A scalar constitutive law was recently obtained for dense granular flows from a two-grain argument, both in the inertial regime (grain inertia) and in the viscous regime. As the resulting law is not exactly the same in both regimes, we here provide an expression for the crossover between both regimes.
A scalar constitutive law is obtained for dense granular flows, both in the inertial regime where the grain inertia dominates, and in the viscous regime. Considering a pair of grains rather than a single grain, the classical arguments yield a constitutive law that exhibits a flow threshold expressed as a finite effective friction at flow onset. The value of the threshold is not predicted. The resulting law seems to be compatible with existing data, provided the saturation at high velocity (collisional regime) is added empirically. The law is not exactly the same in both regimes, which seems to…
We present a thermodynamically consistent constitutive model for fluid-saturated sediments, spanning dense to dilute regimes, developed from the basic balance laws for two phase-mixtures. The model can represent various limiting cases, such as pure fluid and dry grains. It is formulated to capture a number of key behaviors such as: (i) viscous inertial rheology of submerged wet grains under steady shearing flows, (ii) the critical state behavior of grains, which causes granular Reynolds dilation/contraction due to shear, (iii) the viscous thickening of the fluid response due to the presence of…
Shear flow of dense, non-Brownian suspensions is simulated using the discrete element method, taking particle contact and hydrodynamic lubrication into account. The resulting flow regimes are mapped in the parametric space of solid volume fraction, shear rate, fluid viscosity and particle stiffness. Below a critical volume fraction $ϕ_c$, the rheology is governed by the Stokes number, which distinguishes between viscous and inertial flow regimes. Above $ϕ_c$, a quasistatic regime exists for low and moderate shear rates. At very high shear rates, the $ϕ$ dependence is lost and soft particle rhe…
The rheology of dense granular flows is often seen as dependent on the nature of the energy landscape defining the modes of energy relaxation under shear. We investigate numerically the transition from soft to rigid particles, varying $S$, their stiffness compared to the confining pressure over three decades and the inertial number $I$ of the shear flow over five decades. We show that the rheological constitutive relation, characterized by a dynamical friction coefficient of the form $μ(I)=μ_c + a I^α$ is marginally affected by the particle stiffness, with constitutive parameters being essenti…
Numerical simulations are used to test the kinetic theory constitutive relations of inertial granular shear flow. These predictions are shown to be accurate in the dilute regime, where only binary collisions are relevant, but underestimate the measured value in the dense regime, where force networks of size $ξ$ are present. The discrepancy in the dense regime is due to non-collisional forces that we measure directly in our simulations and arise from elastic deformations of the force networks. We model the non-collisional stress by summing over all paths that elastic waves travel through force …
We model a shear-thickening fluid that combines a tendency to form inhomogeneous, shear-banded flows with a slow relaxational dynamics for fluid microstructure. The interplay between these factors gives rich dynamics, with periodic regimes (oscillating bands, travelling bands, and more complex oscillations) and spatiotemporal rheochaos. These phenomena, arising from constitutive nonlinearity not inertia, can occur even when the steady-state flow curve is monotonic. Our model also shows rheochaos in a low-dimensional truncation where sharply defined shear bands cannot form.
