Density-wave fronts in a vibrofluidized wet granular layer undergoing a gas-liquid-like transition are investigated experimentally. The threshold of the instability is governed by the amplitude of the vertical vibrations. Fronts, which are curved into a spiral shape, propagate coherently along the circular rim of the container with leading edges. They are stable beyond a critical distance from the container center. Based on an analysis of the emerging time and length scales, we propose a model for the pattern formation by considering the competition between the time scale for the condensation of wet granular particles from a gas-like state and that of the energy injection resisting this process.
The collective behavior of a two-dimensional wet granular cluster under horizontal swirling motions is investigated experimentally. Depending on the balance between the energy injection and dissipation, the cluster evolves into various nonequilibrium stationary states with strong internal structure fluctuations with time. Quantitative characterizations of the fluctuations with the bond orientational order parameter $q_{\rm 6}$ reveal power spectra of the form $f^α$ with the exponent $α$ closely related to the stationary states of the system. In particular, $1/f$ type of noise with $α\approx-1$…
The impact dynamics between wet surfaces, which dominates the mechanical properties of wet granular matter, is studied both experimentally and theoretically. It is shown that the hysteretic formation and rupture of liquid capillary bridges between adjacent grains accounts reasonably well for most relevant cases of wet granular matter. The various dissipation mechanisms are discussed with particular emphasis on their relevance. Variations of the rupture energy loss with the impact energy are quantified and discussed.
Pattern formation of a thin layer of vertically agitated wet granular matter is investigated experimentally. Rotating spirals with three arms, which correspond to the kinks between regions with different colliding phases, are the dominating pattern. This preferred number of arms corresponds to period tripling of the agitated granular layer, unlike predominantly subharmonic Faraday crispations in dry granular matter. The chirality of the spatiotemporal pattern corresponds to the rotation direction of the spirals.
We investigate experimentally the collective behavior of a wet granular monolayer under vertical vibrations. The spherical particles are partially wet such that there are short-ranged attractive interactions between adjacent particles. As the vibration strength increases, clustering, reorganizing and melting regimes are identified subsequently through a characterization with the bond-orientational order parameters and the mean kinetic energy of the particles. The melting transition is found to be a continuous process starting from the defects inside the crystal.
In this work we derive an analytic expression for the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of dilute wet granular matter, valid for any spatial dimension. The grains are modelled as hard spheres and the influence of the wetting liquid is described according to the Capillary Model, in which dissipation is due to the hysteretic cohesion force of capillary bridges. The Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy is expanded in a series with respect to density. We find a rapid increase of the leading term when liquid is added. This demonstrates the sensitivity of the granular dynamics to humidity, and shows that the liquid sign…
Combining high-speed photography with laser profilometry, we study the dynamics and the morphology of liquid-drop impact cratering in wet granular media---a ubiquitous phenomenon relevant to many important geological, agricultural, and industrial processes. By systematically investigating important variables such as impact energy, the size of impinging drops and the degree of liquid saturation in granular beds, we uncover a novel scaling for the size of impact craters. We show that this scaling can be explained by considering the balance between the inertia of impinging drops and the strength …
Wet granular aggregates are common precursors of construction materials, food, and health care products. The physical mechanisms involved in the mixing of dry grains with a wet substrate are not well understood and difficult to control. Here, we study experimentally the accretion of dry grains on a wet granular substrate by measuring the growth dynamics of the wet aggregate. We show that this aggregate is fully saturated and its cohesion is ensured by the capillary depression at the air-liquid interface. The growth dynamics is controlled by the liquid fraction at the surface of the aggregate a…
We numerically investigate the mechanical and geometrical properties of dense wet granular particles with irreversible attractive interaction. The shear modulus exhibits two inflection points as the packing fraction increases, and the bulk modulus shows a non-monotonic behavior. The coordination number also exhibits two inflection points. The peak position in the pair correlation function shifts to a lower value due to attractive interaction. The Voronoi tessellation of the particle configuration reveals that the probability density function for the volume of the Voronoi cell broadens as the p…
