Triangular avalanches and uphill instabilities
arXiv:cond-mat/9801132
Abstract
Recent experiments show that an avalanche initiated from a point source propagates downwards by invading a triangular shaped region. The opening angle of this triangle appears to reach 180 for a critical inclination of the pile, beyond which avalanches also propage upwards. We propose a simple interpretation of these observations, based on an extension of a phenomenological model for surface flows.
submitted to `Granular Matter'