Particle size segregation in granular avalanches: A brief review of recent progress.

Gray, J. M. N. T. (2010) Particle size segregation in granular avalanches: A brief review of recent progress. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1227 (1). pp. 343-362.

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Abstract

Hazardous natural flows such as snow avalanches, debris-flows, lahars and pyroclastic flows are part of a much wider class of granular avalanches, that frequently occur in industrial processes and in our kitchens! Granular avalanches are very efficient at sorting particles by size, with the smaller ones percolating down towards the base and squeezing the larger grains up towards the free-surface, to create inversely-graded layers. This paper provides a short introduction and review of recent theoretical advances in describing segregation and remixing with relatively simple hyperbolic and parabolic models. The derivation from two phase mixture theory is briefly summarized and links are drawn to earlier models of Savage & Lun and Dolgunin & Ukolov. The more complex parabolic version of the theory has a diffusive force that competes against segregation and yields S-shaped steady-state concentration profiles through the avalanche depth, that are able to reproduce results obtained from particle dynamics simulations. Time-dependent exact solutions can be constructed by using the Cole-Hopf transformation to linearize the segregation-remixing equation and the nonlinear surface and basal boundary conditions. In the limit of no diffusion, the theory is hyperbolic and the grains tend to separate out into completely segregated inversely graded layers. A series of elementary problems are used to demonstrate how concentration shocks, expansion fans, breaking waves and the large and small particles paths can be computed exactly using the model. The theory is able to capture the key features of the size distribution observed in stratification experiments, and explains how a large particle rich front is connected to an inversely graded avalanche in the interior. The theory is simple enough to couple it to the bulk flow field to investigate segregation-mobility feedback effects that spontaneously generate self-channelizing leveed avalanches, which can significantly enhance the total run-out distance of geophysical mass flows

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	segregation; granular flow; functional analysis; percolation; Fourier series
Subjects:	MSC 2010, the AMS's Mathematics Subject Classification > 70 Mechanics of particles and systems MSC 2010, the AMS's Mathematics Subject Classification > 76 Fluid mechanics PACS 2010, the AIP's Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme > 40 ELECTROMAGNETISM, OPTICS, ACOUSTICS, HEAT TRANSFER, CLASSICAL MECHANICS, AND FLUID MECHANICS > 46 Continuum mechanics of solids
Depositing User:	Prof JMNT Gray
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2010
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2017 14:12
URI:	https://eprints.maths.manchester.ac.uk/id/eprint/1465

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