The collapse of an inclined cohesive granular layer triggered by a certain perturbation can be a model for not only landslides on Earth but also relaxations of asteroidal surface terrains. To understand such terrain dynamics, we conduct a series of experiments of a solid-projectile impact onto an inclined wet granular layer with various water contents and inclination angles. As a result, we find two types of outcomes: "crater formation" and "collapse". The "collapse" phase is observed when the inclination angle is close to the maximum stable angle and the impact-induced vibration at the bottom…
The collective behavior of vibrated hexagonal disks confined in a monolayer is investigated experimentally. Due to the broken circular symmetry, hexagons prefer to rotate upon sufficiently strong driving. Due to the formation of liquid bridges, short-ranged cohesive interactions are introduced upon wetting. Consequently, a nonequilibrium stationary state with the rotating disks self-organized in a hexagonal structure arises. The bond length of the hexagonal structure is slightly smaller than the circumdiameter of a hexagon, indicating geometric frustration. This investigation provides an examp…
Pattern formation of a thin layer of vertically agitated wet granular matter is investigated experimentally. Due to the strong cohesion arising from the capillary bridges formed between adjacent particles, agitated wet granular matter exhibits a different scenario compared with cohesionless dry particles. Rotating spirals with three arms, which correspond to the kinks between regions with different colliding phases with the vibrating plate, have been found to be the dominating pattern. From both top view snapshots and laser profilometry methods, the rotation frequency of the spiral arms is cha…
Experiments on a thin layer of cohesive wet granular matter under vertical vibrations reveal kink separated domains that collide with the container at different phases. Due to the strong cohesion arising from the formation of liquid bridges between adjacent particles, the domains move collectively upon vibrations. Depending on the periodicity of this collective motion, the kink fronts may propagate, couple with each other and form rotating spiral patterns in the case of period tripling, or stay as standing wave patterns in the case of period doubling. Moreover, both patterns may coexist with g…
Liquid may give strong cohesion properties to a granular medium, and confer a solid-like behavior. We study the erosion of a fixed circular aggregate of wet granular matter subjected to a flow of dry grains inside a half-filled rotating drum. During the rotation, the dry grains flow around the fixed obstacle. We show that its diameter decreases linearly with time for low liquid content, as wet grains are pulled-out of the aggregate. This erosion phenomenon is governed by the properties of the liquids. The erosion rate decreases exponentially with the surface tension while it depends on the vis…
Recent advances in shear-thickening suspension rheology suggest a relation between (wet) suspension flow below jamming and (dry) granular physics. To probe this connection, we simulated the contact force networks in suspensions of non-Brownian spheres using the discrete element method (DEM), varying the particle friction coefficient and volume fraction. We find that force networks in these suspensions show quantitative similarities to those in jammed dry grains. As suspensions approach the jamming point, the extrapolated volume fraction and coordination number at jamming are similar to critica…
A theory is derived for the nonequilibrium probability currents of the capillary interaction which determines the pair correlation function near contact. This yields an analytic expression for the equation of state, P = P(N/V,T), of wet granular matter for D=2 dimensions, valid in the complete density range from gas to jamming. Driven wet granular matter exhibits a van-der-Waals-like unstable branch at granular temperatures T<T_c corresponding to a first order segregation transition of clusters. For the realistic rupture length of the liquid bridge, s_crit=0.07 d, the critical point is located…
We study the arrest of three-dimensional flow in wet granular matter subject to a sinusoidal external force and a gravitational field confining the flow in the vertical direction. The minimal strength of the external force that is required to keep the system in motion is determined by considering the balance of injected and dissipated power. This provides a prediction whose excellent quality is demonstrated by a data collapse for an extensive set of event-driven molecular dynamics simulations where we varied the system size, particle number, the energy dissipated upon rupturing capillary bridg…
