Sedimentation of granular columns in the viscous and weakly inertial regimes

Hamza Chraibi (1) , Yacine Amarouchene (1)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine

We investigate the dynamics of granular columns of point particles that interact via long-range hydrodynamic interactions and fall under the action of gravity. We investigate the influence of inertia using the Green's function for the Oseen equation. The initial conditions (density and aspect ratio) are systematically varied. Our results suggest that universal self-similar laws may be sufficient to characterize the temporal and structural evolution of the granular columns. A characteristic time above which an instability is triggered (which may enable the formation of clusters) is also retrieved and discussed.

Mots clés: Granular flow: mixing - segregation and stratification; Chemical physics; Sedimentation and migration

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Hamza Chraibi, Yacine Amarouchene. Sedimentation of granular columns in the viscous and weakly inertial regimes. Physical Review E : Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2013, 88 (4), pp.042204 (1-4). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevE.88.042204⟩. ⟨hal-00878091⟩