Análisis del proceso de descarga de un silo con un obstáculo cerca del orificio

Jamming is an important problem in numerous industrial processes, and in other situation such as traffic and evacuation. Some reports show that an obstacle placed before the exit may prevent jamming a pedestrian flow. However, this is a general hypothesis and there are still related questions that have not been fully addressed, mainly the dynamics of the system or the optimal position of the obstacle. The present work aims at shedding some more light on these phenomena. We present an experimental work where we analyze systematically and under well controlled conditions, the macroscopic and microscopic processes involved during the discharge of a silo by gravity with an obstacle placed before an orifice. We fixed at the size of the orifice and change the position of the insert. In order to do that, we have designed a 2D silo with transparent walls which allowed visualization of the particles. The first conclusion of this work is the existence of an optimal position of the obstacle where the jamming probability is drastically reduced. If the obstacle is far away from the orifice, it does not have any effect. When the obstacle is close to the orifice, the avalanche size is higher and the probability that a particle clogs the outlet decreases. We find that, if the insert position is properly selected, the probability that the granular flow gets jammed can be decreased by a factor of 100. This dramatic effect occurs without any remarkable modification of the flow rate or the packing fraction above the outlet. However, for low positions of the insert we saw that some particles in the region of arch formation can be displaced upwards. This phenomenon is less evident when the insert is at high positions. This effect could be related with the reduction of the clogging probability. So, we propose that the mechanism by which the insert prevents clogging is a reduction of the pressure exerted to the particles in the region of arch formation

Transition from clogging to continuous flow in constricted particle suspensions

When suspended particles are pushed by liquid flow through a constricted channel, they might either pass the bottleneck without trouble or encounter a permanent clog that will stop them forever. However, they may also flow intermittently with great sensitivity to the neck-to-particle size ratio D / d . In this Rapid Communication, we experimentally explore the limits of the intermittent regime for a dense suspension through a single bottleneck as a function of this parameter. To this end, we make use of high time- and space-resolution experiments to obtain the distributions of arrest times ( T ) between successive bursts, which display power-law tails ( ∝ T − α ) with characteristic exponents. These exponents compare well with the ones found for as disparate situations as the evacuation of pedestrians from a room, the entry of a flock of sheep into a shed, or the discharge of particles from a silo. Nevertheless, the intrinsic properties of our system (i.e., channel geometry, driving and interaction forces, particle size distribution) seem to introduce a sharp transition from a clogged state ( α ≤ 2 ) to a continuous flow, where clogs do not develop at all. This contrasts with the results obtained in other systems where intermittent flow, with power-law exponents above two, were obtained

Multifractal intermittency in granular flow through bottlenecks

We experimentally analyze the intermittent nature of granular silo flow when the discharge is controlled by an extracting belt at the bottom. We discover the existence of four different scenarios. For low extraction rates, the system is characterized by an on-off intermittency. When the extraction rate is increased the structure functions of the grains velocity increments, calculated for different lag times, reveal the emergence of multifractal intermittency. Finally, for very high extraction rates that approach the purely gravitational discharge, we observe that the dynamics become dependent on the outlet size. For large orifices the behavior is monofractal, whereas for small ones, the fluctuations of the velocity increments deviate from Gaussianity even for very large time lags

Active particles with desired orientation fowing through a bottleneck

We report extensive numerical simulations of the fow of anisotropic self-propelled particles through a constriction. In particular, we explore the role of the particles’ desired orientation with respect to the moving direction on the system fowability. We observe that when particles propel along the direction of their long axis (longitudinal orientation) the fow-rate notably reduces compared with the case of propulsion along the short axis (transversal orientation). And this is so even when the efective section (measured as the number of particles that are necessary to span the whole outlet) is larger for the case of longitudinal propulsion. This counterintuitive result is explained in terms of the formation of clogging structures at the outlet, which are revealed to have higher stability when the particles align along the long axis. This generic result might be applied to many diferent systems fowing through bottlenecks such as microbial populations or diferent kind of cells. Indeed, it has already a straightforward connection with recent results of pedestrian (which self-propel transversally oriented) and mice or sheep (which self-propel longitudinally oriented)

