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Segregation, recirculation and deposition of coarse particles near two-dimensional avalanche fronts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2009

J. M. N. T. GRAY  and
C. ANCEY
J. M. N. T. GRAY*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Manchester Centre for Nonlinear Dynamics, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
C. ANCEY
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Ecublens, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Stratification patterns are formed when a bidisperse mixture of large rough grains and smaller more mobile particles is poured between parallel plates to form a heap. At low flow rates discrete avalanches flow down the free surface and are brought to rest by the propagation of shock waves. Experiments performed in this paper show that the larger particles are segregated to the top of the avalanche, where the velocity is greatest, and are transported to the flow front. Here the particles are overrun but may rise to the free surface again by size segregation to create a recirculating coarse-grained front. Once the front is established composite images show that there is a steady regime in which any additional large grains that reach the front are deposited. This flow is therefore analogous to finger formation in geophysical mass flows, where the larger less mobile particles are shouldered aside to spontaneously form static lateral levees rather than being removed by basal deposition in two dimensions. At the heart of all these phenomena is a dynamic feedback between the bulk flow and the evolving particle-size distribution within the avalanche. A fully coupled theory for such segregation–mobility feedback effects is beyond the scope of this paper. However, it is shown how to derive a simplified uncoupled travelling-wave solution for the avalanche motion and reconstruct the bulk two-dimensional flow field using assumed velocity profiles through the avalanche depth. This allows a simple hyperbolic segregation theory to be used to construct exact solutions for the particle concentration and for the recirculation within the bulk flow. Depending on the material composition and the strength of the segregation and deposition, there are three types of solution. The coarse-particle front grows in length if more large particles arrive than can be deposited. If there are fewer large grains and if the segregation is strong enough, a breaking size-segregation wave forms at a unique position behind the front. It consists of two expansion fans, two shocks and a central ‘eye’ of constant concentration that are arranged in a ‘lens-like’ structure. Coarse grains just behind the front are recirculated, while those reaching the head are overrun and deposited. Upstream of the wave, the size distribution resembles a small-particle ‘sandwich’ with a raft of rapidly flowing large particles on top and a coarse deposited layer at the bottom, consistent with the experimental observations made here. If the segregation is weak, the central eye degenerates, and all the large particles are deposited without recirculation.

JFM classification

Granular media: Granular media
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 629 , 25 June 2009 , pp. 387 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Gray and Ancey supplementary movie

Movie 1. An animation showing how the stratification pattern shown in figure 1 is built up by the passage of two avalanches. Each avalanche has a coarse rich flow front and is strongly inversely graded behind, with large white sugar crystals on top of smaller more mobile iron spheres. The avalanches are brought to rest by a normal shock (Gray & Hutter 1997; Gray, Tai & Noelle 2003) and the stationary free-surface forms the new slope for the next avalanche to flow down. By placing a ruler along the initial slope of the pile it is possible to visualize the deposition of large particles as the coarse rich front flows past.

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