Granulates are ubiquitous in nature and technology, but despite their great importance, their dynamics are by far less well understood than those of liquids. We demonstrate in an almost compactly filled flat (Hele-Shaw) cell, where slow horizontal rotation simulates a variable gravitational force, that unexpected dynamic structures may arise under geometrical restrictions. The cell motion drives regular flow in the compact interior, and convection rolls combine with segregation. The container fill level is crucial for the dynamic regime. A transition from chute flow at lower fill levels to con…
We present experimental measurements of penetration depths for the impact of spheres into wetted granular media. We observe that the penetration depth in the liquid saturated case scales with projectile density, size, and drop height in a fashion consistent with the scaling observed in the dry case, but that penetration depths into saturated packings tend to be smaller. This result suggests that, for the range of impact energies observed, the stopping force is set by static contact forces between grains within the bed, and that the presence of liquid serves, primarily, to enhance these contact…
We investigate certain aspects of the physical mechanisms of root growth in a granular medium and how these roots adapt to changes in water distribution induced by the presence of structural inhomogeneities in the form of solid intrusions. Physical intrusions such as a square rod added into the 2D granular medium modify water distribution by maintaining robust capillary action, pumping water from the more saturated areas at the bottom of the cell towards the less saturated areas near the top of the cell while the rest of the medium is slowly devoid of water via evaporation. This water redistri…
The stability of sand castles is determined by the structure of wet granulates. Experimental data about the size distribution of fluid pockets are ambiguous about their origin. We discovered that contact angle hysteresis plays a fundamental role in the equilibrium distribution of bridge volumes, and not geometrical disorder as commonly conjectured, which has substantial consequences on the mechanical properties of wet granular beds, including a history dependent rheology and lowered strength. Our findings are obtained using a novel model where the Laplace pressures, bridge volumes and contact …
The transition from frictional to lubricated flow of a dense suspension of non-Brownian particles is studied. The pertinent parameter characterizing this transition is the Leighton number $Le = \frac{η_s \dotγ}σ$, which represents the ratio of lubrication to frictional forces. The Leighton number $Le$ defines a critical shear rate below which no steady flow without localization exists. In the frictional regime the shear flow is localized. The lubricated regime is not simply viscous: the ratio of shear to normal stresses remains constant, as in the frictional regime; moreover the velocity profi…
We employ a novel fluid-particle model to study the shearing behavior of granular soils under different saturation levels, ranging from the dry material via the capillary bridge regime to higher saturation levels with percolating clusters. The full complexity of possible liquid morphologies is taken into account, implying the formation of isolated arbitrary-sized liquid clusters with individual Laplace pressures that evolve by liquid exchange via films on the grain surface. Liquid clusters can grow in size, shrink, merge and split, depending on local conditions, changes of accessible liquid an…
Most studies on granular physics have focused on dry granular media, with no liquids between the grains. However, in geology and many real world applications (e.g., food processing, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, civil engineering, constructions, and many industrial applications), liquid is present between the grains. This produces inter-grain cohesion and drastically modifies the mechanical properties of the granular media (e.g., the surface angle can be larger than 90 degrees). Here we present a review of the mechanical properties of wet granular media, with particular emphasis on the effect of …
Wet granular materials in a quasi-static steady state shear flow have been studied with discrete particle simulations. Macroscopic quantities, consistent with the conservation laws of continuum theory, are obtained by time averaging and spatial coarse-graining. Initial studies involve understanding the effect of liquid content and liquid properties like the surface tension on the macroscopic quantities. Two parameters of the liquid bridge contact model have been studied as the constitutive parameters that define the structure of this model (i) the rupture distance of the liquid bridge model, w…
