A trans-phase granular continuum relation and its use in simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamrin, Ken; Dunatunga, Sachith; Askari, Hesam

The ability to model a large granular system as a continuum would offer tremendous benefits in computation time compared to discrete particle methods. However, two infamous problems arise in the pursuit of this vision: (i) the constitutive relation for granular materials is still unclear and hotly debated, and (ii) a model and corresponding numerical method must wear ``many hats'' as, in general circumstances, it must be able to capture and accurately represent the material as it crosses through its collisional, dense-flowing, and solid-like states. Here we present a minimal trans-phase model, merging an elastic response beneath a fictional yield criterion, a mu(I) rheology for liquid-like flow above the static yield criterion, and a disconnection rule to model separation of the grains into a low-temperature gas. We simulate our model with a meshless method (in high strain/mixing cases) and the finite-element method. It is able to match experimental data in many geometries, including collapsing columns, impact on granular beds, draining silos, and granular drag problems.

Controlled Viscosity in Dense Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gnoli, A.; de Arcangelis, L.; Giacco, F.; Lippiello, E.; Ciamarra, M. Pica; Puglisi, A.; Sarracino, A.

2018-03-01

We experimentally investigate the fluidization of a granular material subject to mechanical vibrations by monitoring the angular velocity of a vane suspended in the medium and driven by an external motor. On increasing the frequency, we observe a reentrant transition, as a jammed system first enters a fluidized state, where the vane rotates with high constant velocity, and then returns to a frictional state, where the vane velocity is much lower. While the fluidization frequency is material independent, the viscosity recovery frequency shows a clear dependence on the material that we rationalize by relating this frequency to the balance between dissipative and inertial forces in the system. Molecular dynamics simulations well reproduce the experimental data, confirming the suggested theoretical picture.

Ultrastructural study of electron dense deposits in renal tubular basement membrane: prevalence and relationship to epithelial atrophy.

PubMed

Yong, Jim L C; Killingsworth, Murray C

2014-08-01

This study reports the prevalence of immune deposits associated with the proximal and distal tubules in a series of routine renal biopsies received in our department during a single calendar year. From 87 cases, 65 (74%) were found to have glomerular immune deposits by immunofluorescence. Tubular immune deposits were found in 12 cases (18%), 3 of which had no glomerular deposits. By transmission electron microscopy (EM), 58 cases (66%) were found to have deposits of granular or vesicular material associated with the tubular basement membranes (TBM). Finely granular electron dense deposits appeared to correspond to the immune deposits seen by immunofluorescence microscopy (IF) and may be a sensitive marker of immune deposition.

Ultrastructural Study of Electron Dense Deposits in Renal Tubular Basement Membrane: Prevalence and Relationship to Epithelial Atrophy

PubMed Central

Killingsworth, Murray C.

2014-01-01

This study reports the prevalence of immune deposits associated with the proximal and distal tubules in a series of routine renal biopsies received in our department during a single calendar year. From 87 cases, 65 (74%) were found to have glomerular immune deposits by immunofluorescence. Tubular immune deposits were found in 12 cases (18%), 3 of which had no glomerular deposits. By transmission electron microscopy (EM), 58 cases (66%) were found to have deposits of granular or vesicular material associated with the tubular basement membranes (TBM). Finely granular electron dense deposits appeared to correspond to the immune deposits seen by immunofluorescence microscopy (IF) and may be a sensitive marker of immune deposition. PMID:24933115

Shear flow of dense granular materials near smooth walls. I. Shear localization and constitutive laws in the boundary region.

PubMed

Shojaaee, Zahra; Roux, Jean-Noël; Chevoir, François; Wolf, Dietrich E

2012-07-01

We report on a numerical study of the shear flow of a simple two-dimensional model of a granular material under controlled normal stress between two parallel smooth frictional walls moving with opposite velocities ± V. Discrete simulations, which are carried out with the contact dynamics method in dense assemblies of disks, reveal that, unlike rough walls made of strands of particles, smooth ones can lead to shear strain localization in the boundary layer. Specifically, we observe, for decreasing V, first a fluidlike regime (A), in which the whole granular layer is sheared, with a homogeneous strain rate except near the walls, then (B) a symmetric velocity profile with a solid block in the middle and strain localized near the walls, and finally (C) a state with broken symmetry in which the shear rate is confined to one boundary layer, while the bulk of the material moves together with the opposite wall. Both transitions are independent of system size and occur for specific values of V. Transient times are discussed. We show that the first transition, between regimes A and B, can be deduced from constitutive laws identified for the bulk material and the boundary layer, while the second one could be associated with an instability in the behavior of the boundary layer. The boundary zone constitutive law, however, is observed to depend on the state of the bulk material nearby.

Intercomparison of granular stress and turbulence models for unidirectional sheet flow applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chauchat, J.; Cheng, Z.; Hsu, T. J.

2016-12-01

The intergranular stresses are one of the key elements in two-phase sediment transport models. There are two main existing approaches, the kinetic theory of granular flows (Jenkins and Hanes, 1998; Hsu et al., 2004) and the phenomenological rheology such as the one proposed by Bagnold (Hanes and Bowen, 1985) or the μ(I) dense granular flow rheology (Revil-Baudard and Chauchat, 2013). Concerning the turbulent Reynolds stress, mixing length and k-ɛ turbulence models have been validated by previous studies (Revil-Baudard and Chauchat, 2013; Hsu et al., 2004). Recently, sedFoam was developed based on kinetic theory of granular flows and k-ɛ turbulence models (Cheng and Hsu, 2014). In this study, we further extended sedFoam by implementing the mixing length and the dense granular flow rheology by following Revil-Baudard and Chauchat (2013). This allows us to objectively compare the different combinations of intergranular stresses (kinetic theory or the dense granular flow rheology) and turbulence models (mixing length or k-ɛ) under unidirectional sheet flow conditions. We found that the calibrated mixing length and k-ɛ models predicts similar velocity and concentration profiles. The differences observed between the kinetic theory and the dense granular flow rheology requires further investigation. In particular, we hypothesize that the extended kinetic theory proposed by Berzi (2011) would probably improve the existing combination of the kinetic theory with a simple Coulomb frictional model in sedFoam. A semi-analytical solution proposed by Berzi and Fraccarollo(2013) for sediment transport rate and sheet layer thickness versus the Shields number is compared with the results obtained by using the dense granular flow rheology and the mixing length model. The results are similar which demonstrate that both the extended kinetic theory and the dense granular flow rheology can be used to model intergranular stresses under sheet flow conditions.

Stick-slip instabilities in sheared granular flow: The role of friction and acoustic vibrations.

PubMed

Lieou, Charles K C; Elbanna, Ahmed E; Langer, J S; Carlson, J M

2015-08-01

We propose a theory of shear flow in dense granular materials. A key ingredient of the theory is an effective temperature that determines how the material responds to external driving forces such as shear stresses and vibrations. We show that, within our model, friction between grains produces stick-slip behavior at intermediate shear rates, even if the material is rate strengthening at larger rates. In addition, externally generated acoustic vibrations alter the stick-slip amplitude, or suppress stick-slip altogether, depending on the pressure and shear rate. We construct a phase diagram that indicates the parameter regimes for which stick-slip occurs in the presence and absence of acoustic vibrations of a fixed amplitude and frequency. These results connect the microscopic physics to macroscopic dynamics and thus produce useful information about a variety of granular phenomena, including rupture and slip along earthquake faults, the remote triggering of instabilities, and the control of friction in material processing.

Constitutive model development for flows of granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chialvo, Sebastian

Granular flows are ubiquitous in both natural and industrial processes. When com- posed of dry, noncohesive particles, they manifest three different flow regimes---commonly referred to as the quasistatic, inertial, and intermediate regimes---each of which exhibits its own dependences on solids volume fraction, shear rate, and particle-level properties. The differences in these regimes can be attributed to microscale phenomena, with quasistatic flows being dominated by enduring, frictional contacts between grains, inertial flows by grain collisions, and intermediate flows by a combination of the two. Existing constitutive models for the solids-phase stress tend to focus on one or two regimes at a time, with a limited degree of success; the same is true of models for wall-boundary conditions for granular flows. Moreover, these models tend not to be based on detailed particle-level flow data, either from experiment or simulation. Clearly, a comprehensive modeling framework is lacking. The work in this thesis aims to address these issues by proposing continuum models constructed on the basis of discrete element method (DEM) simulations of granular shear flows. Specifically, we propose (a) a constitutive stress model that bridges the three dense flow regimes, (b) an modified kinetic-theory model that covers both the dense and dilute ends of the inertial regime, and (c) a boundary-condition model for dense, wall-bounded flows. These models facilitate the modeling of a wide range of flow systems of practical interest and provide ideas for further model development and refinement.

Granular Rayleigh-Taylor instability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vinningland, Jan Ludvig; Johnsen, Oistein; Flekkoey, Eirik G.

2009-06-18

A granular instability driven by gravity is studied experimentally and numerically. The instability arises as grains fall in a closed Hele-Shaw cell where a layer of dense granular material is positioned above a layer of air. The initially flat front defined by the grains subsequently develops into a pattern of falling granular fingers separated by rising bubbles of air. A transient coarsening of the front is observed right from the start by a finger merging process. The coarsening is later stabilized by new fingers growing from the center of the rising bubbles. The structures are quantified by means of Fouriermore » analysis and quantitative agreement between experiment and computation is shown. This analysis also reveals scale invariance of the flow structures under overall change of spatial scale.« less

Isostaticity in Cosserat Continuum

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

Geotech . Eng. Div. 106(4), 419–433 (1980) 13. Walker, D.M., Tordesillas, A., Thornton, C., Behringer, R.P., Zhang, J., Peters, J.F.: Percolating contact...thermomicromechanical approach to multiscale continuum modeling of dense granular materials. Acta Geotech . 3, 225–240 (2008) 17. Oda, M., Takemura, T

Generation of dense granular deposits for porosity analysis: assessment and application of large-scale non-smooth granular dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schruff, T.; Liang, R.; Rüde, U.; Schüttrumpf, H.; Frings, R. M.

2018-01-01

The knowledge of structural properties of granular materials such as porosity is highly important in many application-oriented and scientific fields. In this paper we present new results of computer-based packing simulations where we use the non-smooth granular dynamics (NSGD) method to simulate gravitational random dense packing of spherical particles with various particle size distributions and two types of depositional conditions. A bin packing scenario was used to compare simulation results to laboratory porosity measurements and to quantify the sensitivity of the NSGD regarding critical simulation parameters such as time step size. The results of the bin packing simulations agree well with laboratory measurements across all particle size distributions with all absolute errors below 1%. A large-scale packing scenario with periodic side walls was used to simulate the packing of up to 855,600 spherical particles with various particle size distributions (PSD). Simulation outcomes are used to quantify the effect of particle-domain-size ratio on the packing compaction. A simple correction model, based on the coordination number, is employed to compensate for this effect on the porosity and to determine the relationship between PSD and porosity. Promising accuracy and stability results paired with excellent computational performance recommend the application of NSGD for large-scale packing simulations, e.g. to further enhance the generation of representative granular deposits.

Modified kinetic theory applied to the shear flows of granular materials

DOE PAGES

Duan, Yifei; Feng, Zhi -Gang; Michaelides, Efstathios E.; ...

2017-04-11

Here, granular materials are characterized by large collections of discrete particles, where the particle-particle interactions are significantly more important than the particle-fluid interactions. The current kinetic theory captures fairly accurately the granular flow behavior in the dilute case, when only binary interactions are significant, but is not accurate at all in the dense flow regime, where multi-particle interactions and contacts must be modeled. To improve the kinetic theory results for granular flows in the dense flow regime, we propose a Modified Kinetic Theory (MKT) model that utilizes the contact duration or cut-off time to account for the complex particle-particle interactionsmore » in the dense regime. The contact duration model, also called TC model, is originally proposed by Luding and McNamara to solve the inelastic collapse issue existing in the Inelastic Hard Sphere (IHS) model. This model defines a cut-off time t c such that dissipation is not counted if the time between two consecutive contacts is less than t c. As shown in their study, the use of a cut-off time t c can also reduce the dissipation during multi-particle contacts. In this paper we relate the TC model with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) by choosing the cut-off time t c to be the duration of contact calculated from the linear-spring-dashpot soft-sphere model of the DEM. We examine two types of granular flows: simple shear flow and the plane shear flow, and compare the results of the classical Kinetic Theory (KT) model, the present MKT model, and the DEM model. Here, we show that the MKT model entails a significant improvement over the KT model for simple shear flows at inertial regimes. With the MKT model the calculations are close to the DEM results at solid fractions as high as 0.57. Even for the plane shear flows, where shear rate and solid fraction are inhomogeneous, the results of the MKT model agree very well with the DEM results.« less

Modified kinetic theory applied to the shear flows of granular materials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Duan, Yifei; Feng, Zhi -Gang; Michaelides, Efstathios E.

Here, granular materials are characterized by large collections of discrete particles, where the particle-particle interactions are significantly more important than the particle-fluid interactions. The current kinetic theory captures fairly accurately the granular flow behavior in the dilute case, when only binary interactions are significant, but is not accurate at all in the dense flow regime, where multi-particle interactions and contacts must be modeled. To improve the kinetic theory results for granular flows in the dense flow regime, we propose a Modified Kinetic Theory (MKT) model that utilizes the contact duration or cut-off time to account for the complex particle-particle interactionsmore » in the dense regime. The contact duration model, also called TC model, is originally proposed by Luding and McNamara to solve the inelastic collapse issue existing in the Inelastic Hard Sphere (IHS) model. This model defines a cut-off time t c such that dissipation is not counted if the time between two consecutive contacts is less than t c. As shown in their study, the use of a cut-off time t c can also reduce the dissipation during multi-particle contacts. In this paper we relate the TC model with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) by choosing the cut-off time t c to be the duration of contact calculated from the linear-spring-dashpot soft-sphere model of the DEM. We examine two types of granular flows: simple shear flow and the plane shear flow, and compare the results of the classical Kinetic Theory (KT) model, the present MKT model, and the DEM model. Here, we show that the MKT model entails a significant improvement over the KT model for simple shear flows at inertial regimes. With the MKT model the calculations are close to the DEM results at solid fractions as high as 0.57. Even for the plane shear flows, where shear rate and solid fraction are inhomogeneous, the results of the MKT model agree very well with the DEM results.« less

Rate Dependence in Force Networks of Sheared Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartley, Robert; Behringer, Robert P.

2003-03-01

We describe experiments that explore rate dependence in force networks of dense granular materials undergoing slow deformation by shear and by compression. The experiments were carried out using 2D photoelastic particles so that it was possible to visualize forces at the grain scale. Shear experiments were carried out in a Couette geometry with a rate Ω. Compression experiments were carried out by repetitive compaction via a piston in a rigid chamber at comparable rates to the shear experiments. Under shearing the mean stress/force grew logarithmically with Ω for at least four decades. For compression, no dependence of the mean stress on rate was observed. In related measurements, we observed relaxation of stress in static samples that had been sheared and where the shearing was abruptly stopped. Relaxation of the force network occured over time scales of days. No relaxation of the force network was observable for uniformly compressed static samples. These results are of particular interest because they provide insight into creep and failure in granular materials.

Influence of dry cohesion on the micro- and macro-mechanical properties of dense polydisperse powders & grains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kievitsbosch, Robert; Smit, Hendrik; Magnanimo, Vanessa; Luding, Stefan; Taghizadeh, Kianoosh

2017-06-01

Understanding how cohesive granular materials behave is of interest for many industrial applications, such as pharmaceutical or food and civil engineering. Models of the behaviour of granular materials on the microscopic scale can be used to obtain macroscopic continuum relations by a micro-macro transition approach. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is used to inspect the influence of cohesion on the micro and macro behaviour of granular assemblies by using an elasto-plastic cohesive contact model. Interestingly, we observe that frictional samples prepared with different cohesion values show a significant difference in pressure and coordination number in the jammed regime; the differences become more pronounced when packings are closer to the jamming density, i.e. the lowest density where the system is mechanically stable. Furthermore, we observe that cohesion has an influence on the jamming density for frictional samples, but there is no influence on the jamming density for frictionless samples.

