Hydrodynamic model for a dynamical jammed-to-flowing transition in gravity driven granular media.
Granular material on an inclined plane will flow like a fluid if the angle theta the plane makes with the horizontal is large enough. We study chute flow down a plane using a hydrodynamic model previously used to describe granular Couette flow. Our model predicts a jammed-to-flowing transition as theta is increased even though it does not include solid friction, which might seem necessary to stabilize a state without flow. The transition is driven by coupling between mean and fluctuating velocity. In agreement with experiments and simulations, it predicts flow for layers with a thickness H larger than a critical value H(stop)(theta) and absence of flow for H<H(stop)(theta).
Bocquet
Lydéric
L
Laboratoire de Physique (UMR CNRS 5672), ENS-Lyon, 46 allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
Errami
Jalal
J
Lubensky
T C
TC