We study the rheology of dry and wet granular materials in the steady quasistatic regime using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) in a split-bottom ring shear cell with focus on the macroscopic friction. The aim of our study is to understand the local rheology of bulk flow at various positions in the shear band, where the system is in critical state. The general(ized) rheology has four dimensionless control parameters that relate the time scales of five significant phenomena, namely, the time scales related to confining pressure $t_p$, shear rate $t_{\dotγ}$, particle stiffness $t_k$, gravity $…
Dry, wet, dense, and dilute granular flows have been previously considered fundamentally different and thus described by distinct, and in many cases incompatible, rheologies. We carry out extensive simulations of granular flows, including wet and dry conditions, various geometries and driving mechanisms (boundary driven, fluid driven, and gravity driven), many of which are not captured by standard rheology models. For all simulated conditions, except for fluid-driven and gravity-driven flows close to the flow threshold, we find that the Mohr-Coulomb friction coefficient $μ$ scales with the squ…
We investigate experimentally the impact of heterogeneity on the capillary pressure hysteresis in fluid invasion of model porous media. We focus on `symmetric' heterogeneity, where the contact angles the fluid interface makes with the oil-wet ($θ_1$) and the water-wet ($θ_2$) beads add up to $π$. While enhanced heterogeneity is usually known to increase hysteresis phenomena, we find that hysteresis is greatly reduced when heterogeneities in wettability are introduced. On the contrary, geometric heterogeneity (like bi-disperse particle size) does not lead to such effect. We provide a qualitativ…
Liquid has a significant effect on the flow of wet granular assemblies. We explore the effects of liquid induced cohesion on the flow characteristics of wet granular materials. We propose a cohesion-scaling approach that enables invariant flow characteristics for different particles sizes in rotating drums. The strength of capillary forces between the particles is significantly reduced by making the glass beads hydrophobic via chemical silanization. Main results of rotating drum experiments are that liquid-induced cohesion decreases both the width of the flowing region and the velocity of the …
This paper deals with the experimental characterization of the collapse of wet granular columns in the pendular state, with the purpose of collecting data on triggering and jamming phenomena in wet granular media. The final deposit shape and the runout dynamics were studied for samples of glass beads, varying particle diameter, liquid surface tension, and liquid amount. We show how the runout distance decreases with increasing water amount (reaching a plateau for $w>1 \%$) and increases with increasing Bond number, while the top and toe angles and the final deposit height increase with increas…
The mechanical properties of granular materials change significantly in the presence of a wetting liquid which creates capillary bridges between the particles. Here we demonstrate, using X-ray tomographies of dry and wet sphere packings, that this change in mechanical properties is not accompanied by structural differences between the packings. We characterize the latter by the average numbers of contacts of each sphere $\langle Z\rangle$ and the shape isotropy $\langle β_0^{2,0} \rangle$ of the Voronoi cells of the particles. Additionally, we show that the number of liquid bridges per sphere …
Wave phenomena in vibrofluidized dry and partially wet granular materials confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry are investigated with numerical simulations considering individual particles as hard spheres. Short ranged cohesive interactions arising from the formation of liquid bridges between adjacent particles are modeled by changing the velocity dependent coefficient of restitution. Such a change effectively suppresses the formation of surface waves, in agreement with previous experimental observations. The difference in pattern creation arises from the suppressed momentum transfer du…
The formation of kink wave fronts (KWFs) in a quasi-two-dimensional granular system is investigated numerically with a focus on the role of cohesive interactions between individual particles. The cohesive particle-particle interaction is achieved through tuning the velocity-dependent coefficient of restitution, based on an analytical model introduced recently. A comparison with experimental results indicates that the threshold for the emergence of traveling KWFs matches the regime in which the center of mass height of the granular layers fluctuates with a period that triples the vibration peri…
Multi-phase flows encountered in nature or in industry, exhibit non trivial rheological properties, that can be understood better thanks to model materials and appropriate rheometers. Here, we use model unsaturated granular materials: assemblies of frictional spherical particles bonded by a small quantity of a wetting liquid, over a rough inclined plane. Our results show steady uniform flows for a wide range of parameters (the inclination angle and the mass flow-rate). A theoretical model, based on the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion extended to inertial flows: $τ$ = $τ$c + $μ$(I)P, in which $τ$c…
