Electrically induced tunable cohesion in granular systems

Jean-François Métayer (1) , Patrick Richard (1) , Alain Faisant (1) , Renaud Delannay (1)

1 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

Experimental observations of confined granular materials in the presence of an electric field that induces cohesive forces are reported. The angle of repose is found to increase with the cohesive force. A theoretical model for the stability of a granular heap, including both the effect of the sidewalls and cohesion is proposed. A good agreement between this model and the experimental results is found. The steady-state flow angle is practically unaffected by the electric field except for high field strengths and low flow rates.

Mots clés: Granular matter; Electrical and magnetic phenomena (Experiments and Theory); Avalanches (Experiments and Theory)

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]; Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]

Jean-François Métayer, Patrick Richard, Alain Faisant, Renaud Delannay. Electrically induced tunable cohesion in granular systems. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 2010, 2010 (08), pp.P08003. ⟨10.1088/1742-5468/2010/08/P08003⟩. ⟨hal-00497108v2⟩