Simulation of a Driven Dense Granular Gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bizon, Chris; Shattuck, M. D.; Swift, J. B.; Swinney, Harry L.

1998-11-01

Event driven particle simulations quantitatively reproduce the experimental results on vibrated granular layers, including the formation of standing wave patterns(C. Bizon, M.D. Shattuck, J.B. Swift, W.D. McCormick, and H.L. Swinney, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80), pp. 57-60 (1998). and secondary instabilities(J.R. deBruyn, C. Bizon, M.D. Shattuck, D. Goldman, J.B. Swift, and H.L. Swinney, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81) (1998), to appear. . In these simulations the velocity distributions are nearly Gaussian when scaled with the local fluctuational kinetic energy (granular temperature); this suggests that inelastic dense gas kinetic theory is applicable. We perform simulations of a two-dimensional granular gas that is homogeneously driven with fluctuating forces. We find that the equation of state differs from that of an elastic dense gas and that this difference is due to a change in the distribution of relative velocities at collisions. Granular thermal conductivity and viscosity are measured by allowing the fluctuating forces to have large scale spatial gradients.

Onset of sediment transport is a continuous transition driven by fluid shear and granular creep.

PubMed

Houssais, Morgane; Ortiz, Carlos P; Durian, Douglas J; Jerolmack, Douglas J

2015-03-09

Fluid-sheared granular transport sculpts landscapes and undermines infrastructure, yet predicting the onset of sediment transport remains notoriously unreliable. For almost a century, this onset has been treated as a discontinuous transition at which hydrodynamic forces overcome gravity-loaded grain-grain friction. Using a custom laminar-shear flume to image slow granular dynamics deep into the bed, here we find that the onset is instead a continuous transition from creeping to granular flow. This transition occurs inside the dense granular bed at a critical viscous number, similar to granular flows and colloidal suspensions and inconsistent with hydrodynamic frameworks. We propose a new phase diagram for sediment transport, where 'bed load' is a dense granular flow bounded by creep below and suspension above. Creep is characteristic of disordered solids and reminiscent of soil diffusion on hillslopes. Results provide new predictions for the onset and dynamics of sediment transport that challenge existing models.

Self-diffusion in dense granular shear flows.

PubMed

Utter, Brian; Behringer, R P

2004-03-01

Diffusivity is a key quantity in describing velocity fluctuations in granular materials. These fluctuations are the basis of many thermodynamic and hydrodynamic models which aim to provide a statistical description of granular systems. We present experimental results on diffusivity in dense, granular shear flows in a two-dimensional Couette geometry. We find that self-diffusivities D are proportional to the local shear rate gamma; with diffusivities along the direction of the mean flow approximately twice as large as those in the perpendicular direction. The magnitude of the diffusivity is D approximately gamma;a(2), where a is the particle radius. However, the gradient in shear rate, coupling to the mean flow, and strong drag at the moving boundary lead to particle displacements that can appear subdiffusive or superdiffusive. In particular, diffusion appears to be superdiffusive along the mean flow direction due to Taylor dispersion effects and subdiffusive along the perpendicular direction due to the gradient in shear rate. The anisotropic force network leads to an additional anisotropy in the diffusivity that is a property of dense systems and has no obvious analog in rapid flows. Specifically, the diffusivity is suppressed along the direction of the strong force network. A simple random walk simulation reproduces the key features of the data, such as the apparent superdiffusive and subdiffusive behavior arising from the mean velocity field, confirming the underlying diffusive motion. The additional anisotropy is not observed in the simulation since the strong force network is not included. Examples of correlated motion, such as transient vortices, and Lévy flights are also observed. Although correlated motion creates velocity fields which are qualitatively different from collisional Brownian motion and can introduce nondiffusive effects, on average the system appears simply diffusive.

Analog and numerical experiments investigating force chain influences on bed conditions in granular flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Estep, J.; Dufek, J.

2013-12-01

Granular flows are fundamental processes in several terrestrial and planetary natural events; including surficial flows on volcanic edifices, debris flows, landslides, dune formation, rock falls, sector collapses, and avalanches. Often granular flows can be two-phase, whereby interstitial fluids occupy void space within the particulates. The mobility of granular flows has received significant attention, however the physics that govern their internal behavior remain poorly understood. Here we extend upon previous research showing that force chains can transmit extreme localized forces to the substrates of free surface granular flows, and we combine experimental and computational approaches to further investigate the forces at the bed of simplified granular flows. Analog experiments resolve discrete bed forces via a photoelastic technique, while numerical experiments validate laboratory tests using discrete element model (DEM) simulations. The current work investigates (1) the role of distributed grain sizes on force transmission via force chains, and (2) how the inclusion of interstitial fluids effects force chain development. We also include 3D numerical simulations to apply observed 2D characteristics into real world perspective, and ascertain if the added dimension alters force chain behavior. Previous research showed that bed forces generated by force chain structures can transiently greatly exceed (by several 100%) the bed forces predicted from continuum approaches, and that natural materials are more prone to excessive bed forces than photoelastic materials due to their larger contact stiffnesses. This work suggests that force chain activity may play an important role in the bed physics of dense granular flows by influencing substrate entrainment. Photoelastic experiment image showing force chains in gravity driven granular flow.

Jammed Clusters and Non-locality in Dense Granular Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kharel, Prashidha; Rognon, Pierre

We investigate the micro-mechanisms underpinning dense granular flow behaviour from a series of DEM simulations of pure shear flows of dry grains. We observe the development of transient clusters of jammed particles within the flow. Typical size of such clusters is found to scale with the inertial number with a power law that is similar to the scaling of shear-rate profile relaxation lengths observed previously. Based on the simple argument that transient clusters of size l exist in the dense flow regime, the formulation of steady state condition for non-homogeneous shear flow results in a general non-local relation, which is similar in form to the non-local relation conjectured for soft glassy flows. These findings suggest the formation of jammed clusters to be the key micro-mechanism underpinning non-local behaviour in dense granular flows. Particles and Grains Laboratory, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

Onset of sediment transport is a continuous transition driven by fluid shear and granular creep

PubMed Central

Houssais, Morgane; Ortiz, Carlos P.; Durian, Douglas J.; Jerolmack, Douglas J.

2015-01-01

Fluid-sheared granular transport sculpts landscapes and undermines infrastructure, yet predicting the onset of sediment transport remains notoriously unreliable. For almost a century, this onset has been treated as a discontinuous transition at which hydrodynamic forces overcome gravity-loaded grain–grain friction. Using a custom laminar-shear flume to image slow granular dynamics deep into the bed, here we find that the onset is instead a continuous transition from creeping to granular flow. This transition occurs inside the dense granular bed at a critical viscous number, similar to granular flows and colloidal suspensions and inconsistent with hydrodynamic frameworks. We propose a new phase diagram for sediment transport, where ‘bed load’ is a dense granular flow bounded by creep below and suspension above. Creep is characteristic of disordered solids and reminiscent of soil diffusion on hillslopes. Results provide new predictions for the onset and dynamics of sediment transport that challenge existing models. PMID:25751296

ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE NUCLEOLUS DURING THE CHINESE HAMSTER CELL CYCLE

PubMed Central

Noel, J. S.; Dewey, W. C.; Abel, J. H.; Thompson, R. P.

1971-01-01

Changes in the structure of the nucleolus during the cell cycle of the Chinese hamster cell in vitro were studied. Quantitative electron microscopic techniques were used to establish the size and volume changes in nucleolar structures. In mitosis, nucleolar remnants, "persistent nucleoli," consisting predominantly of ribosome-like granular material, and a granular coating on the chromosomes were observed. Persistent nucleoli were also observed in some daughter nuclei as they were leaving telophase and entering G1. During very early G1, a dense, fibrous material characteristic of interphase nucleoli was noted in the nucleoplasm of the cells. As the cells progressed through G1, a granular component appeared which was intimately associated with the fibrous material. By the middle of G1, complete, mature nucleoli were present. The nucleolar volume enlarged by a factor of two from the beginning of G1 to the middle of S primarily due to the accumulation of the granular component. During the G2 period, there was a dissolution or breakdown of the nucleolus prior to the entry of the cells into mitosis. Correlations between the quantitative aspects of this study and biochemical and cytochemical data available in the literature suggest the following: nucleolar reformation following division results from the activation of the nucleolar organizer regions which transcribe for RNA first appearing in association with protein as a fibrous component (45S RNA) and then later as a granular component (28S and 32S RNA). PMID:4933472

CADASIL: Ultrastructural insights into the morphology of granular osmiophilic material.

PubMed

Lorenzi, Teresa; Ragno, Michele; Paolinelli, Francesca; Castellucci, Clara; Scarpelli, Marina; Morroni, Manrico

2017-03-01

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a hereditary systemic vascular disorder. Granular osmiophilic material (GOM) is its ultrastructural marker. We reviewed tissue biopsies from CADASIL patients to establish whether ultrastructural observations help clarify the pathogenic mechanism of CADASIL. Given the resemblance of the GOM deposits to the immunoglobulin deposits seen in glomerulonephritis and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), their morphologies were investigated and compared. Skin, skeletal muscle, kidney, and pericardium tissue biopsies from 13 patients with a clinical and molecular diagnosis of CADASIL, and kidney biopsies from five patients with IgA nephropathy and five patients with primary FSGS were subjected to ultrastructural examination. In CADASIL patients, several GOM deposits from all sites were partially or totally surrounded by an electron-lucent halo. The deposits frequently had a more electron-dense portion with a regular outline on the inner side and a less osmiophilic, looser outer side displaying a less regular profile. The uniformly dense deposits tended to be more osmiophilic if located close to the cell membrane and less osmiophilic if laid farther away from it. The immunoglobulin deposits from the glomerulonephritis and FSGS patients lacked both the granular pattern and the halo. This study demonstrates that GOM deposits may have a nonuniform morphology and describes in detail an electron-lucent halo surrounding several of them. It is conceivable that the halo is the morphological evidence and possibly the cause of an aberrant NOTCH3 processing, already suspected to be involved in CADASIL.

Gravity-induced encapsulation of liquids by destabilization of granular rafts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abkarian, Manouk; Protière, Suzie; Aristoff, Jeffrey M.; Stone, Howard A.

2013-05-01

Droplets and bubbles coated by a protective armour of particles find numerous applications in encapsulation, stabilization of emulsions and foams, and flotation techniques. Here we study the role of a body force, such as in flotation, as a means of continuous encapsulation by particles. We use dense particles, which self-assemble into rafts, at oil-water interfaces. We show that these rafts can be spontaneously or controllably destabilized into armoured oil-in-water droplets, which highlights a possible role for common granular materials in environmental remediation. We further present a method for continuous production and discuss the generalization of our approach towards colloidal scales.

Shearing Low-frictional 3D Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, David; Zheng, Hu; Behringer, Robert

Shear jamming occurs in frictional particles over a range of packing fractions, from random loose to random dense. Simulations show shear jamming for frictionless spheres, but over a vanishing range as the system size grows. We use packings of submerged and diffractive index-matched hydrogel particles to determine the shear-induced microscopic response of 3D, low-frictional granular systems near jamming, bridging the gap between frictionless and low friction packings. We visualize the particles by a laser scanning technique, and we track particle motion along with their interparticle contact forces from its 3D-reconstructions. NSF-DMF-1206351, NASA NNX15AD38G, William M. Keck Foundation, and DARPA.

The thermodynamics of dense granular flow and jamming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Shih Yu

The scope of the thesis is to propose, based on experimental evidence and theoretical validation, a quantifiable connection between systems that exhibit the jamming phenomenon. When jammed, some materials that flow are able to resist deformation so that they appear solid-like on the laboratory scale. But unlike ordinary fusion, which has a critically defined criterion in pressure and temperature, jamming occurs under a wide range of conditions. These condition have been rigorously investigated but at the moment, no self-consistent framework can apply to grains, foam and colloids that may have suddenly ceased to flow. To quantify the jamming behavior, a constitutive model of dense granular flows is deduced from shear-flow experiments. The empirical equations are then generalized, via a thermodynamic approach, into an equation-of-state for jamming. Notably, the unifying theory also predicts the experimental data on the behavior of molecular glassy liquids. This analogy paves a crucial road map for a unifying theoretical framework in condensed matter, for example, ranging from sand to fire retardants to toothpaste.

Unified rheology of vibro-fluidized dry granular media: From slow dense flows to fast gas-like regimes

PubMed Central

Gnoli, Andrea; Lasanta, Antonio; Sarracino, Alessandro; Puglisi, Andrea

2016-01-01

Granular media take on great importance in industry and geophysics, posing a severe challenge to materials science. Their response properties elude known soft rheological models, even when the yield-stress discontinuity is blurred by vibro-fluidization. Here we propose a broad rheological scenario where average stress sums up a frictional contribution, generalizing conventional μ(I)-rheology, and a kinetic collisional term dominating at fast fluidization. Our conjecture fairly describes a wide series of experiments in a vibrofluidized vane setup, whose phenomenology includes velocity weakening, shear thinning, a discontinuous thinning transition, and gaseous shear thickening. The employed setup gives access to dynamic fluctuations, which exhibit a broad range of timescales. In the slow dense regime the frequency of cage-opening increases with stress and enhances, with respect to μ(I)-rheology, the decrease of viscosity. Diffusivity is exponential in the shear stress in both thinning and thickening regimes, with a huge growth near the transition. PMID:27924928

METHOD OF MAKING REFRACTORY BODIES

DOEpatents

Andersen, J.C.

1960-05-31

A method is given for the manufacture of silicon carbide bodies that are characterized by high density, high purity, and superior resistance to oxidative deterioration. Dense silicon bodies are obtained by a process in which granular silicon carbide, a carbonizable material, and a carbonaceous material are mixed together, the mixture is shaped as desired, and then the shape is fired in the presence of more than the stoichiometric amount of silicon. The carbonizable material preferably includes a temporary binder that is set before the firing step to hold the mix in shape for firing.

Flexible fiber in interaction with a dense granular flow close to the jamming transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Algarra, Nicolas; Leang, Marguerite; Lazarus, Arnaud; Vandembroucq, Damien; Kolb, Evelyne

2017-06-01

We propose a new fluid/structure interaction in the unusual case of a dense granular medium flowing against an elastic fiber acting as a flexible intruder. We study experimentally the reconfiguration and the forces exerted on the flexible fiber produced by the flow at a constant and low velocity of a two-dimensional disordered packing of grains close but below the jamming transition.

Monodisperse granular flows in viscous dispersions in a centrifugal acceleration field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cabrera, Miguel Angel; Wu, Wei

2016-04-01

Granular flows are encountered in geophysical flows and innumerable industrial applications with particulate materials. When mixed with a fluid, a complex network of interactions between the particle- and fluid-phase develops, resulting in a compound material with a yet unclear physical behaviour. In the study of granular suspensions mixed with a viscous dispersion, the scaling of the stress-strain characteristics of the fluid phase needs to account for the level of inertia developed in experiments. However, the required model dimensions and amount of material becomes a main limitation for their study. In recent years, centrifuge modelling has been presented as an alternative for the study of particle-fluid flows in a reduced scaled model in an augmented acceleration field. By formulating simple scaling principles proportional to the equivalent acceleration Ng in the model, the resultant flows share many similarities with field events. In this work we study the scaling principles of the fluid phase and its effects on the flow of granular suspensions. We focus on the dense flow of a monodisperse granular suspension mixed with a viscous fluid phase, flowing down an inclined plane and being driven by a centrifugal acceleration field. The scaled model allows the continuous monitoring of the flow heights, velocity fields, basal pressure and mass flow rates at different Ng levels. The experiments successfully identify the effects of scaling the plastic viscosity of the fluid phase, its relation with the deposition of particles over the inclined plane, and allows formulating a discussion on the suitability of simulating particle-fluid flows in a centrifugal acceleration field.