We propose a simple phenomenological model for wet granular media to take into account many particle interaction through liquid in the funicular state as well as two-body cohesive force by a liquid bridge in the pendular state. In the wet granular media with small liquid content, liquid forms a bridge at each contact point, which induces two-body cohesive force due to the surface tension. As the liquid content increases, some liquid bridges merge, and more than two grains interact through a single liquid cluster. In our model, the cohesive force acts between the grains connected by a liquid-ga…
We investigate the dynamics of a partially saturated grain-liquid mixture with a rotating drum apparatus. The drum is partially filled with the mixture and then rotated about its horizontal axis. We focus on the continous avalanching regime and measure the impact of volume fraction and viscosity of the liquid on the dynamic surface angle. The inclination angle of the surface is observed to increase sharply to a peak and then decrease as a function of liquid volume fraction. The height of the peak is observed to increase with rotation rate. For higher liquid volume fractions, the inclination an…
This paper presents a micromechanical study of unsaturated granular media in the pendular regime, based upon numerical experiments using the discrete element method, compared to a microstructural elastoplastic model. Water effects are taken into account by adding capillary menisci at contacts and their consequences in terms of force and water volume are studied. Simulations of triaxial compression tests are used to investigate both macro and micro-effects of a partial saturation. The results provided by the two methods appear to be in good agreement, reproducing the major trends of a partially…
Energy dissipation in sheared dry and wet granulates is considered in the presence of an externally applied confining pressure. Discrete element simulations reveal that for sufficiently small confining pressures, the energy dissipation is dominated by the effects related to the presence of cohesive forces between the particles. The residual resistance against shear can be quantitatively explained by a combination of two effects arising in a wet granulate: i) enhanced friction at particle contacts in the presence of attractive capillary forces, and ii) energy dissipation due to the rupture and …
When dealing with unsaturated wet granular materials, a fundamental question is: what is the effect of capillary cohesion on the bulk flow and yield behavior? We inwestigate the dense flow rheology of unsaturated granular materials through experiments and discrete element simulations of homogeneous, simple annular shear flows of frictional, cohesive, spherical particles.
We study the order-disorder transition of horizontally swirled dry and wet granular disks by means of computer simulations. Our systematic investigation of the local order formation as a function of amplitude and period of the external driving force shows that a large cluster of hexagonally ordered particles forms for both dry and wet granular particles at intermediate driving energies. Disordered states are found at small and large driving energies. Wet granular particles reach a higher degree of local hexagonal order, with respect to the dry case. For both cases we report a qualitative phase…
Two-dimensional Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) is a promising technique to study the behaviour of granular flows. The aim is to experimentally determine the free surface width and position of the shear band from the velocity profile to validate simulations in a split-bottom shear cell geometry. The position and velocities of scattered tracer particles are tracked as they move with the bulk flow by analyzing images. We then use a new technique to extract the continuum velocity field, applying coarse-graining with the postprocessing toolbox MercuryCG on the discrete experimental PTV data. F…
Rheometric measurements on assemblies of wet polystyrene bead assemblies, in steady uniform quasistatic shear flow, for varying liquid content within the small saturation (pendular) range of isolated liquid bridges, are supplemented with a systematic study by discrete numerical simulations. Numerical results and experimental ones agree quantitatively is the intergranular friction coefficient is set to 0.09, suitable for the dry material. Shear resistance and solid fraction are recorded as functions of the reduced pressure p, comparing normal stress to capillary bridge tensile strength. The Moh…
We investigate the effective friction encountered by an intruder moving through a sedimented medium which consists of transparent granular hydrogels immersed in water, and the resulting motion of the medium. We show that the effective friction $μ_e$ on a spherical intruder is captured by the inertial number $I$ given by the ratio of the time scale over which the intruder moves and the inertial time scale of the granular medium set by the overburden pressure. Further, $μ_e$ is described by the function $μ_e(I) = μ_s + αI^β$, where $μ_s$ is the static friction, and $α$ and $β$ are material depen…
