A laboratory-numerical approach for modelling scale effects in dry granular slides

Granular slides are omnipresent in both natural and industrial contexts. Scale effects are changes in physical behaviour of a phenomenon at different geometric scales, such as between a laboratory experiment and a corresponding larger event observed in nature. These scale effects can be significant and can render models of small size inaccurate by underpredicting key characteristics such as ow velocity or runout distance. Although scale effects are highly relevant to granular slides due to the multiplicity of length and time scales in the flow, they are currently not well understood. A laboratory setup under Froude similarity has been developed, allowing dry granular slides to be investigated at a variety of scales, with a channel width configurable between 0.25-1.00 m. Maximum estimated grain Reynolds numbers, which quantify whether the drag force between a particle and the surrounding air act in a turbulent or viscous manner, are found in the range 102-103. A discrete element method (DEM) simulation has also been developed, validated against an axisymmetric column collapse and a granular slide experiment of Hutter and Koch (1995), before being used to model the present laboratory experiments and to examine a granular slide of significantly larger scale. This article discusses the details of this laboratory-numerical approach, with the main aim of examining scale effects related to the grain Reynolds number. Increasing dust formation with increasing scale may also exert influence on laboratory experiments. Overall, significant scale effects have been identified for characteristics such as ow velocity and runout distance in the physical experiments. While the numerical modelling shows good general agreement at the medium scale, it does not capture differences in behaviour seen at the smaller scale, highlighting the importance of physical models in capturing these scale effects

An investigation of nonlinear tangential contact behaviour of a spherical particle under varying loading

An analytical and numerical study of the tangential contact of a spherical particle under varying combined normal-tangential loading is presented. The normal and tangential contact is described by the Hertz and regularized Coulomb laws. This study is focused on the analysis of the tangential displacement of the particle’s contact point under variable normal force and reevaluation of the procedures for calculation of the tangential force. The incremental displacement-driven and force-driven constitutive relationships are developed. The importance of an adequate numerical treatment of the tangential component of the contact force is shown for the slide mode, and the recommendations for its evaluation are proposed. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by solving the problem of the oblique impact of the spherical particle on the wall. The suggested methodology allows us to analyse the elastic and sliding effects of the tangential interaction more precisely than existing methodologies. Besides, the issue of the direction of the tangential force, when the Coulomb limit is reached, was reconsidered in one-dimensional case by taking three versions of the unit direction vector, which are based on the tangential elastic displacement, tangential stick force, and tangential relative velocity of the contact point of the particle