Pore-scale Modeling of CO2 Local Trapping in Heterogeneous Porous Media with Inter-granular Cements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, D.; Li, Y.

2017-12-01

Based on pore-scale modeling of CO2/brine multiphase flow in heterogeneous porous media with inter-granular cements, we numerically analyze the effects of cement-modified pore structure on CO2 local trapping. Results indicate: 1) small pore throat is the main reason for causing CO2 local trapping in front of low-porosity layers (namely dense layers) formed by inter-granular cements; 2) in the case of the same pore throat size, the smaller particle size can increase the number of flow paths for CO2 plume and equivalently enhances local permeability, which may counteract the impediment of high capillary pressure on CO2 migration to some extent and consequently disables CO2 local capillary trapping; 3) the isolated pores by inter-granular cements can lead to dramatic reduction of CO2 saturation inside the dense layers, whereas the change of connectivity of some pores due to the cements can increase CO2 accumulation in front of the dense layers by lowering the displacement area of CO2 plume.

Implementation and Re nement of a Comprehensive Model for Dense Granular Flows

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sundaresan, Sankaran

2015-09-30

Dense granular ows are ubiquitous in both natural and industrial processes. They manifest three di erent ow regimes, each exhibiting its own dependence on solids volume fraction, shear rate, and particle-level properties. This research project sought to develop continuum rheological models for dense granular ows that bridges multiple regimes of ow, implement them in open-source platforms for gas-particle ows and perform test simulations. The rst phase of the research covered in this project involved implementation of a steady- shear rheological model that bridges quasi-static, intermediate and inertial regimes of ow into MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges - a generalmore » purpose computer code developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory). MFIX simulations of dense granular ows in hourglass-shaped hopper were then performed as test examples. The second phase focused on formulation of a modi ed kinetic theory for frictional particles that can be used over a wider range of particle volume fractions and also apply for dynamic, multi- dimensional ow conditions. To guide this work, simulations of simple shear ows of identical mono-disperse spheres were also performed using the discrete element method. The third phase of this project sought to develop and implement a more rigorous treatment of boundary e ects. Towards this end, simulations of simple shear ows of identical mono-disperse spheres con ned between parallel plates were performed and analyzed to formulate compact wall boundary conditions that can be used for dense frictional ows at at frictional boundaries. The fourth phase explored the role of modest levels of cohesive interactions between particles on the dense phase rheology. The nal phase of this project focused on implementation and testing of the modi ed kinetic theory in MFIX and running bin-discharge simulations as test examples.« less

Mapping forces in a 3D elastic assembly of grains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saadatfar, Mohammad; Sheppard, Adrian P.; Senden, Tim J.; Kabla, Alexandre J.

2012-01-01

Our understanding of the elasticity and rheology of disordered materials, such as granular piles, foams, emulsions or dense suspensions relies on improving experimental tools to characterise their behaviour at the particle scale. While 2D observations are now routinely carried out in laboratories, 3D measurements remain a challenge. In this paper, we use a simple model system, a packing of soft elastic spheres, to illustrate the capability of X-ray microtomography to characterise the internal structure and local behaviour of granular systems. Image analysis techniques can resolve grain positions, shapes and contact areas; this is used to investigate the material's microstructure and its evolution upon strain. In addition to morphological measurements, we develop a technique to quantify contact forces and estimate the internal stress tensor. As will be illustrated in this paper, this opens the door to a broad array of static and dynamical measurements in 3D disordered systems.

Rupture in cemented granular media: application to wheat endosperm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topin, V.; Delenne, J.-Y.; Radjai, F.

2009-06-01

The mechanical origin of the wheat hardness used to classify wheat flours is an open issue. Wheat endosperm can be considered as a cemented granular material, consisting of densely packed solid particles (the starch granules) and a pore-filling solid matrix (the protein) sticking to the particles. We use the lattice element method to investigate cemented granular materials with a texture close to that of wheat endosperm and with variable matrix volume fraction and particle-matrix adherence. From the shape of the probability density of vertical stresses we distinguish weak, intermediate and strong stresses. The large stresses occur mostly at the contact zones as in noncohesive granular media with a decreasing exponential distribution. The weak forces reflect the arching effect. The intermediate stresses belong mostly to the bulk of the particles and their distribution is well fit to a Gaussian distribution. We also observe that the stress chains are essentially guided by the cementing matrix in tension and by the particulate backbone in compression. Crack formation is analyzed in terms of particle damage as a function of matrix volume fraction and particle-matrix adherence. Our data provide evidence for three regimes of crack propagation depending on the crack path through the material. We find that particle damage scales well with the relative toughness of the particle-matrix interface. The interface toughness appears therefore to be strongly correlated with particle damage and determines transition from soft to hard behavior in wheat endosperm.

Dynamics of dense granular flows of small-and-large-grain mixtures in an ambient fluid.

PubMed

Meruane, C; Tamburrino, A; Roche, O

2012-08-01

Dense grain flows in nature consist of a mixture of solid constituents that are immersed in an ambient fluid. In order to obtain a good representation of these flows, the interaction mechanisms between the different constituents of the mixture should be considered. In this article, we study the dynamics of a dense granular flow composed of a binary mixture of small and large grains immersed in an ambient fluid. In this context, we extend the two-phase approach proposed by Meruane et al. [J. Fluid Mech. 648, 381 (2010)] to the case of flowing dense binary mixtures of solid particles, by including in the momentum equations a constitutive relation that describes the interaction mechanisms between the solid constituents in a dense regime. These coupled equations are solved numerically and validated by comparing the numerical results with experimental measurements of the front speed of gravitational granular flows resulting from the collapse, in ambient air or water, of two-dimensional granular columns that consisted of mixtures of small and large spherical particles of equal mass density. Our results suggest that the model equations include the essential features that describe the dynamics of grains flows of binary mixtures in an ambient fluid. In particular, it is shown that segregation of small and large grains can increase the front speed because of the volumetric expansion of the flow. This increase in flow speed is damped by the interaction forces with the ambient fluid, and this behavior is more pronounced in water than in air.

Monotonic aspects of the mechanical behaviour of bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration and its potential use for road construction.

PubMed

Becquart, Frederic; Bernard, Fabrice; Abriak, Nor Edine; Zentar, Rachid

2009-04-01

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash is an atypical granular material because it may include industrial by-products that result from the incineration of domestic waste. The prospects for the beneficial use of this particular material mainly lie in the field of road construction, as a substitute for the traditional natural aggregates. However, its mechanical properties are still little known, particularly in term of stiffness and deformability, characteristics that are essential to the construction of a durable roadway. The purpose of this paper is to describe better the mechanical behaviour of this recycled material. In order to reach this objective, a large experimental campaign is presented. The first part of this paper presents and comments in detail on the results obtained from static monotonic tests. Oedometric and triaxial shear tests were performed on MSWI bottom ash both before and after treatment with a specific hydraulic binder. These tests allow specification of the mechanical characteristics of the MSWI bottom ash, such as the initial Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, the compressibility index, the friction angle, and the contracting or dilating behaviour of the material. The results reveal a mechanical behaviour similar to that of initially dense standard materials (sands, unbound granular materials) and a dependence on the applied average pressure, characteristic of the mechanical behaviour of granular media. More laboratory data on other samples of MSWI bottom ash are required to ensure that this comparison is statistically valid.

Neutronics performance and activation calculation of dense tungsten granular target for China-ADS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yaling; Li, Jianyang; Zhang, Xunchao; Cai, Hanjie; Yan, Xuesong; Yu, Lin; Fu, Fen; Lin, Ping; Gao, Xiaofei; Zhang, Zhilei; Zhang, Yanshi; Yang, Lei

2017-11-01

Spallation target, which constitutes the physical and functional interface between the high power accelerator and the subcritical core, is one of the most important components in Accelerator Driven Subcritical System (ADS). In this paper, we investigated the neutronics performance, the radiation damage and the activation of dense tungsten granular flow spallation target by using the Monte Carlo programs GMT and FLUKA at the proton energy of 250 MeV with a beam current of 10 mA . First, the leaking neutron yield, leaking neutron energy spectrum and laterally leaking neutron distribution at several time nodes and with different target parameters are explored. After that, the displacement per atom (DPA) and the helium/hydrogen production for tungsten grains and structural materials with stainless steel 316L are estimated. Finally, the radioactivity, residual dose rate and afterheat of granular target are presented. Results indicate that granule diameter below 1 cm and the beam profile diameter have negligible impact on neutronics performance, while the target diameter and volume fraction of grain have notable influence. The maximum DPA for target vessel (beam tube) is about 1.0 (1.6) DPA/year in bare target, and increased to 2.6 (2.8) DPA/year in fission environment. Average DPA for tungsten grains is relatively low. The decline rate of radioactivity and afterheat with cooling time grows with the decrease of the irradiation time.

Collapse of tall granular columns in fluid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Krishna; Soga, Kenichi; Delenne, Jean-Yves

2017-06-01

Avalanches, landslides, and debris flows are geophysical hazards, which involve rapid mass movement of granular solids, water, and air as a multi-phase system. In order to describe the mechanism of immersed granular flows, it is important to consider both the dynamics of the solid phase and the role of the ambient fluid. In the present study, the collapse of a granular column in fluid is studied using 2D LBM - DEM. The flow kinematics are compared with the dry and buoyant granular collapse to understand the influence of hydrodynamic forces and lubrication on the run-out. In the case of tall columns, the amount of material destabilised above the failure plane is larger than that of short columns. Therefore, the surface area of the mobilised mass that interacts with the surrounding fluid in tall columns is significantly higher than the short columns. This increase in the area of soil - fluid interaction results in an increase in the formation of turbulent vortices thereby altering the deposit morphology. It is observed that the vortices result in the formation of heaps that significantly affects the distribution of mass in the flow. In order to understand the behaviour of tall columns, the run-out behaviour of a dense granular column with an initial aspect ratio of 6 is studied. The collapse behaviour is analysed for different slope angles: 0°, 2.5°, 5° and 7.5°.

Toward high-efficiency and detailed Monte Carlo simulation study of the granular flow spallation target

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Han-Jie; Zhang, Zhi-Lei; Fu, Fen; Li, Jian-Yang; Zhang, Xun-Chao; Zhang, Ya-Ling; Yan, Xue-Song; Lin, Ping; Xv, Jian-Ya; Yang, Lei

2018-02-01

The dense granular flow spallation target is a new target concept chosen for the Accelerator-Driven Subcritical (ADS) project in China. For the R&D of this kind of target concept, a dedicated Monte Carlo (MC) program named GMT was developed to perform the simulation study of the beam-target interaction. Owing to the complexities of the target geometry, the computational cost of the MC simulation of particle tracks is highly expensive. Thus, improvement of computational efficiency will be essential for the detailed MC simulation studies of the dense granular target. Here we present the special design of the GMT program and its high efficiency performance. In addition, the speedup potential of the GPU-accelerated spallation models is discussed.

A granular flow model for dense planetary rings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borderies, N.; Goldreich, P.; Tremaine, S.

1985-01-01

In the present study of the viscosity of a differentially rotating particle disk, in the limiting case where the particles are densely packed and their collective behavior resembles that of a liquid, the pressure tensor is derived from both the equations of hydrodynamics and a simple kinetic model of collisions due to Haff (1983). Density waves and narrow circular rings are unstable if the liquid approximation applies, and the consequent nonlinear perturbations may generate 'splashing' of the ring material in the vertical direction. These results are pertinent to the origin of the ellipticities of ringlets, the nonaxisymmetric features near the outer edge of the Saturn B ring, and unexplained residuals in kinematic models of the Saturn and Uranus rings.

Dense granular flow rheology in turbulent bedload transport: from particle-scale simulations to continuous modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maurin, R.; Chauchat, J.; Frey, P.

2016-12-01

Considering a granular bed submitted to a surface fluid flow, bedload transport is classically defined by opposition to suspension and aeolian saltation, as the part of the load in contact with the granular bed. The granular rheology in bedload transport is characteristic of the granular bed response to the fluid shear stress, and is fundamental both for the phenomenon understanding and for upscaling in the framework of two-phase continuous modelling. Using a validated coupled fluid-Discrete Element Model for turbulent bedload transport, the granular rheology is characterized by computing locally the granular stress tensor as a function of the depth for a serie of simulations varying the Shields number, the particle diameter and the specific density. The obtained results are analyzed in the framework of the mu(I) rheology and exhibit a collapse of the data over a wide range of inertial numbers. This shows the relevancy in modelling the granular phase in bedload transport using the mu(I) rheology. By pragmatically fitting the classical expression of the solid volume fraction and the shear to normal granular stress ratio with the results obtained, a parametrization of the mu(I) rheology is proposed for bedload transport, and tested using a 1D two-phase continuous model. The latter is shown to reproduce accurately the dense granular depth profiles, and the classical behavior in terms of dimensionless sediment transport rate as a function of the Shields number. The proposed rheology therefore represents an important step for upscaling in the framework of two-phase continuous modelling of bedload transport.

Wrinkles, folds, and plasticity in granular rafts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jambon-Puillet, Etienne; Josserand, Christophe; Protière, Suzie

2017-09-01

We investigate the mechanical response of a compressed monolayer of large and dense particles at a liquid-fluid interface: a granular raft. Upon compression, rafts first wrinkle; then, as the confinement increases, the deformation localizes in a unique fold. This characteristic buckling pattern is usually associated with floating elastic sheets, and as a result, particle laden interfaces are often modeled as such. Here, we push this analogy to its limits by comparing quantitative measurements of the raft morphology to a theoretical continuous elastic model of the interface. We show that, although powerful to describe the wrinkle wavelength, the wrinkle-to-fold transition, and the fold shape, this elastic description does not capture the finer details of the experiment. We describe an unpredicted secondary wavelength, a compression discrepancy with the model, and a hysteretic behavior during compression cycles, all of which are a signature of the intrinsic discrete and frictional nature of granular rafts. It suggests also that these composite materials exhibit both plastic transition and jamming dynamics.

Reorganization of a dense granular assembly: The unjamming response function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolb, Évelyne; Cviklinski, Jean; Lanuza, José; Claudin, Philippe; Clément, Éric

2004-03-01

We investigate the mechanical properties of a static dense granular assembly in response to a local forcing. To this end, a small cyclic displacement is applied on a grain in the bulk of a two-dimensional disordered packing under gravity and the displacement fields are monitored. We evidence a dominant long range radial response in the upper half part above the solicitation and after a large number of cycles the response is “quasireversible” with a remanent dissipation field exhibiting long range streams and vortexlike symmetry.

On Connection Between Topology and Memory Loss in Sheared Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovalcinova, Lenka; Kramar, Miro; Mischaikow, Konstantin; Kondic, Lou

We present combined results of discrete element simulations and topological data analysis that allows us to characterize the geometrical properties of force networks. Our numerical setup consists of the system of cylindrical particles placed inside rectangular box with periodic boundary conditions along the horizontal direction. System dynamics is driven by constant shearing speed of the top and bottom walls (in the opposite directions) and pressure applied on the top wall in a dense flow regime. Our study reveals the origin of memory loss in granular systems through local rapid changes in force networks. To understand these rapid events we analyze the evolution of the largest Lyapunov exponent in a simpler case of granular system without inter-particle friction and explore a correlation with topological measures. Surprisingly, our results suggest that the memory loss is driven mainly by pressure even in the case of fixed inertial number. We conclude that the interplay between physical properties of the granular system and force network geometry is a key to understand the dynamics of the sheared systems. This research was supported by NSF Grant No. DMS-1521717 and DARPA No. HR0011-16-2-0033.

