Collapse of rectangular granular blocks

Abstract

The collapse of bulk granular materials is of increasing importance in many applications in engineering and geophysics including processing of oil-sands and analysis of avalanches and landslides. The present work is primarily aimed at modelling of the deposition of tailings. This requires predicting the geometry of stable granular heaps, which poses a particular difficulty to available CFD models. In this paper we introduce a new plasticity model for the frictional stresses within the bulk granular material. The numerical simulations employ a two-fluid, one the granular material and the other the surrounding fluid, mixture approach to model the two-phase fluid-granular flow. Solution of the governing equations is carried out using COMSOL code. Results for two cases with small and large aspect ratios are presented. The results show the evolution of the internal flow and shape of the granular heap. The simulations examine the role of the height-to-length ratio on the final shapes. The results include comparisons between the present computations and available experimental measurements.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye