Please login to view abstract download link
The dynamics of amorphous materials such as granular materials, suspensions, foams, and emulsions has been the subject of considerable investigation. When the packing fraction is above a critical fraction, these materials behave like solids if the shear stress is lower than the yield stress, while they flow like fluids when the shear stress exceeds the yield stress. Such a transition is known as jamming [1]. These materials exhibit critical behaviors near jamming, which attract many scientists. Jamming is related to many phenomena, such as avalanches, clogging in silos and hoppers, and flows in heaps and rotating drums, which exhibit solid-like and fluid-like transitions. Hence, understanding the jamming transition is essential for engineering science. However, most previous studies on the jamming transition assume uniform systems characterized by a constant packing fraction and shear rate [2], although the transition is observed in non-uniform systems in natural phenomena and manufacturing processes. It is unclear whether the critical behaviors near jamming are observed in non-uniform systems. In this work, we numerically and theoretically investigate granular flow between parallel rough plates driven by an external force. Discrete element method simulations reveal that the flow exhibits jamming, where the mass flux becomes zero when the external force is lower than a critical force. The critical force increases as the average packing fraction increases and the distance between plates decreases. The analysis based on a continuum model with the μ(I)-rheology [3] reproduces the dependence of the critical force. The analytical solution predicts the critical scaling law for the mass flux, which is numerically confirmed. REFERENCES [1] M. van Hecke, “Jamming of soft particles: geometry, mechanics, scaling and isostaticity”, J. Phys. Condens. 22, 033101 (2010) [2] C. S. O’Hern, S. A. Langer, A. J. Liu, and S. R. Nagel, “Random packings of frictionless particles”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 075507 (2002). [3] O. Pouliquen, C. Cassar, P. Jop, Y. Forterre, and M. Nicolas, “Flow of dense granular material: towards simple constitutive laws”, J. Stat. Mech. 2006, P07020 (2006).