Reconfiguration of a flexible fiber immersed in a 2D dense granular flow close to the jamming transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolb, Evelyne; Algarra, Nicolas; Vandembroucq, Damien; Lazarus, Arnaud

2015-11-01

We propose a new fluid/structure interaction in the unusual case of a dense granular medium flowing against an elastic fibre acting as a flexible intruder. We experimentally studied the deflection of a mylar flexible beam clamped at one side, the other free side facing a 2D granular flow in a horizontal cell moving at a constant velocity. We investigated the reconfiguration of the fibre as a function of the fibre's rigidity and of the granular packing fraction close but below the jamming in 2D. Imposing the fibre geometry like its length or thickness sets the critical buckling force the fibre is able to resist if it was not supported by lateral grains, while increasing the granular packing fraction might laterally consolidate the fibre and prevent it from buckling. But on the other side, the approach to jamming transition by increasing the granular packing fraction will be characterized by a dramatically increasing size of the cluster of connected grains forming a solid block acting against the fibre, which might promote the fibre's deflection. Thus, we investigated the granular flow fields, the fibre's deflexion as well as the forces experienced by the fibre and compared them with theoretical predictions from elastica for different loadings along the fibre. PMMH, CNRS UMR 7636, UPMC, ESPCI-ParisTech, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.

Collisional model of the drag force of granular impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stevens Bester, Cacey; Behringer, Robert P.

2017-06-01

A dense, dry granular target can cause a free-falling intruding object to come to an abrupt stop as its momentum is lost to the grains. An empirical force law describes this process, characterizing the stopping force as the sum of depth-dependent friction and velocity-dependent inertial drag. However, a complete interpretation of the stopping force, incorporating grain-scale interactions during impact, remains unresolved. Here, the momentum transfer is proposed to occur through sporadic, normal collisions with clusters of high force-carrying grains at the intruder's surface. To test this model in impact experiments, we determine the forces acting on an intruder decelerating through a dense granular medium using high-speed imaging of its trajectory. We vary the geometry of the impacting object to infer intruder-grain interactions. As a result, we connect the inertial drag to the effect of intruder shape based on the proposed collisional model. These impact studies serve as an approach to understand dynamic force transmission in granular media.

Spreading of a granular droplet.

PubMed

Sánchez, Iván; Raynaud, Franck; Lanuza, José; Andreotti, Bruno; Clément, Eric; Aranson, Igor S

2007-12-01

The influence of controlled vibrations on the granular rheology is investigated in a specifically designed experiment in which a granular film spreads under the action of horizontal vibrations. A nonlinear diffusion equation is derived theoretically that describes the evolution of the deposit shape. A self-similar parabolic shape (the "granular droplet") and a spreading dynamics are predicted that both agree quantitatively with the experimental results. The theoretical analysis is used to extract effective friction coefficients between the base and the granular layer under sustained and controlled vibrations. A shear thickening regime characteristic of dense granular flows is evidenced at low vibration energy, both for glass beads and natural sand. Conversely, shear thinning is observed at high agitation.

Spreading of a granular droplet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clement, Eric; Sanchez, Ivan; Raynaud, Franck; Lanuza, Jose; Andreotti, Bruno; Aranson, Igor

2008-03-01

The influence of controlled vibrations on the granular rheology is investigated in a specifically designed experiment in which a granular film spreads under the action of horizontal vibrations. A nonlinear diffusion equation is derived theoretically that describes the evolution of the deposit shape. A self-similar parabolic shape (the``granular droplet'') and a spreading dynamics are predicted that both agree quantitatively with the experimental results. The theoretical analysis is used to extract effective friction coefficients between the base and the granular layer under sustained and controlled vibrations. A shear thickening regime characteristic of dense granular flows is evidenced at low vibration energy, both for glass beads and natural sand. Conversely, shear thinning is observed at high agitation.

Spreading of a granular droplet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sánchez, Iván; Raynaud, Franck; Lanuza, José; Andreotti, Bruno; Clément, Eric; Aranson, Igor S.

2007-12-01

The influence of controlled vibrations on the granular rheology is investigated in a specifically designed experiment in which a granular film spreads under the action of horizontal vibrations. A nonlinear diffusion equation is derived theoretically that describes the evolution of the deposit shape. A self-similar parabolic shape (the“granular droplet”) and a spreading dynamics are predicted that both agree quantitatively with the experimental results. The theoretical analysis is used to extract effective friction coefficients between the base and the granular layer under sustained and controlled vibrations. A shear thickening regime characteristic of dense granular flows is evidenced at low vibration energy, both for glass beads and natural sand. Conversely, shear thinning is observed at high agitation.

The influence of slope-angle ratio on the dynamics of granular flows: insights from laboratory experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulpizio, R.; Castioni, D.; Rodriguez-Sedano, L. A.; Sarocchi, D.; Lucchi, F.

2016-11-01

Laboratory experiments on granular flows using natural material were carried out in order to investigate the behaviour of granular flows passing over a break in slope. Sensors in the depositional area recorded the flow kinematics, while video footage permitted reconstruction of the deposit formation, which allowed investigation of the deposit shape as a function of the change in slope. We defined the slope-angle ratio as the proportion between slope angle in the depositional area and that of the channel. When the granular flow encounters the break in slope part of the flow front forms a bouncing clast zone due to elastic impact with the expansion box floor. During this process, part of the kinetic energy of the dense granular flow is transferred to elutriating fine ash, which subsequently forms turbulent ash cloud accompanying the granular flow until it comes to rest. Morphometric analysis of the deposits shows that they are all elliptical, with an almost constant minor axis and a variable major axis. The almost constant value of the minor axis relates to the spreading angle of flow at the end of the channel, which resembles the basal friction angle of the material. The variation of the major axis is interpreted to relate to the effect of competing inertial and frictional forces. This effect also reflects the partitioning of centripetal and tangential velocities, which changes as the flow passes over the break in slope. After normalization, morphometric data provided empirical relationships that highlight the dependence of runout from the product of slope-angle ratio and the difference in height between granular material release and deposit. The empirical relationships were tested against the runouts of hot avalanches formed during the 1944 ad eruption at Vesuvius, with differences among actual and calculated values are between 1.7 and 15 %. Velocity measurements of laboratory granular flows record deceleration paths at different breaks in slope. When normalized, the velocity data show third-order polynomial fit, highlighting a complex behaviour involving interplay between inertial and frictional forces. The theoretical velocity decays were tested against the data published for volcaniclastic debris flows of the 5-6 May 1998 event in the Sarno area. The comparison is very good for non-channelized debris flows, with significant differences between actual and calculated velocities for the channelized debris flows.

Universal scaling laws of diffusion in two-dimensional granular liquids.

PubMed

Wang, Chen-Hung; Yu, Szu-Hsuan; Chen, Peilong

2015-06-01

We find, in a two-dimensional air table granular system, that the reduced diffusion constant D* and excess entropy S(2) follow two distinct scaling laws: D*∼e(S(2)*) for dense liquids and D∼e(3S(2)*) for dilute ones. The scaling for dense liquids is very similar to that for three-dimensional liquids proposed previously [M. Dzugutov, Nature (London) 381, 137 (1996); A. Samanta et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 145901 (2004)]. In the dilute regime, a power law [Y. Rosenfeld, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 11, 5415 (1999)] also fits our data reasonably well. In our system, particles experience low air drag dissipation and interact with each others through embedded magnets. These near-conservative many-body interactions are responsible for the measured Gaussian velocity distribution functions and the scaling laws. The dominance of cage relaxations in dense liquids leads to the different scaling laws for dense and dilute regimes.

Study of an athermal quasi static plastic deformation in a 2D granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jie; Zheng, Jie

In crystalline materials, the plasticity has been well understood in terms of dynamics of dislocation, i.e. flow defects in the crystals where the flow defects can be directly visualized under a microscope. In a contrast, the plasticity in amorphous materials, i.e. glass, is still poorly understood due to the disordered nature of the materials. In this talk, I will discuss the recent results we have obtained in our ongoing research of the plasticity of a 2D glass in the athermal quasi static limit where the 2D glass is made of bi-disperse granular disks with very low friction. Starting from a densely packed homogeneous and isotropic initial state, we apply pure shear deformation to the system. For a sufficiently small strain, the response of the system is linear and elastic like; when the strain is large enough, the plasticity of the system gradually develops and eventually the shear bands are fully developed. In this study, we are particularly interested in how to relate the local plastic deformation to the macroscopic response of the system and also in the development of the shear bands.

Study of an athermal quasi static plastic deformation in a 2D granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jie; Zheng, Jie

2016-11-01

In crystalline materials, the plasticity has been well understood in terms of dynamics of dislocation, i.e. flow defects in the crystals where the flow defects can be directly visualized under a microscope. In a contrast, the plasticity in amorphous materials, i.e. glass, is still poorly understood due to the disordered nature of the materials. In this talk, I will discuss the recent results we have obtained in our ongoing research of the plasticity of a 2D glass in the athermal quasi static limit where the 2D glass is made of bi-disperse granular disks with very low friction. Starting from a densely packed homogeneous and isotropic initial state, we apply pure shear deformation to the system. For a sufficiently small strain, the response of the system is linear and elastic like; when the strain is large enough, the plasticity of the system gradually develops and eventually the shear bands are fully developed. In this study, we are particularly interested in how to relate the local plastic deformation to the macroscopic response of the system and also in the development of the shear bands.

Study of an athermal quasi static plastic deformation in a 2D granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jie

2017-11-01

In crystalline materials, the plasticity has been well understood in terms of dynamics of dislocation, i.e. flow defects in the crystals where the flow defects can be directly visualized under a microscope. In a contrast, the plasticity in amorphous materials, i.e. glass, is still poorly understood due to the disordered nature of the materials. In this talk, I will discuss the recent results we have obtained in our ongoing research of the plasticity of a 2D glass in the athermal quasi static limit where the 2D glass is made of bi-disperse granular disks with very low friction. Starting from a densely packed homogeneous and isotropic initial state, we apply pure shear deformation to the system. For a sufficiently small strain, the response of the system is linear and elastic like; when the strain is large enough, the plasticity of the system gradually develops and eventually the shear bands are fully developed. In this study, we are particularly interested in how to relate the local plastic deformation to the macroscopic response of the system and also in the development of the shear bands.

Mesoscopic Length Scale Controls the Rheology of Dense Suspensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonnoit, Claire; Lanuza, Jose; Lindner, Anke; Clement, Eric

2010-09-01

From the flow properties of dense granular suspensions on an inclined plane, we identify a mesoscopic length scale strongly increasing with volume fraction. When the flowing layer height is larger than this length scale, a diverging Newtonian viscosity is determined. However, when the flowing layer height drops below this scale, we evidence a nonlocal effective viscosity, decreasing as a power law of the flow height. We establish a scaling relation between this mesoscopic length scale and the suspension viscosity. These results support recent theoretical and numerical results implying collective and clustered granular motion when the jamming point is approached from below.

Mesoscopic length scale controls the rheology of dense suspensions.

PubMed

Bonnoit, Claire; Lanuza, Jose; Lindner, Anke; Clement, Eric

2010-09-03

From the flow properties of dense granular suspensions on an inclined plane, we identify a mesoscopic length scale strongly increasing with volume fraction. When the flowing layer height is larger than this length scale, a diverging Newtonian viscosity is determined. However, when the flowing layer height drops below this scale, we evidence a nonlocal effective viscosity, decreasing as a power law of the flow height. We establish a scaling relation between this mesoscopic length scale and the suspension viscosity. These results support recent theoretical and numerical results implying collective and clustered granular motion when the jamming point is approached from below.

Glassy dynamics of landscape evolution

PubMed Central

Ortiz, Carlos P.; Jerolmack, Douglas J.

2018-01-01

Soil creeps imperceptibly downhill, but also fails catastrophically to create landslides. Despite the importance of these processes as hazards and in sculpting landscapes, there is no agreed-upon model that captures the full range of behavior. Here we examine the granular origins of hillslope soil transport by discrete element method simulations and reanalysis of measurements in natural landscapes. We find creep for slopes below a critical gradient, where average particle velocity (sediment flux) increases exponentially with friction coefficient (gradient). At critical gradient there is a continuous transition to a dense-granular flow rheology. Slow earthflows and landslides thus exhibit glassy dynamics characteristic of a wide range of disordered materials; they are described by a two-phase flux equation that emerges from grain-scale friction alone. This glassy model reproduces topographic profiles of natural hillslopes, showing its promise for predicting hillslope evolution over geologic timescales. PMID:29686102

Geophysical granular and particle-laden flows: review of the field.

PubMed

Hutter, Kolumban

2005-07-15

An introduction is given to the title theme, in general, and the specific topics treated in detail in the articles of this theme issue of the Philosophical Transactions. They fit into the following broader subjects: (i) dense, dry and wet granular flows as avalanche and debris flow events, (ii) air-borne particle-laden turbulent flows in air over a granular base as exemplified in gravity currents, aeolian transport of sand, dust and snow and (iii) transport of a granular mass on a two-dimensional surface in ripple formations of estuaries and rivers and the motion of sea ice.

Oblique impact of dense granular sheets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellowitz, Jake; Guttenberg, Nicholas; Jaeger, Heinrich M.; Nagel, Sidney R.; Zhang, Wendy W.

2013-11-01

Motivated by experiments showing impacts of granular jets with non-circular cross sections produce thin ejecta sheets with anisotropic shapes, we study what happens when two sheets containing densely packed, rigid grains traveling at the same speed collide asymmetrically. Discrete particle simulations and a continuum frictional fluid model yield the same steady-state solution of two exit streams emerging from incident streams. When the incident angle Δθ is less than Δθc =120° +/-10° , the exit streams' angles differ from that measured in water sheet experiments. Below Δθc , the exit angles from granular and water sheet impacts agree. This correspondence is surprising because 2D Euler jet impact, the idealization relevant for both situations, is ill posed: a generic Δθ value permits a continuous family of solutions. Our finding that granular and water sheet impacts evolve into the same member of the solution family suggests previous proposals that perturbations such as viscous drag, surface tension or air entrapment select the actual outcome are not correct. Currently at Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.

Synthesis and cytotoxicity evaluation of granular magnesium substituted β-tricalcium phosphate.

PubMed

Tavares, Débora dos Santos; Castro, Leticia de Oliveira; Soares, Gloria Dulce de Almeida; Alves, Gutemberg Gomes; Granjeiro, José Mauro

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to produce dense granules of tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and magnesium (Mg) substituted β-TCP, also known as β-TCMP (Mg/Ca=0.15 mol), in order to evaluate the impact of Mg incorporation on the physicochemical parameters and in vitro biocompatibility of this novel material. The materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Biocompatibility was assayed according to ISO 10993-12:2007 and 7405:2008, by two different tests of cell survival and integrity (XTT and CVDE). The XRD profile presented the main peaks of β-TCP (JCPDS 090169) and β-TCMP (JCPDS 130404). The characteristic absorption bands of TCP were also identified by FTIR. The ICP results of β-TCMP granules extract showed a precipitation of calcium and release of Mg into the culture medium. Regarding the cytotoxicity assays, β-TCMP dense granules did not significantly affect the mitochondrial activity and relative cell density in relation to β-TCP dense granules, despite the release of Mg from granules into the cell culture medium. β-TCMP granules were successfully produced and were able to release Mg into media without cytotoxicity, indicating the suitability of this promising material for further biological studies on its adequacy for bone therapy.

Experimental investigation of granular dynamics close to the jamming transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caballero, G.; Kolb, E.; Lindner, A.; Lanuza, J.; Clément, E.

2005-06-01

We present different experiments on dense granular assemblies with the aim of clarifying the notion of 'jamming transition' for these assemblies of non-Brownian particles. The experimental set-ups differ in the way in which external perturbations are applied in order to unjam the systems. The first experiment monitors the response to a locally applied deformation of a model packing at rest. The two other experiments study local and collective dynamics in a granular assembly weakly excited by vibration.