In this letter, we investigate the transient rheological behavior of immersed granular flows using both experiments of submerged granular column collapses and corresponding numerical simulations. The simulations are performed with the lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) coupled with the discrete element method (DEM) and provide a significant amount of data of the stress and deformation conditions at different positions and times during the granular collapse. We derive a new dimensionless number $\mathcal{G}$ that can unify the rheology of transient granular flows in different regimes for all the si…
Coalescence of sessile polymeric fluid drops on a partially wettable substrate exhibits a transition from inertial to viscoelastic regime at concentration ratio $c/c^* \sim 1$. Our findings unveil that the temporal evolution of the growing bridge height follows a power-law behaviour $t^b$, such that the coefficient $b$ continuously decreases from 2/3 in the inertial regime ($c/c^*<1$) to an asymptotic value of 1/2 in the visco-elastic regime ($c/c^*>1$). To account for fluid elasticity and characteristic time-scale in the viscoelastic regime, a modified thin film equation under lubrication app…
We analyze a suspension of deformable particles in a pressure-driven flow. The suspension is composed of neutrally buoyant initially spherical particles and a Newtonian carrier fluid, and the flow is solved by means of direct numerical simulations, using a fully Eulerian method based on a one-continuum formulation. The solid phase is modeled with an incompressible viscous hyperelastic constitutive relation, and the flow is characterized by three main dimensionless parameters, namely the solid volume fraction, the Reynolds and capillary numbers. The dependency of the effective viscosity on thes…
Understanding the rheology of granular assemblies is important for natural and engineering systems, but the relationship between inter-particle friction (or microscopic friction) and macroscopic friction is still not well understood. In this study, using the the discrete element method (DEM) with spherical particles and realistic contact laws, we investigate the mechanics of granular systems with a wide range of inter-particle frictional coefficients and aim to establish a friction-dependent rheology for dry granular flows. The corresponding results show that increasing inter-particle friction…
We propose and numerically implement a constitutive framework for granular media that allows the material to traverse through its many common phases during the flow process. When dense, the material is treated as a pressure sensitive elasto-viscoplastic solid obeying a yield criterion and a plastic flow rule given by the $μ(I)$ inertial rheology of granular materials. When the free volume exceeds a critical level, the material is deemed to separate and is treated as disconnected, stress-free media. A Material Point Method (MPM) procedure is written for the simulation of this model and many dem…
We study the steady plane shear flow of a dense assembly of frictional, inelastic disks using discrete simulation and prescribing the pressure and the shear rate. We show that, in the limit of rigid grains, the shear state is determined by a single dimensionless number, called inertial number I, which describes the ratio of inertial to pressure forces. Small values of I correspond to the quasi-static regime of soil mechanics, while large values of I correspond to the collisional regime of the kinetic theory. Those shear states are homogeneous, and become intermittent in the quasi-static regime…
The constitutive relations of a dense granular flow composed of self-propelling frictional hard particles are investigated by means of DEM numerical simulations. We show that the rheology, which relates the dynamical friction $μ$ and the volume fraction $ϕ$ to the inertial number $I$, depends on a dimensionless number $\mathcal{A}$, which compares the active force to the confining pressure. Two liquid/solid transitions -- in the Maxwell rigidity sense -- are observed. As soon as the activity is turned on, the packing becomes an `active solid' with a mean number of particle contacts larger than…
School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(上海交通大学物理与天文学院);College of Physics, Chengdu University of Technology(成都理工大学物理学院);Med-X Research Institute and School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(上海交通大学Med-X研究院与生物医学工程学院);School of Physics, East China Normal University(华东师范大学物理系);Jiangsu First-Imaging Medical Equipment Co., Ltd.(江苏首影医疗设备有限公司);State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology(成都大学地质灾害防治与地质环境国家重点实验室)
We analyze transient dynamics during shear start-up in viscoelastic flows between two parallel plates, with a specific focus on the signatures for the onset of transient shear banding using the Johnson-Segalman, non-stretching Rolie-Poly and Giesekus models. We explore the dynamics of shear start-up in monotonic regions of the constitutive curves using two different methodologies: (i) the oft-used `frozen-time' linear stability (eigenvalue) analysis, wherein we examine whether infinitesimal perturbations imposed on instantaneous stress components (treated as quasi steady states) exhibit expone…
We perform $3$D numerical simulations to investigate the sedimentation of a single sphere in the absence and presence of a simple cross shear flow in a yield stress fluid with weak inertia. In our simulations, the settling flow is considered to be the primary flow, whereas the linear cross shear flow is a secondary flow with amplitude $10\%$ of the primary flow. To study the effects of elasticity and plasticity of the carrying fluid on the sphere drag as well as the flow dynamics, the fluid is modeled using the elastovisco-plastic (EVP) constitutive laws proposed by \cite{saramito2009new}. The…