We conduct extensive independent numerical experiments considering frictionless disks without internal degrees of freedom (rotation etc.) in two dimensions. We report here that for a large range of the packing fractions below random-close packing, all components of the stress tensor of wet granular materials remain finite in the limit of zero shear rate. This is direct evidence for a fluid-to-solid arrest transition. The offset value of the shear stress characterizes plastic deformation of the arrested state {which corresponds to {\em dynamic yield stress} of the system}. {Based on an analytic…
Agitated wet granular matter can be considered as a nonequilibrium model system for phase transitions, where the macroscopic particles replace the molecules and the capillary bridges replace molecular bonds. It is demonstrated experimentally that a two-dimensional wet granular crystal driven far from thermal equilibrium melts from its free surface, preceded by an amorphous state. The transition into the surface melting state, as revealed by the bond orientational order parameters, behaves like a first order phase transition, with a threshold being traceable to the rupture energy of a single ca…
Wet granular materials are characterized by a defined bond energy in their particle interaction such that breaking a bond implies an irreversible loss of a fixed amount of energy. Associated with the bond energy is a nonequilibrium transition, setting in as the granular temperature falls below the bond energy. The subsequent aggregation of particles into clusters is shown to be a self-similar growth process with a cluster size distribution that obeys scaling. In the early phase of aggregation the clusters are fractals with D_f=2, for later times we observe gelation. We use simple scaling argum…
We investigate a gas of wet granular particles, covered by a thin liquid film. The dynamic evolution is governed by two-particle interactions, which are mainly due to interfacial forces in contrast to dry granular gases. When two wet grains collide, a capillary bridge is formed and stays intact up to a certain distance of withdrawal when the bridge ruptures, dissipating a fixed amount of energy. A freely cooling system is shown to undergo a nonequillibrium dynamic phase transition from a state with mainly single particles and fast cooling to a state with growing aggregates, such that bridge ru…
Several mechanisms cause a granular material to strengthen over time at low applied stress. The strength is determined from the maximum frictional force F_max experienced by a shearing plate in contact with wet or dry granular material after the layer has been at rest for a waiting time τ. The layer strength increases roughly logarithmically with τ-only- if a shear stress is applied during the waiting time. The mechanisms of strengthening are investigated by sensitive displacement measurements and by imaging of particle motion in the shear zone. Granular matter can strengthen due to a slow shi…
Tap density of a granular powder is often linked to the flowability via Carr Index that measures how tight a powder can be packed, under an assumption that more easily packed powders usually flow poorly. Understanding how particles are packed is important for revealing why a powder flows better than others. There are two types of empirical equations that were proposed to fit the experimental data of packing fractions vs. numbers of taps in literature: The inverse logarithmic and the stretched exponential. Using the rate process theory and the free volume concept, we obtain the tap density equa…
We simulate dense assemblies of frictional spherical grains in steady shear flow under controlled normal stress $P$ in the presence of a small amount of an interstitial liquid, which gives rise to capillary menisci, assumed isolated (pendular regime), and to attractive forces. The system behavior depends on two dimensionless control parameters: inertial number $I$ and reduced pressure $P^*=aP/(πΓ)$, comparing confining forces $\sim a^2P$ to meniscus tensile strength $F_0=πΓa$, for grains of diameter $a$ joined by menisci with surface tension $Γ$. We pay special attention to the quasi-static li…
Capillary effects such as imbibition-drying cycles impact the mechanics of granular systems over time. A multiscale poromechanics framework was applied to cement paste, that is the most common building material, experiencing broad humidity variations over the lifetime of infrastructure. First, the liquid density distribution at intermediate to high relative humidities is obtained using a lattice gas density functional method together with a realistic nano-granular model of cement hydrates. The calculated adsorption/desorption isotherms and pore size distributions are discussed and compare well…