Segregation pattern competition in a thin rotating drum

Results are presented of an experimental investigation into patterned size segregation of binary granular mixtures in a thin rotating drum that is half full. It is observed that streaks of small particles are formed within regions of large ones where the integer number of streaks is fixed over a range of rotation rate of the drum. Different patterns form in adjacent parameter ranges and the dynamics associated with the exchange between neighboring states is analyzed using angular spatiotemporal diagrams. These help to reveal properties of the merging mechanism for streaks of small particles. We report experimental evidence that the merging of streaks is mediated by the movement of a surplus material in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of the drum. The excess material is distributed throughout the pattern and the extra streak eventually disappears

TOPOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF THE CONTACT NETWORK OF GRANULAR MATERIALS

The force networks of different granular ensembles are defined and their topological properties studied using the tools of complex networks. In particular, for each set of grains compressed in a square box, a force threshold is introduced that determines which contacts conform network. Hence, the topological characteristics of the network are analyzed as a function parameter. The characterization of the structural features thus obtained, may be useful understanding of the macroscopic physical behavior exhibited by this class of media

Twisting, an alternative strategy to compact granular materials

Nowadays, the common method to pack granular materials is to tap the ensemble against the gravity. Despite the apparent simplicity of that method, the asymptotic states reached by the tapped systems have strongly dependences on parameters like the shape of the tapping pulse, the container geometry or the ratio between lateral and axial dimensions. Beyond the restrictions imposed by the system boundaries, the particle shape (like rods or tetrahedrons) plays a central role in the evolution and the final state of the ensemble. In this work, we introduce an unconventional method for compacting granular ensembles by applying a sequence of alternating counterrotating pulses or ¿twists¿. By using spherical particles we analyze the efficiency of this method to achieve highly packed configurations

Trap model for clogging and unclogging in granular hopper flows

Granular flows through narrow outlets may be interrupted by the formation of arches or vaults that clog the exit. These clogs may be destroyed by vibrations. A feature which remains elusive is the broad distribution pð¿Þ of clog lifetimes ¿ measured under constant vibrations. Here, we propose a simple model for arch breaking, in which the vibrations are formally equivalent to thermal fluctuations in a Langevin equation; the rupture of an arch corresponds to the escape from an energy trap. We infer the distribution of trap depths from experiments made in two-dimensional hoppers. Using this distribution, we show that the model captures the empirically observed heavy tails in pð¿Þ. These heavy tails flatten at large ¿, consistently with experimental observations under weak vibrations. But, here, we find that this flattening is systematic, which casts doubt on the ability of gentle vibrations to restore a finite outflow forever. The trap model also replicates recent results on the effect of increasing gravity on the statistics of clog formation in a static silo. Therefore, the proposed framework points to a common physical underpinning to the processes of clogging and unclogging, despite their different statistics

Role of particle size in the kinematic properties of silo flow

We experimentally analyze the effect that particle size has on the mass flow rate of a quasi two-dimensional silo discharged by gravity. In a previous work, Janda et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 248001 (2012)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.108.248001] introduced a new expression for the mass flow rate based on a detailed experimental analysis of the flow for 1-mm diameter beads. Here, we aim to extend these results by using particles of larger sizes and a variable that was not explicitly included in the proposed expression. We show that the velocity and density profiles at the outlet are self-similar and scale with the outlet size with the same functionalities as in the case of 1-mm particles. Nevertheless, some discrepancies are evidenced in the values of the fitting parameters. In particular, we observe that larger particles lead to higher velocities and lower packing fractions at the orifice. Intriguingly, both magnitudes seem to compensate giving rise to very similar flow rates. In order to shed light on the origin of this behavior we have computed fields of a solid fraction, velocity, and a kinetic-stress like variable in the region above the orifice