Glassy dynamics of landscape evolution.

PubMed

Ferdowsi, Behrooz; Ortiz, Carlos P; Jerolmack, Douglas J

2018-05-08

Soil creeps imperceptibly downhill, but also fails catastrophically to create landslides. Despite the importance of these processes as hazards and in sculpting landscapes, there is no agreed-upon model that captures the full range of behavior. Here we examine the granular origins of hillslope soil transport by discrete element method simulations and reanalysis of measurements in natural landscapes. We find creep for slopes below a critical gradient, where average particle velocity (sediment flux) increases exponentially with friction coefficient (gradient). At critical gradient there is a continuous transition to a dense-granular flow rheology. Slow earthflows and landslides thus exhibit glassy dynamics characteristic of a wide range of disordered materials; they are described by a two-phase flux equation that emerges from grain-scale friction alone. This glassy model reproduces topographic profiles of natural hillslopes, showing its promise for predicting hillslope evolution over geologic timescales. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Fracture surfaces of granular pastes.

PubMed

Mohamed Abdelhaye, Y O; Chaouche, M; Van Damme, H

2013-11-01

Granular pastes are dense dispersions of non-colloidal grains in a simple or a complex fluid. Typical examples are the coating, gluing or sealing mortars used in building applications. We study the cohesive rupture of thick mortar layers in a simple pulling test where the paste is initially confined between two flat surfaces. After hardening, the morphology of the fracture surfaces was investigated, using either the box counting method to analyze fracture profiles perpendicular to the mean fracture plane, or the slit-island method to analyze the islands obtained by cutting the fracture surfaces at different heights, parallel to the mean fracture plane. The fracture surfaces were shown to exhibit scaling properties over several decades. However, contrary to what has been observed in the brittle or ductile fracture of solid materials, the islands were shown to be mass fractals. This was related to the extensive plastic flow involved in the fracture process.

Pressure independence of granular flow through an aperture.

PubMed

Aguirre, M A; Grande, J G; Calvo, A; Pugnaloni, L A; Géminard, J-C

2010-06-11

We experimentally demonstrate that the flow rate of granular material through an aperture is controlled by the exit velocity imposed on the particles and not by the pressure at the base, contrary to what is often assumed in previous work. This result is achieved by studying the discharge process of a dense packing of monosized disks through an orifice. The flow is driven by a conveyor belt. This two-dimensional horizontal setup allows us to independently control the velocity at which the disks escape the horizontal silo and the pressure in the vicinity of the aperture. The flow rate is found to be proportional to the belt velocity, independent of the amount of disks in the container and, thus, independent of the pressure in the outlet region. In addition, this specific configuration makes it possible to get information on the system dynamics from a single image of the disks that rest on the conveyor belt after the discharge.

Vibration characteristics of a large wind turbine tower on non-rigid foundations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yee, S. T.; Cang, T. Y. P.; Scavuzzo, R. J.; Timmerman, D. H.; Fenton, J. W.

1977-01-01

Vibration characteristics of the Mod-OA wind turbine supported by nonrigid foundations were investigated for a range of soil rigidities. The study shows that the influence of foundation rotation on the fundamental frequency of the wind turbine is quite significant for cohesive soils or loose sand. The reduction in natural frequency can be greater than 20 percent. However, for a foundation resting on well graded, dense granular materials or bedrock, such effect is small and the foundation can be treated as a fixed base.

Two-Phase Solid/Fluid Simulation of Dense Granular Flows With Dilatancy Effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangeney, Anne; Bouchut, Francois; Fernandez-Nieto, Enrique; Narbona-Reina, Gladys; Kone, El Hadj

2017-04-01

Describing grain/fluid interaction in debris flows models is still an open and challenging issue with key impact on hazard assessment [1]. We present here a two-phase two-thin-layer model for fluidized debris flows that takes into account dilatancy effects. It describes the velocity of both the solid and the fluid phases, the compression/ dilatation of the granular media and its interaction with the pore fluid pressure [2]. The model is derived from a 3D two-phase model proposed by Jackson [3] and the mixture equations are closed by a weak compressibility relation. This relation implies that the occurrence of dilation or contraction of the granular material in the model depends on whether the solid volume fraction is respectively higher or lower than a critical value. When dilation occurs, the fluid is sucked into the granular material, the pore pressure decreases and the friction force on the granular phase increases. On the contrary, in the case of contraction, the fluid is expelled from the mixture, the pore pressure increases and the friction force diminishes. To account for this transfer of fluid into and out of the mixture, a two-layer model is proposed with a fluid or a solid layer on top of the two-phase mixture layer. Mass and momentum conservation are satisfied for the two phases, and mass and momentum are transferred between the two layers. A thin-layer approximation is used to derive average equations. Special attention is paid to the drag friction terms that are responsible for the transfer of momentum between the two phases and for the appearance of an excess pore pressure with respect to the hydrostatic pressure. Interestingly, when removing the role of water, our model reduces to a dry granular flow model including dilatancy. We first compare experimental and numerical results of dilatant dry granular flows. Then, by quantitatively comparing the results of simulation and laboratory experiments on submerged granular flows, we show that our model contains the basic ingredients making it possible to reproduce the interaction between the granular and fluid phases through the change in pore fluid pressure. In particular, we analyse the different time scales in the model and their role in granular/fluid flow dynamics. References [1] R. Delannay, A. Valance, A. Mangeney, O. Roche, P. Richard, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., in press (2016). [2] F. Bouchut, E. D. Fernández-Nieto, A. Mangeney, G. Narbona-Reina, J. Fluid Mech., 801, 166-221 (2016). [3] R. Jackson, Cambridges Monographs on Mechanics (2000).

Dynamics of Sheared Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kondic, Lou; Utter, Brian; Behringer, Robert P.

2002-01-01

This work focuses on the properties of sheared granular materials near the jamming transition. The project currently involves two aspects. The first of these is an experiment that is a prototype for a planned ISS (International Space Station) flight. The second is discrete element simulations (DES) that can give insight into the behavior one might expect in a reduced-g environment. The experimental arrangement consists of an annular channel that contains the granular material. One surface, say the upper surface, rotates so as to shear the material contained in the annulus. The lower surface controls the mean density/mean stress on the sample through an actuator or other control system. A novel feature under development is the ability to 'thermalize' the layer, i.e. create a larger amount of random motion in the material, by using the actuating system to provide vibrations as well control the mean volume of the annulus. The stress states of the system are determined by transducers on the non-rotating wall. These measure both shear and normal components of the stress on different size scales. Here, the idea is to characterize the system as the density varies through values spanning dense almost solid to relatively mobile granular states. This transition regime encompasses the regime usually thought of as the glass transition, and/or the jamming transition. Motivation for this experiment springs from ideas of a granular glass transition, a related jamming transition, and from recent experiments. In particular, we note recent experiments carried out by our group to characterize this type of transition and also to demonstrate/ characterize fluctuations in slowly sheared systems. These experiments give key insights into what one might expect in near-zero g. In particular, they show that the compressibility of granular systems diverges at a transition or critical point. It is this divergence, coupled to gravity, that makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to characterize the transition region in an earth-bound experiment. In the DE modeling, we analyze dynamics of a sheared granular system in Couette geometry in two (2D) and three (3D) space dimensions. Here, the idea is to both better understand what we might encounter in a reduced-g environment, and at a deeper level to deduce the physics of sheared systems in a density regime that has not been addressed by past experiments or simulations. One aspect of the simulations addresses sheared 2D system in zero-g environment. For low volume fractions, the expected dynamics of this type of system is relatively well understood. However, as the volume fraction is increased, the system undergoes a phase transition, as explained above. The DES concentrate on the evolution of the system as the solid volume fraction is slowly increased, and in particular on the behavior of very dense systems. For these configurations, the simulations show that polydispersity of the sheared particles is a crucial factor that determines the system response. Figures 1 and 2 below, that present the total force on each grain, show that even relatively small (10 %) nonuniformity of the size of the grains (expected in typical experiments) may lead to significant modifications of the system properties, such as velocity profiles, temperature, force propagation, and formation shear bands. The simulations are extended in a few other directions, in order to provide additional insight to the experimental system analyzed above. In one direction, both gravity, and driving due to vibrations are included. These simulations allow for predictions on the driving regime that is required in the experiments in order to analyze the jamming transition. Furthermore, direct comparison of experiments and DES will allow for verification of the modeling assumptions. We have also extended our modeling efforts to 3D. The (preliminary) results of these simulations of an annular system in zero-g environment will conclude the presentation.

Two-Phase Solid/Fluid Simulation of Dense Granular Flows With Dilatancy Effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangeney, A.; Bouchut, F.; Fernández-Nieto, E. D.; Kone, E. H.; Narbona-Reina, G.

2016-12-01

Describing grain/fluid interaction in debris flows models is still an open and challenging issue with key impact on hazard assessment [1]. We present here a two-phase two-thin-layer model for fluidized debris flows that takes into account dilatancy effects. It describes the velocity of both the solid and the fluid phases, the compression/ dilatation of the granular media and its interaction with the pore fluid pressure [2]. The model is derived from a 3D two-phase model proposed by Jackson [3] and the mixture equations are closed by a weak compressibility relation. This relation implies that the occurrence of dilation or contraction of the granular material in the model depends on whether the solid volume fraction is respectively higher or lower than a critical value. When dilation occurs, the fluid is sucked into the granular material, the pore pressure decreases and the friction force on the granular phase increases. On the contrary, in the case of contraction, the fluid is expelled from the mixture, the pore pressure increases and the friction force diminishes. To account for this transfer of fluid into and out of the mixture, a two-layer model is proposed with a fluid or a solid layer on top of the two-phase mixture layer. Mass and momentum conservation are satisfied for the two phases, and mass and momentum are transferred between the two layers. A thin-layer approximation is used to derive average equations. Special attention is paid to the drag friction terms that are responsible for the transfer of momentum between the two phases and for the appearance of an excess pore pressure with respect to the hydrostatic pressure. By comparing quantitatively the results of simulation and laboratory experiments on submerged granular flows, we show that our model contains the basic ingredients making it possible to reproduce the interaction between the granular and fluid phases through the change in pore fluid pressure. In particular, we analyse the different time scales in the model and their role in granular/fluid flow dynamics. References[1] R. Delannay, A. Valance, A. Mangeney, O. Roche, P. Richard, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., in press (2016). [2] F. Bouchut, E. D. Fernández-Nieto, A. Mangeney, G. Narbona-Reina, J. Fluid Mech., 801, 166-221 (2016). [3] R. Jackson, Cambridges Monographs on Mechanics (2000).

Granular flow: Dry and wet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitarai, N.; Nakanishi, H.

2012-04-01

Granular material is a collection of macroscopic particles that are visible with naked eyes. The non-equilibrium nature of the granular materials makes their rheology quite different from that of molecular systems. In this minireview, we present the unique features of granular materials focusing on the shear flow of dry granular materials and granule-liquid mixture.

The structure of some cytoplasmic components of plant cells in relation to the biochemical properties of isolated particles.

PubMed

HODGE, A J; MARTIN, E M; MORTON, R K

1957-01-25

1. Electron micrographs of thin sections of material fixed with buffered osmium tetroxide have been used for comparison of the fine structure of isolated cytoplasmic particles from silver beet petioles and roots of germinating wheat with that of the cytoplasm of the intact cells. 2. Mitochondria of wheat roots have an external double membrane and poorly oriented internal double membranes. As compared with the structures seen in situ, the isolated mitochondria showed evidence of some disorganisation of the fine internal structure, probably due to osmotic effects. The possible influence of such changes on the enzymic properties of the isolated mitochondria is discussed. 3. The isolated plant microsomes are mainly spherical vesicular structures consisting of (a) an outer membrane enclosing (b) either an homogeneous slightly dense material (wheat root microsomes) or some granular dense material (silver beet microsomes) and (c) small dense particles, mostly associated with the vesicle membranes. 4. The cytoplasm of the wheat root cells does not contain any structures similar to the isolated microsomes but has a very dense reticular network, consisting of membranes with associated small dense particles, here called the endoplasmic reticulum. The observations indicate that the isolated microsomes arise mainly by rupture and transformation of the membranes of this structure. The effects of such extensive changes in the lipoprotein membranes on the enzymic activities of the endoplasmic reticulum, as studied in isolated microsomes, is discussed. 5. Meristematic wheat root cells contain structures which consist of smooth membranes with associated vacuoles and are similar to the Golgi zones of animal cells. The membranes of these zones probably contribute to the microsomal fraction under the conditions of preparation used for the enzymic and chemical studies previously reported.

THE STRUCTURE OF SOME CYTOPLASMIC COMPONENTS OF PLANT CELLS IN RELATION TO THE BIOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ISOLATED PARTICLES

PubMed Central

Hodge, A. J.; Martin, E. M.; Morton, R. K.

1957-01-01

1. Electron micrographs of thin sections of material fixed with buffered osmium tetroxide have been used for comparison of the fine structure of isolated cytoplasmic particles from silver beet petioles and roots of germinating wheat with that of the cytoplasm of the intact cells. 2. Mitochondria of wheat roots have an external double membrane and poorly oriented internal double membranes. As compared with the structures seen in situ, the isolated mitochondria showed evidence of some disorganisation of the fine internal structure, probably due to osmotic effects. The possible influence of such changes on the enzymic properties of the isolated mitochondria is discussed. 3. The isolated plant microsomes are mainly spherical vesicular structures consisting of (a) an outer membrane enclosing (b) either an homogeneous slightly dense material (wheat root microsomes) or some granular dense material (silver beet microsomes) and (c) small dense particles, mostly associated with the vesicle membranes. 4. The cytoplasm of the wheat root cells does not contain any structures similar to the isolated microsomes but has a very dense reticular network, consisting of membranes with associated small dense particles, here called the endoplasmic reticulum. The observations indicate that the isolated microsomes arise mainly by rupture and transformation of the membranes of this structure. The effects of such extensive changes in the lipoprotein membranes on the enzymic activities of the endoplasmic reticulum, as studied in isolated microsomes, is discussed. 5. Meristematic wheat root cells contain structures which consist of smooth membranes with associated vacuoles and are similar to the Golgi zones of animal cells. The membranes of these zones probably contribute to the microsomal fraction under the conditions of preparation used for the enzymic and chemical studies previously reported. PMID:13416311

Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics of thermal collapse in a freely cooling granular gas.

PubMed

Kolvin, Itamar; Livne, Eli; Meerson, Baruch

2010-08-01

We show that, in dimension higher than one, heat diffusion and viscosity cannot arrest thermal collapse in a freely evolving dilute granular gas, even in the absence of gravity. Thermal collapse involves a finite-time blowup of the gas density. It was predicted earlier in ideal, Euler hydrodynamics of dilute granular gases in the absence of gravity, and in nonideal, Navier-Stokes granular hydrodynamics in the presence of gravity. We determine, analytically and numerically, the dynamic scaling laws that characterize the gas flow close to collapse. We also investigate bifurcations of a freely evolving dilute granular gas in circular and wedge-shaped containers. Our results imply that, in general, thermal collapse can only be arrested when the gas density becomes comparable with the close-packing density of grains. This provides a natural explanation to the formation of densely packed clusters of particles in a variety of initially dilute granular flows.

Impact Compaction of a Granular Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fenton, Gregg; Asay, Blaine; Todd, Steve; Grady, Dennis

2017-06-01

The dynamic behavior of granular materials has importance to a variety of engineering applications. Although, the mechanical behavior of granular materials have been studied extensively for several decades, the dynamic behavior of these materials remains poorly understood. High-quality experimental data are needed to improve our general understanding of granular material compaction physics. This paper describes how an instrumented plunger impact system can be used to measure the compaction process for granular materials at high and controlled strain rates and subsequently used for computational modelling. The experimental technique relies on a gas-gun driven plunger system to generate a compaction wave through a volume of granular material. This volume of material has been redundantly instrumented along the bed length to track the progression of the compaction wave, and the piston displacement is measured with Photon Doppler Velocimetry (PDV). Using the gathered experimental data along with the initial material tap density, a granular material equation of state can be determined.

