserts for Granular Materials in Conical Hoppers*