Initiation of granular surface flows in a narrow channel

Abstract

We experimentally investigate how a long granular pile confined in a narrow channel destabilizes when it is inclined above the angle of repose. A uniform flow then develops, which is localized at the free surface. It first accelerates before reaching a steady uniform regime. During this process, an apparent erosion is observed and the thickness of the flowing layer increases. We precisely study the evolution of the vertical velocity profile in this transient regime. The measurements are compared with the prediction of a visco-plastic model [P. Jop, Y. Forterre and O. Pouliquen, Nature 441, 727 (2006)]

5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Physics of Fluids

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Power-law scaling in granular rheology across flow geometries
• Rheological properties of dense granular flows
• A multilayer shallow model for dry granular flows with the $\mu (I)$ rheology: Application to granular collapse on erodible beds
• 2D granular flows with the $\mu (I)$ rheology and side walls friction: a well balanced multilayer discretization
• Hydrodynamic modeling of granular flows in a modified Couette cell
• Flow-Arrest Transitions in Frictional Granular Matter
• A weakly non-hydrostatic shallow model for dry granular flows
• Transient response in granular quasi-2D bounded heap flow
• A note on Stokes' problem in dense granular media using the $\mu (I)$--rheology
• Flow-induced shear instabilities of cohesive granulates