Statistics of acoustic emissions and stress drops during granular shearing using a stick-slip fiber bundle mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohen, D.; Michlmayr, G.; Or, D.

2012-04-01

Shearing of dense granular materials appears in many engineering and Earth sciences applications. Under a constant strain rate, the shearing stress at steady state oscillates with slow rises followed by rapid drops that are linked to the build up and failure of force chains. Experiments indicate that these drops display exponential statistics. Measurements of acoustic emissions during shearing indicates that the energy liberated by failure of these force chains has power-law statistics. Representing force chains as fibers, we use a stick-slip fiber bundle model to obtain analytical solutions of the statistical distribution of stress drops and failure energy. In the model, fibers stretch, fail, and regain strength during deformation. Fibers have Weibull-distributed threshold strengths with either quenched and annealed disorder. The shape of the distribution for drops and energy obtained from the model are similar to those measured during shearing experiments. This simple model may be useful to identify failure events linked to force chain failures. Future generalizations of the model that include different types of fiber failure may also allow identification of different types of granular failures that have distinct statistical acoustic emission signatures.

The response of dense dry granular material to the shear reversal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jie; Ren, Jie; Farhadi, Somayeh; Behringer, Robert

2008-11-01

We have performed two dimensional granular experiments under pure shear using bidisperse photo-elastic disks. Starting from a stress free state, a square box filled with granular particles is subject to shear. The forward shears involved various number of steps, leading to maximum strains between 0.1 and 0.3. The area is kept constant during the shear. The network of force chains gradually built up as the strain increased, leading to increased pressure and shear stress. Reverse shear was then applied to the system. Depending on the initial packing fraction and the strain at which the shear is reversed, the force chain network built prior to the shear reversal may be destroyed completely or partially destroyed. Following the force chain weakening, when the reserve shear is continuously applied to the system, there is a force chain strengthening. Following each change of the system, contact forces of individual disks were measured by applying an inverse algorithm. We also kept track of the displacement and angle of rotation of every particle from frame to frame. We present the results for the structure failure and reconstruction during shear reversals. We also present data for stresses, contact force distributions and other statistical measures.

Rheology of dense granular flows in two dimensions: Comparison of fully two-dimensional flows to unidirectional shear flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhateja, Ashish; Khakhar, Devang V.

2018-06-01

We consider the rheology of steady two-dimensional granular flows, in different geometries, using discrete element method-based simulations of soft spheres. The flow classification parameter (ψ ), which defines the local flow type (ranging from pure rotation to simple shear to pure extension), varies spatially, to a significant extent, in the flows. We find that the material behaves as a generalized Newtonian fluid. The μ -I scaling proposed by Jop et al. [Nature (London) 441, 727 (2006), 10.1038/nature04801] is found to be valid in both two-dimensional and unidirectional flows, as observed in previous studies; however, the data for each flow geometry fall on a different curve. The results for the two-dimensional silo flow indicate that the viscosity does not depend directly on the flow type parameter, ψ . We find that the scaling based on "granular fluidity" [Zhang and Kamrin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 058001 (2017), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.058001] gives good collapse of the data to a single curve for all the geometries. The data for the variation of the solid faction with inertial number show a reasonable collapse for the different geometries.

A depth integrated model for dry geophysical granular flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rossi, Giulia; Armanini, Aronne

2017-04-01

Granular flows are rapid to very rapid flows, made up of dry sediment (rock and snow avalanches) or mixture of water and sediment (debris flows). They are among the most dangerous and destructive natural phenomena and the definition of run-out scenarios for risk assessment has received wide interest in the last decades. Nowadays there are many urbanized mountain areas affected by these phenomena, which cause several properties damages and loss of lives. The numerical simulation is a fundamental step to analyze these phenomena and define the runout scenarios. For this reason, a depth-integrated model is developed to analyze the case of dry granular flows, representative of snow avalanches or rock avalanches. The model consists of a two-phase mathematical description of the flow motion: it is similar to the solid transport equations but substantially different since there is no water in this case. A set of partial differential equations is obtained and written in the form of a hyperbolic system. The numerical solution is computed through a path-conservative SPH (Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics) scheme, in the two dimensional case. Appropriate closure relations are necessary, with respect to the concentration C and the shear stress at the bed τ0. In first approximation, it is possible to derive a formulation for the two closure relations from appropriate rheological models (Bagnold theory and dense gas analogy). The model parameters are determined by means of laboratory tests on dry granular material and the effectiveness of the closure relation verified through a comparison with the experimental results. In particular, the experimental investigation aims to reproduce two case of study for dry granular material: the dam-break test problem and the stationary motion with changes in planimetry. The experiments are carried out in the Hydraulic Laboratory of the University of Trento, by means of channels with variable slope and variable shape. The mathematical model will be tested by comparing the numerical results with the experimental data.

Toward generalized continuum models of granular soil and granular soil-tire interaction: A combined discrete element and thermomicromechanical continuum analysis of densely packed assemblies

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-30

flow and deformation of soils in contact with metallic and/or rubber -like bodies” Proceedings, 13th International Conference of the ISTVS 1, pp 201-208...soil- tyre interaction problem”, Proceedings, First North American Workshop on Modeling the Mechanics of Off-Road Mobility. Paper GL-94-30 U.S

Correlated motion in the bulk of dense granular flows.

PubMed

Staron, Lydie

2008-05-01

Numerical simulations of two-dimensional stationary dense granular flows are performed. We check that the system obeys the h_{stop} phenomenology. Focusing on the spatial correlations of the instantaneous velocity fluctuations of the grains, we give evidence of the existence of correlated motion over several grain diameters in the bulk of the flow. Investigating the role of contact friction and restitution, we show that the associated typical length scale lambda is essentially independent of the grain properties. Moreover, we show that lambda is not controlled by the packing compacity. However, in agreement with previous experimental work, we observe that the correlation length decreases with the shear rate. Computing the flows inertia number I , we show a first-order dependence of lambda on I .

Structure of a radiate pseudocolony associated with an intrauterine contraceptive device

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O'Brien, P.K.; Lea, P.J.; Roth-Moyo, L.A.

Transmission electron microscopy of a radiate pseudocolony associated with an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) showed central bundles of extracellular fibers averaging 35 nm in diameter, surrounded by layered mantles of electron-dense, amorphous granular material. No bacterial, viral, or fungal structures were present. X-ray microanalysis revealed copper, sulfur, chloride, iron, and phosphorus; no calcium was found. It is postulated that these structures and histologically identical non-IUCD-associated granules from the female genital tract, as well as similar structures from other body locations, including those reported in colloid cysts of the third ventricle, are of lipofuscin origin.

Fluid-Driven Deformation of a Soft Granular Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacMinn, Christopher W.; Dufresne, Eric R.; Wettlaufer, John S.

2015-01-01

Compressing a porous, fluid-filled material drives the interstitial fluid out of the pore space, as when squeezing water out of a kitchen sponge. Inversely, injecting fluid into a porous material can deform the solid structure, as when fracturing a shale for natural gas recovery. These poromechanical interactions play an important role in geological and biological systems across a wide range of scales, from the propagation of magma through Earth's mantle to the transport of fluid through living cells and tissues. The theory of poroelasticity has been largely successful in modeling poromechanical behavior in relatively simple systems, but this continuum theory is fundamentally limited by our understanding of the pore-scale interactions between the fluid and the solid, and these problems are notoriously difficult to study in a laboratory setting. Here, we present a high-resolution measurement of injection-driven poromechanical deformation in a system with granular microsctructure: We inject fluid into a dense, confined monolayer of soft particles and use particle tracking to reveal the dynamics of the multiscale deformation field. We find that a continuum model based on poroelasticity theory captures certain macroscopic features of the deformation, but the particle-scale deformation field exhibits dramatic departures from smooth, continuum behavior. We observe particle-scale rearrangement and hysteresis, as well as petal-like mesoscale structures that are connected to material failure through spiral shear banding.

Acceleration of plates using non-conventional explosives heavily-loaded with inert materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, J.; Petel, O. E.; Huneault, J.; Serge, M.; Frost, D. L.; Higgins, A. J.

2014-05-01

The detonation behavior of high explosives containing quantities of dense additives has been previously investigated with the observation that such systems depart dramatically from the approximately "gamma law" behavior typical of conventional explosives due to momentum transfer and thermalization between particles and detonation products. However, the influence of this non-ideal detonation behavior on the divergence speed of plates has been less thoroughly studied and existing literature suggests that the effect of dense additives cannot be explained solely through the straightforward application of the Gurney method with energy and density averaging of the explosive. In the current study, the acceleration history and terminal velocity of aluminum flyers launched by packed beds of granular material saturated by amine-sensitized nitromethane is reported. It was observed that terminal flyer velocity scales primarily with the ratio of flyer mass to mass of the explosive component; a fundamental feature of the Gurney method. Velocity decrement from the addition of particles was only 20%-30% compared to the resulting velocity if propelled by an equivalent quantity of neat explosive.

Contactor/filter improvements

DOEpatents

Stelman, David

1989-01-01

A contactor/filter arrangement for removing particulate contaminants from a gaseous stream includes a housing having a substantially vertically oriented granular material retention member with upstream and downstream faces, a substantially vertically oriented microporous gas filter element, wherein the retention member and the filter element are spaced apart to provide a zone for the passage of granular material therethrough. The housing further includes a gas inlet means, a gas outlet means, and means for moving a body of granular material through the zone. A gaseous stream containing particulate contaminants passes through the gas inlet means as well as through the upstream face of the granular material retention member, passing through the retention member, the body of granular material, the microporous gas filter element, exiting out of the gas outlet means. Disposed on the upstream face of the filter element is a cover screen which isolates the filter element from contact with the moving granular bed and collects a portion of the particulates so as to form a dust cake having openings small enough to exclude the granular material, yet large enough to receive the dust particles. In one embodiment, the granular material is comprised of prous alumina impregnated with CuO, with the cover screen cleaned by the action of the moving granular material as well as by backflow pressure pulses.

Spatio-structural granularity of biological material entities

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background With the continuously increasing demands on knowledge- and data-management that databases have to meet, ontologies and the theories of granularity they use become more and more important. Unfortunately, currently used theories and schemes of granularity unnecessarily limit the performance of ontologies due to two shortcomings: (i) they do not allow the integration of multiple granularity perspectives into one granularity framework; (ii) they are not applicable to cumulative-constitutively organized material entities, which cover most of the biomedical material entities. Results The above mentioned shortcomings are responsible for the major inconsistencies in currently used spatio-structural granularity schemes. By using the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as a top-level ontology and Keet's general theory of granularity, a granularity framework is presented that is applicable to cumulative-constitutively organized material entities. It provides a scheme for granulating complex material entities into their constitutive and regional parts by integrating various compositional and spatial granularity perspectives. Within a scale dependent resolution perspective, it even allows distinguishing different types of representations of the same material entity. Within other scale dependent perspectives, which are based on specific types of measurements (e.g. weight, volume, etc.), the possibility of organizing instances of material entities independent of their parthood relations and only according to increasing measures is provided as well. All granularity perspectives are connected to one another through overcrossing granularity levels, together forming an integrated whole that uses the compositional object perspective as an integrating backbone. This granularity framework allows to consistently assign structural granularity values to all different types of material entities. Conclusions The here presented framework provides a spatio-structural granularity framework for all domain reference ontologies that model cumulative-constitutively organized material entities. With its multi-perspectives approach it allows querying an ontology stored in a database at one's own desired different levels of detail: The contents of a database can be organized according to diverse granularity perspectives, which in their turn provide different views on its content (i.e. data, knowledge), each organized into different levels of detail. PMID:20509878

Contactor/filter improvements

DOEpatents

Stelman, D.

1988-06-30

A contactor/filter arrangement for removing particulate contaminants from a gaseous stream is described. The filter includes a housing having a substantially vertically oriented granular material retention member with upstream and downstream faces, a substantially vertically oriented microporous gas filter element, wherein the retention member and the filter element are spaced apart to provide a zone for the passage of granular material therethrough. A gaseous stream containing particulate contaminants passes through the gas inlet means as well as through the upstream face of the granular material retention member, passing through the retention member, the body of granular material, the microporous gas filter element, exiting out of the gas outlet means. A cover screen isolates the filter element from contact with the moving granular bed. In one embodiment, the granular material is comprised of porous alumina impregnated with CuO, with the cover screen cleaned by the action of the moving granular material as well as by backflow pressure pulses. 6 figs.

Flow of Dense Granular Suspensions on an Inclined Plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonnoit, C.; Lanuza, J.; Lindner, A.; Clément, E.

2008-07-01

We investigate the flow behavior of dense granular suspensions, by the use of an inclined plane. The suspensions are prepared at high packing fractions and consist of spherical non-Brownian particles density matched with the suspending fluid. On the inclined plane, we perform a systematic study of the surface velocity as a function of the layer thickness for various flow rates and tilt angles. We perform measurements on a classical rheometer (parallel-plate rheometer) that is shown to be in good agreement with existing models, up to a volume fraction of 50%. Comparing these results, we show that the flow on an inclined plane can, up to a volume fraction of 50%, indeed be described by a purely viscous model in agreement with the results from classical rheometry.

THE FINE STRUCTURE OF MEISSNER's TOUCH CORPUSCLES OF HUMAN FINGERS

PubMed Central

Cauna, Nikolajs; Ross, Leonard L.

1960-01-01

Thin slices of the finger pads of six individuals were fixed in buffered 1 per cent osmic acid, embedded in deaerated, nitrogenated methacrylate, and cut into thin sections for electron microscopic study. Before embedding, the slices were trimmed so as to include several digital tactile corpuscles. Some thin sections were stained in 10 per cent aqueous phosphotungstic acid solution. The principal part of Meissner's corpuscle is made up of flattened laminar cells stretching across the corpuscle in irregular layers. The perinuclear cytoplasm of these cells contains numerous small mitochondria, a sparse granular endoplasmic reticulum, and a large number of small vesicles. Nerve fibers enter the side or base of the corpuscle, lose their myelin sheaths, and follow a meandering course between the laminar cell plates. The nerve endings enter into a close appositional relationship with the flattened portions of the laminar cells. In some areas the apposed axolemma and cell membranes are slightly thickened with small vesicles located along the cell membrane or on both surfaces. These regions are interpreted as synapses. The most prominent feature of the nerve endings is an extraordinary accumulation of small mitochondria which vary in size and internal density. The nerve endings also contain vacuoles, groups of dense concentric membranes, and small dense vesicles of irregular distribution. The laminar cells are separated from one another by a dense intercellular substance of uniform thickness which also envelops the entire corpuscle. This material contains randomly oriented collagen fibers and fine fibrils bound together by a dense material at nodal points recurring at regular intervals of approximately 120 mµ. These findings are discussed in relation to the problems of the function of Meissner's corpuscle, neural material loss and replacement, and the presence of synapses. PMID:13691669

Positron emission particle tracking and its application to granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, D. J.

2017-05-01

Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is a technique for tracking a single radioactively labelled particle. Accurate 3D tracking is possible even when the particle is moving at high speed inside a dense opaque system. In many cases, tracking a single particle within a granular system provides sufficient information to determine the time-averaged behaviour of the entire granular system. After a general introduction, this paper describes the detector systems (PET scanners and positron cameras) used to record PEPT data, the techniques used to label particles, and the algorithms used to process the data. This paper concentrates on the use of PEPT for studying granular systems: the focus is mainly on work at Birmingham, but reference is also made to work from other centres, and options for wider diversification are suggested.

Gas stream clean-up filter and method for forming same

DOEpatents

Mei, Joseph S.; DeVault, James; Halow, John S.

1993-01-01

A gas cleaning filter is formed in-situ within a vessel containing a fluidizable bed of granular material of a relatively large size fraction. A filter membrane provided by a porous metal or ceramic body or such a body supported a perforated screen on one side thereof is coated in-situ with a layer of the granular material from the fluidized bed by serially passing a bed-fluidizing gas stream through the bed of granular material and the membrane. The layer of granular material provides the filtering medium for the combined membrane-granular layer filter. The filter is not blinded by the granular material and provides for the removal of virtually all of the particulates from a process gas stream. The granular material can be at least partially provided by a material capable of chemically reacting with and removing sulfur compounds from the process gas stream. Low level radioactive waste containing organic material may be incinerated in a fluidized bed in communication with the described filter for removing particulates from the gaseous combustion products.

Acoustic probing of elastic behavior and damage in weakly cemented granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langlois, V.; Jia, X.

2014-02-01

We investigate the elastic behavior and damage of weakly cemented granular media under external load with ultrasound. The cementation controlled experiments are performed by freezing the capillary liquid at the bead contact in a dense glass or polymeric [poly(methyl methacrylate)] bead pack wet by tetradecane of volume fraction ϕ = 0.1%-4%. When the pendular rings are solidified, an abrupt increase by a factor of 2 in the compressional wave velocity is observed. We interpret the data in terms of effective medium models in which the contact stiffnesses are derived by either a bonded contact model [P. J. Digby, J. Appl. Mech. 48, 803 (1981), 10.1115/1.3157738] or a cemented contact model [J. Dvorkin, A. Nur, and H. Yin, Mech. Mater. 18, 351 (1994), 10.1016/0167-6636(94)90044-2]. The former fails to quantitatively account for the results with a soft cement relative to the grain, whereas the latter considering the mechanical properties of the cement does apply. Moreover, we monitor the irreversible behavior of the cemented granular packs under moderate uniaxial loading (<1.3 MPa) with the correlation method of ultrasound scattering. The damage of the cemented materials is accompanied by a compressional wave velocity decrease up to 60%, likely due to the fractures induced at the grain-cement interfaces.

Friction on a granular-continuum interface: Effects of granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ecke, Robert; Geller, Drew

We consider the frictional interactions of two soft plates with interposed granular material subject to normal and shear forces. The plates are soft photo-elastic material, have length 50 cm, and are separated by a gap of variable width from 0 to 20 granular particle diameters. The granular materials are two-dimensional rods that are bi-dispersed in size to prevent crystallization. Different rod materials with frictional coefficients between 0 . 04 < μ < 0 . 5 are used to explore the effects of inter-granular friction on the effective friction of a granular medium. The gap is varied to test the dependence of the friction coefficient on the thickness of the granular layer. Because the soft plates absorb most of the displacement associated with the compressional normal force, the granular packing fractions are close to a jamming threshold, probably a shear jamming criterion. The overall shear and normal forces are measured using force sensors and the local strain tensor over a central portion of the gap is obtained using relative displacements of fiducial markers on the soft elastic material. These measurements provide a good characterization of the global and local forces giving rise to an effective friction coefficient. Funded by US DOE LDRD Program.

Correlations and the Ring-Kinetic Equation in Dense Sheared Granular Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumaran, V.

A formal way of deriving fluctuation-correlation relations in densesheared granular media, starting with the Enskog approximation for the collision integral in the Chapman-Enskog theory, is discussed. The correlation correction to the viscosity is obtained using the ring-kinetic equation, in terms of the correlations in the hydrodynamic modes of the linearised Enskog equation. It is shown that the Green-Kubo formula for the shear viscosity emerges from the two-body correlation function obtained from the ring-kinetic equation.

Topology, Structure and Functionality: Analysis, Modelling and Experimentation of Dense Granular Deformation in 2D and 3D

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-05

in a research position that will apply her skills at granular experiment and modeling to important issues related to pharmaceutical processing...MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) (ES) ARO U.S. Anny Research Office 11 . SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT P.O. Box 12211 NUMBER(S) Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211...decision, unless so designated by other documentation. 14. ABSTRACT This project, j oint with Antoinette Tordesillas ofUniversity of Melbomn e

Failure evolution in granular material retained by rigid wall in active mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pietrzak, Magdalena; Leśniewska, Danuta

2012-10-01

This paper presents a detailed study of a selected small scale model test, performed on a sample of surrogate granular material, retained by a rigid wall (typical geotechnical problem of earth thrust on a retaining wall). The experimental data presented in this paper show that the deformation of granular sample behind retaining wall can undergo some cyclic changes. The nature of these cycles is not clear - it is probably related to some micromechanical features of granular materials, which are recently extensively studied in many research centers in the world. Employing very precise DIC (PIV) method can help to relate micro and macro-scale behavior of granular materials.

Gravity and Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Behringer, R. P.; Hovell, Daniel; Kondic, Lou; Tennakoon, Sarath; Veje, Christian

1999-01-01

We describe experiments that probe a number of different types of granular flow where either gravity is effectively eliminated or it is modulated in time. These experiments include the shaking of granular materials both vertically and horizontally, and the shearing of a 2D granular material. For the shaken system, we identify interesting dynamical phenomena and relate them to standard simple friction models. An interesting application of this set of experiments is to the mixing of dissimilar materials. For the sheared system we identify a new kind of dynamical phase transition.

Rheology of sediment transported by a laminar flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Houssais, M.; Ortiz, C. P.; Durian, D. J.; Jerolmack, D. J.

2016-12-01

Understanding the dynamics of fluid-driven sediment transport remains challenging, as it occurs at the interface between a granular material and a fluid flow. Boyer, Guazzelli, and Pouliquen [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 188301 (2011)], 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.188301 proposed a local rheology unifying dense dry-granular and viscous-suspension flows, but it has been validated only for neutrally buoyant particles in a confined and homogeneous system. Here we generalize the Boyer, Guazzelli, and Pouliquen model to account for the weight of a particle by addition of a pressure P0 and test the ability of this model to describe sediment transport in an idealized laboratory river. We subject a bed of settling plastic particles to a laminar-shear flow from above, and use refractive-index-matching to track particles' motion and determine local rheology—from the fluid-granular interface to deep in the granular bed. Data from all experiments collapse onto a single curve of friction μ as a function of the viscous number Iv over the range 3 ×10-5 ≤Iv≤2 , validating the local rheology model. For Iv<3 ×10-5 , however, data do not collapse. Instead of undergoing a jamming transition with μ →μs as expected, particles transition to a creeping regime where we observe a continuous decay of the friction coefficient μ ≤μs as Iv decreases. The rheology of this creep regime cannot be described by the local model, and more work is needed to determine whether a nonlocal rheology model can be modified to account for our findings.

Developing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging measurement of the forces within 3D granular materials under external loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elrington, Stefan; Bertrand, Thibault; Frey, Merideth; Shattuck, Mark; O'Hern, Corey; Barrett, Sean

2014-03-01

Granular materials are comprised of an ensemble of discrete macroscopic grains that interact with each other via highly dissipative forces. These materials are ubiquitous in our everyday life ranging in scale from the granular media that forms the Earth's crust to that used in agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Granular materials exhibit complex behaviors that are poorly understood and cannot be easily described by statistical mechanics. Under external loads individual grains are jammed into place by a network of force chains. These networks have been imaged in quasi two-dimensional and on the outer surface of three-dimensional granular materials. Our goal is to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect contact forces deep within three-dimensional granular materials, using hydrogen-1 relaxation times as a reporter for changes in local stress and strain. To this end, we use a novel pulse sequence to narrow the line width of hydrogen-1 in rubber. Here we present our progress to date, and prospects for future improvements.

Time-resolved dynamics of granular matter by random laser emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Folli, Viola; Ghofraniha, Neda; Puglisi, Andrea; Leuzzi, Luca; Conti, Claudio

2013-07-01

Because of the huge commercial importance of granular systems, the second-most used material in industry after water, intersecting the industry in multiple trades, like pharmacy and agriculture, fundamental research on grain-like materials has received an increasing amount of attention in the last decades. In photonics, the applications of granular materials have been only marginally investigated. We report the first phase-diagram of a granular as obtained by laser emission. The dynamics of vertically-oscillated granular in a liquid solution in a three-dimensional container is investigated by employing its random laser emission. The granular motion is function of the frequency and amplitude of the mechanical solicitation, we show how the laser emission allows to distinguish two phases in the granular and analyze its spectral distribution. This constitutes a fundamental step in the field of granulars and gives a clear evidence of the possible control on light-matter interaction achievable in grain-like system.

Ultrastructural characteristics of the follicle cell-oocyte interface in the oogenesis of Ceratophrys cranwelli.

PubMed

Villecco, Evelina I; Genta, Susana B; Sánchez Riera, Alicia N; Sánchez, Sara S

2002-05-01

In this work we carried out an ultrastructural analysis of the cell interface between oocyte and follicle cells during the oogenesis of the amphibian Ceratophrys cranwelli, which revealed a complex cell-cell interaction. In the early previtellogenic follicles, the plasma membrane of the follicle cells lies in close contact with the plasma membrane of the oocyte, with no interface between them. In the mid-previtellogenic follicles the follicle cells became more active and their cytoplasm has vesicles containing granular material. Their apical surface projects cytoplasmic processes (macrovilli) that contact the oocyte, forming gap junctions. The oocyte surface begins to develop microvilli. At the interface both processes delimit lacunae containing granular material. The oocyte surface has endocytic vesicles that incorporate this material, forming cortical vesicles that are peripherally arranged. In the late previtellogenic follicle the interface contains fibrillar material from which the vitelline envelope will originate. During the vitellogenic period, there is an increase in the number and length of the micro- and macrovilli, which become regularly arranged inside fibrillar tunnels. At this time the oocyte surface exhibits deep crypts where the macrovilli enter, thus increasing the follicle cell-oocyte junctions. In addition, the oocyte displays coated pits and vesicles evidencing an intense endocytic activity. At the interface of the fully grown oocyte the fibrillar network of the vitelline envelope can be seen. The compact zone contains a fibrillar electron-dense material that fills the spaces previously occupied by the now-retracted microvilli. The macrovilli are still in contact with the surface of the oocyte, forming gap junctions.

Explosive acceleration of plates using nonconventional explosives heavily loaded with inert and reactive materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, Jason; Petel, Oren; Huneault, Justin; Serge, Matthew; Frost, David; Higgins, Andrew

2013-06-01

The detonation behavior of high explosives containing dispersed quantities or packed beds of dense additives has been previously investigated with the observation that such systems depart from the ``gamma law'' behavior typical of homogeneous explosives due to momentum transfer and thermalization between particles and detonation products. However, the influence of this non-ideal detonation behavior on the divergence speed of plates has been far less rigorously studied and existing literature suggests that the effect of dense additives cannot be explained solely through the straightforward application of the Gurney method with energy and density averaging of the explosive. In the current study, the acceleration history and terminal velocity of aluminum flyers launched by packed beds of granular material saturated by amine-sensitized nitromethane is reported. Two experimental configurations are used to study acceleration either by a purely grazing detonation in a finite thickness slab of explosive or by a normal detonation from an effectively infinite thickness of explosive. Flyer acceleration and velocity is measured via Photonic Doppler Velocimetry. Packed beds of plastic, aluminum, glass, iron, and bismuth are considered and the data is compared to Gurney velocity predictions.

Numerical investigations on flow dynamics of prismatic granular materials using the discrete element method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hancock, W.; Weatherley, D.; Wruck, B.; Chitombo, G. P.

2012-04-01

The flow dynamics of granular materials is of broad interest in both the geosciences (e.g. landslides, fault zone evolution, and brecchia pipe formation) and many engineering disciplines (e.g chemical engineering, food sciences, pharmaceuticals and materials science). At the interface between natural and human-induced granular media flow, current underground mass-mining methods are trending towards the induced failure and subsequent gravitational flow of large volumes of broken rock, a method known as cave mining. Cave mining relies upon the undercutting of a large ore body, inducement of fragmentation of the rock and subsequent extraction of ore from below, via hopper-like outlets. Design of such mines currently relies upon a simplified kinematic theory of granular flow in hoppers, known as the ellipsoid theory of mass movement. This theory assumes that the zone of moving material grows as an ellipsoid above the outlet of the silo. The boundary of the movement zone is a shear band and internal to the movement zone, the granular material is assumed to have a uniformly high bulk porosity compared with surrounding stagnant regions. There is however, increasing anecdotal evidence and field measurements suggesting this theory fails to capture the full complexity of granular material flow within cave mines. Given the practical challenges obstructing direct measurement of movement both in laboratory experiments and in-situ, the Discrete Element Method (DEM [1]) is a popular alternative to investigate granular media flow. Small-scale DEM studies (c.f. [3] and references therein) have confirmed that movement within DEM silo flow models matches that predicted by ellipsoid theory, at least for mono-disperse granular material freely outflowing at a constant rate. A major draw-back of these small-scale DEM studies is that the initial bulk porosity of the simulated granular material is significantly higher than that of broken, prismatic rock. In this investigation, more realistic granular material geometries are simulated using the ESyS-Particle [2] DEM simulation software on cluster supercomputers. Individual grains of the granular material are represented as convex polyhedra. Initially the polyhedra are packed in a low bulk porosity configuration prior to commencing silo flow simulations. The resultant flow dynamics are markedly different to that predicted by ellipsoid theory. Initially shearing occurs around the silo outlet however rapidly shear localization in a particular direction dominates other directions, causing preferential movement in that direction. Within the shear band itself, the granular material becomes hgihly dilated however elsewhere the bulk porosity remains low. The low porosity within these regions promotes entrainment whereby large volumes of granular material interlock and begin to rotate and translate as a single rigid body. In some cases, entrainment may result in complete overturning of a large volume of material. The consequences of preferential shear localization and in particular, entrainment, for granular media flow in cave mines and natural settings (such as brecchia pipes) is a topic of ongoing research to be presented at the meeting.

Introduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Starosvetsky, Yuli; Jayaprakash, K. R.; Hasan, Md. Arif; Vakakis, Alexander F.

The study of mechanics of granular media dates back to the era of Coulomb. He was the first to postulate the yield condition for homogeneous solids and also conditions for failure in granular media [1-4]. In fact the ideal Coulomb material is the simplest granular material model wherein the shear stress along a plane is linearly proportional to the normal stress on that plane. This can be considered analogous to the Coulomb friction model in cohesion-free interfaces between solids. Initial research in this domain focused mainly on the statics of granular materials from a soil mechanics perspective. However, as the applications of granular materials broadened, the objectives of different research communities contradicted. For example, in geophysics or soil mechanics the objective is to regard granular media with properties of a solid in order to take considerable loads without yielding; on the other hand, in food grain or pharmaceutical industries the granular media is considered as fluids and their rheological properties are of interest. In fact granular media can exhibit both of these behaviors (and also the properties of a gas), and such unique features pave the way for their broad range applications...

Impact compaction of a granular material

DOE PAGES

Fenton, Gregg; Asay, Blaine; Dalton, Devon

2015-05-19

The dynamic behavior of granular materials has importance to a variety of engineering applications. Structural seismic coupling, planetary science, and earth penetration mechanics, are just a few of the application areas. Although the mechanical behavior of granular materials of various types have been studied extensively for several decades, the dynamic behavior of such materials remains poorly understood. High-quality experimental data are needed to improve our general understanding of granular material compaction physics. This study will describe how an instrumented plunger impact system can be used to measure pressure-density relationships for model materials at high and controlled strain rates and subsequentlymore » used for computational modeling.« less

MGM - MS Reilly holds a container used in the MGM experiment

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-03-04

S89-E-5328 (27 Jan 1998) --- This Electronic Still Camera (ESC) image shows astronaut James F. Reilly, mission specialist, holding the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment. The MGM experiment is aimed at understanding the behavior of granular materials, such as sand or salt, under very low confining pressure. This pressure is the force that keeps a granular material ?sticking together?. The experiment has applications in a wide range of fields, including earthquake engineering; coastal and off-shore engineering; mining; transportation of granular materials; soil erosion; the handling of granular materials such as grains and powders; off-road vehicles; geology of the Earth; and planetary geology and exploration. Findings from the experiment may lead to improved selection and preparation of building sites, better management of undeveloped land, and improved handling of materials in chemical, agricultural and other industries.

Simulating stick-slip failure in a sheared granular layer using a physics-based constitutive model

DOE PAGES

Lieou, Charles K. C.; Daub, Eric G.; Guyer, Robert A.; ...

2017-01-14

In this paper, we model laboratory earthquakes in a biaxial shear apparatus using the Shear-Transformation-Zone (STZ) theory of dense granular flow. The theory is based on the observation that slip events in a granular layer are attributed to grain rearrangement at soft spots called STZs, which can be characterized according to principles of statistical physics. We model lab data on granular shear using STZ theory and document direct connections between the STZ approach and rate-and-state friction. We discuss the stability transition from stable shear to stick-slip failure and show that stick slip is predicted by STZ when the applied shearmore » load exceeds a threshold value that is modulated by elastic stiffness and frictional rheology. Finally, we also show that STZ theory mimics fault zone dilation during the stick phase, consistent with lab observations.« less

Elemental analysis of sunflower cataract in Wilson's disease: a study using scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy.

PubMed

Jang, Hyo Ju; Kim, Joon Mo; Choi, Chul Young

2014-04-01

Signature ophthalmic characteristics of Wilson's disease (WD) are regarded as diagnostically important manifestations of the disease. Previous studies have proved the common occurrence of copper accumulation in the liver of patients with WD. However, in the case of sunflower cataracts, one of the rare diagnostic signs of WD, no study has demonstrated copper accumulation in the lens capsules of sunflower cataracts in WD patients. To investigate the nanostructure and elemental composition of sunflower cataracts in WD, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was done on the capsulorhexised anterior lens capsule of sunflower cataracts in WD in order to evaluate anatomical variation and elemental changes. We utilized energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to investigate the elemental composition of the lens capsule using both point and mapping spectroscopy. Quantitative analysis was performed for relative comparison of the elements. TEM showed the presence of granular deposits of varying size (20-350 nm), appearing mainly in the posterior one third of the anterior capsule. The deposits appeared in linear patterns with scattered dots. There were no electron-dense particles in the epithelial cell layer of the lens. Copper and sulfur peaks were consistently revealed in electron-dense granular deposits. In contrast, copper and sulfur peaks were absent in other tissues, including granule-free lens capsules and epithelial tissue. Most copper was exclusively located in clusters of electron-dense particles, and the copper distribution overlapped with sulfur on mapping spectroscopy. Quantitative analysis presented inconsistent ratios of copper to sulfur in each electron-dense granule. The mean ratio of copper to sulfur was about 3.25 (with a range of 2.39-3.78). This is the first elemental analysis of single electron particles in sunflower cataracts using EDS in the ophthalmic area. Sunflower cataracts with WD are assumed to be the result of accumulation of heterogeneous compounds composed of several materials, including copper, sulfur, and/or copper-binding proteins. Linear patterns of copper and sulfur deposition were detected in various sizes and composition ratios with these elements in cases of WD. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bending transition in the penetration of a flexible intruder in a two-dimensional dense granular medium.

PubMed

Algarra, Nicolas; Karagiannopoulos, Panagiotis G; Lazarus, Arnaud; Vandembroucq, Damien; Kolb, Evelyne

2018-02-01

We study the quasistatic penetration of a flexible beam into a two-dimensional dense granular medium lying on a horizontal plate. Rather than a buckling-like behavior we observe a transition between a regime of crack-like penetration in which the fiber only shows small fluctuations around a stable straight geometry and a bending regime in which the fiber fully bends and advances through series of loading and unloading steps. We show that the shape reconfiguration of the fiber is controlled by a single nondimensional parameter L/L_{c}, which is the ratio of the length of the flexible beam L to L_{c}, a bending elastogranular length scale that depends on the rigidity of the fiber and on the departure from the jamming packing fraction of the granular medium. We show, moreover, that the dynamics of the bending transition in the course of the penetration experiment is gradual and is accompanied by a symmetry breaking of the granular packing fraction in the vicinity of the fiber. Together with the progressive bending of the fiber, a cavity grows downstream of the fiber and the accumulation of grains upstream of the fiber leads to the development of a jammed cluster of grains. We discuss our experimental results in the framework of a simple model of bending-induced compaction and we show that the rate of the bending transition only depends on the control parameter L/L_{c}.

Bending transition in the penetration of a flexible intruder in a two-dimensional dense granular medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Algarra, Nicolas; Karagiannopoulos, Panagiotis G.; Lazarus, Arnaud; Vandembroucq, Damien; Kolb, Evelyne

2018-02-01

We study the quasistatic penetration of a flexible beam into a two-dimensional dense granular medium lying on a horizontal plate. Rather than a buckling-like behavior we observe a transition between a regime of crack-like penetration in which the fiber only shows small fluctuations around a stable straight geometry and a bending regime in which the fiber fully bends and advances through series of loading and unloading steps. We show that the shape reconfiguration of the fiber is controlled by a single nondimensional parameter L /Lc , which is the ratio of the length of the flexible beam L to Lc, a bending elastogranular length scale that depends on the rigidity of the fiber and on the departure from the jamming packing fraction of the granular medium. We show, moreover, that the dynamics of the bending transition in the course of the penetration experiment is gradual and is accompanied by a symmetry breaking of the granular packing fraction in the vicinity of the fiber. Together with the progressive bending of the fiber, a cavity grows downstream of the fiber and the accumulation of grains upstream of the fiber leads to the development of a jammed cluster of grains. We discuss our experimental results in the framework of a simple model of bending-induced compaction and we show that the rate of the bending transition only depends on the control parameter L /Lc .

Toward a unifying constitutive relation for sediment transport across environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Houssais, Morgane; Jerolmack, Douglas J.

2017-01-01

Landscape evolution models typically parse the environment into different process domains, each with its own sediment transport law: e.g., soil creep, landslides and debris flows, and river bed-load and suspended-sediment transport. Sediment transport in all environments, however, contains many of the same physical ingredients, albeit in varying proportions: grain entrainment due to a shear force, that is a combination of fluid flow, particle-particle friction and gravity. We present a new take on the perspective originally advanced by Bagnold, that views the long profile of a hillsope-river-shelf system as a continuous gradient of decreasing granular friction dominance and increasing fluid drag dominance on transport capacity. Recent advances in understanding the behavior and regime transitions of dense granular systems suggest that the entire span of granular-to-fluid regimes may be accommodated by a single-phase rheology. This model predicts a material-flow effective friction (or viscosity) that changes with the degree of shear rate and confining pressure. We present experimental results confirming that fluid-driven sediment transport follows this same rheology, for bed and suspended load. Surprisingly, below the apparent threshold of motion we observe that sediment particles creep, in a manner characteristic of glassy systems. We argue that this mechanism is relevant for both hillslopes and rivers. We discuss the possibilities of unifying sediment transport across environments and disciplines, and the potential consequences for modeling landscape evolution.

Non-Dissipative Structural Evolutions in Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pouragha, Mehdi; Wan, Richard

2017-06-01

The structure of the contact network in granular assemblies can evolve due to either dissipative mechanisms such as sliding at contact points, or non-dissipative mechanisms through the phenomenon of contact gain and loss. Being associated with negligible deformations, non-dissipative mechanisms is actually active even in the small strain range of 10-3, especially in the case of densely packed assemblies. Hence, from a constitutive modelling point of view, it is crucial to be able to estimate such non-dissipative evolutions since both elastic and plastic properties of granular assemblies highly depend on contact network characteristics. The current study proposes an analytical scheme that allows us to estimate the non-dissipative contact gain/loss regime in terms of directional changes in the average contact force. The probability distribution of contact forces is used to compute the number of lost contact for each direction. Similarly, the number of newly formed contacts is estimated by considering the probability distribution of the gap between neighbouring particles. Based on the directional contact gain/loss computed, the changes in coordination number and fabric anisotropy can be found which, together with statistical treatments of Love-Weber stress expression, form a complete system of equations describing the evolution of other controlling microvariables. Finally, the results of the calculations have been compared with DEM simulations which verify the accuracy of the proposed scheme.

Granular flow through an aperture: influence of the packing fraction.

PubMed

Aguirre, M A; De Schant, R; Géminard, J-C

2014-07-01

For the last 50 years, the flow of a granular material through an aperture has been intensely studied in gravity-driven vertical systems (e.g., silos and hoppers). Nevertheless, in many industrial applications, grains are horizontally transported at constant velocity, lying on conveyor belts or floating on the surface of flowing liquids. Unlike fluid flows, that are controlled by the pressure, granular flow is not sensitive to the local pressure but rather to the local velocity of the grains at the outlet. We can also expect the flow rate to depend on the local density of the grains. Indeed, vertical systems are packed in dense configurations by gravity, but, in contrast, in horizontal systems the density can take a large range of values, potentially very small, which may significantly alter the flow rate. In the present article, we study, for different initial packing fractions, the discharge through an orifice of monodisperse grains driven at constant velocity by a horizontal conveyor belt. We report how, during the discharge, the packing fraction is modified by the presence of the outlet, and we analyze how changes in the packing fraction induce variations in the flow rate. We observe that variations of packing fraction do not affect the velocity of the grains at the outlet, and, therefore, we establish that flow-rate variations are directly related to changes in the packing fraction.

Granular flow through an aperture: Influence of the packing fraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguirre, M. A.; De Schant, R.; Géminard, J.-C.

2014-07-01

For the last 50 years, the flow of a granular material through an aperture has been intensely studied in gravity-driven vertical systems (e.g., silos and hoppers). Nevertheless, in many industrial applications, grains are horizontally transported at constant velocity, lying on conveyor belts or floating on the surface of flowing liquids. Unlike fluid flows, that are controlled by the pressure, granular flow is not sensitive to the local pressure but rather to the local velocity of the grains at the outlet. We can also expect the flow rate to depend on the local density of the grains. Indeed, vertical systems are packed in dense configurations by gravity, but, in contrast, in horizontal systems the density can take a large range of values, potentially very small, which may significantly alter the flow rate. In the present article, we study, for different initial packing fractions, the discharge through an orifice of monodisperse grains driven at constant velocity by a horizontal conveyor belt. We report how, during the discharge, the packing fraction is modified by the presence of the outlet, and we analyze how changes in the packing fraction induce variations in the flow rate. We observe that variations of packing fraction do not affect the velocity of the grains at the outlet, and, therefore, we establish that flow-rate variations are directly related to changes in the packing fraction.

Micro-scale investigation on the quasi-static behavior of granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xia

Granular material exhibits complex responses when subjected to various external loading. Fundamental mechanisms have not been well established so far, including that about the critical state, one of the most important concepts in the modern soil mechanics. With the recognition that granular material is discrete in nature, the basic understanding can only be obtained from the particle scale. The complexity in granular material behavior lies in the fact that the macroscopic behavior of granular material is determined by not only the interactions operating at contacts, but also how the particles become arranged in space to form an internal structure. This research is aimed to microscopically investigate the influence of the internal structure and the fundamental mechanism about the critical state. In view of the extensive laboratory test data already available in the literature, a numerical simulation method, DEM, is employed as the tool to conduct particle-scale investigations. The contact model for two in-contact circular disks is derived theoretically from the elasticity theory, and the result is a linear contact model with constant stiffness and lateral sliding. Based on the contact model, a systematic series of numerical tests has been implemented, and the results can successfully reproduce the main characteristics in the behavior of natural granular material, under various loading conditions. The macro-micro relationship is the link between the investigations at the two worlds. The key point is to describe the internal structure with the two dual cell systems, a particle cell system and a void cell system. Based on these two systems, the stress and strain in a uniform field are equivalently expressed in terms of the contact forces/relative displacements, and the micro-geometrical variables. With the microstructural definition of the stress tensor, the stress state of granular material is studied microscopically. The stress-fabric-force relation is derived, based on the variables describing the statistics of the contact forces and the contact vectors. By studying the evolution of the micro-quantities during shearing, how the internal structure affects the macro stress state under different loading condition is revealed. With the assumption that the influence of the local variance in stress is ignorable, the response of granular material can be investigated based on the void cell system. Starting from the behavior of a single void cell, the evolutions of the internal structure and its influence on the response of granular material are explained. The stress ratio and the dilatancy behavior of granular material are investigated. The influences of the void ratio, the mean normal stress and the drainage condition are discussed. The fundamental mechanism of the critical state is studied in the framework of thermodynamics with properly considering the influence of the internal structure. The normalized stress ratio tensor at critical state is associated with the critical void cell anisotropy, corresponding to the maximal energy dissipation. The (e, p) relationship at critical state is associated with the critical combination of the void cell size and the contact interactions, corresponding to the minimal free energy. The investigation on the influence of the internal structure anisotropy on the granular material behavior and the critical state is carried out. The results show that at small strain levels, the behavior of granular material is mainly affected by the initial fabric. As shearing continuous, the internal structure of granular material is gradually changed. The granular material approaches the critical state, which is irrespective with the initial internal structure. The critical state of granular material is not unique. With different loading modes, the critical state of granular material, including both the critical stress ratio and the critical (e, p) relations, are found to be different. A fabric tensor is defined based on the characteristics of the void cells. The laboratory method to quantify the fabric anisotropy is proposed by deviatoric shearing. 3D numerical simulations have been carried out to investigate the influence of the loading mode, which is found to be an important factor in the large strain behavior of granular material. With the obtained microscopic understanding, the influence of contact model on granular material behavior is investigated. A method to quantify the fabric anisotropy is proposed. And a simple discussion on the state variable used in the elasto-plastic constitutive model is given.

Postirradiation malignant fibrous histiocytoma arising in juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma and producing alpha-1-antitrypsin.

PubMed

Spagnolo, D V; Papadimitriou, J M; Archer, M

1984-03-01

A fatal nasopharyngeal malignant fibrous histiocytoma developed in a young male after irradiation of juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma diagnosed 5 years earlier. The sarcoma extended from the nasopharynx into the floor of the pituitary fossa and into both parasellar regions. There was no clinical evidence of any distant spread. Many of the malignant cells contained cytoplasmic granular and globular PAS-positive inclusions shown to be alpha-1-antitrypsin immunohistochemically. Ultrastructurally, this probably corresponded to electron-dense material with distinctive patterns and which had accumulated within distended ergastoplasmic cisternae of the neoplastic cells. Three previously reported case of postirradiation sarcomas arising in nasopharyngeal angiofibroma were said to be fibrosarcomas and none produced alpha-1-antitrypsin.

Using Space for a Better Foundation on Earth: Mechanics of Granular Materials. Educational Brief. Grades 5-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alshibli, Khalid

This publication presents a science activity and instructional information on mechanics of granular materials, interparticle friction and geometric interlocking between particles which is a fundamental concept in many fields like earthquakes. The activity described in this document focuses on the principal strength of granular materials,…

Investigations of formation of quasi-static vortex-structures in granular bodies using DEM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kozicki, Jan; Tejchman, Jacek

2017-06-01

The paper presents some two-dimensional simulation results of vortex-structures in cohesionless initially dense sand during quasi-static passive wall translation. The sand behaviour was simulated using the discrete element method (DEM). Sand grains were modelled by spheres with contact moments to approximately capture the irregular grain shape. In order to detect vortex-structures, the Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition of a flow displacement field from DEM calculations was used. This approach enabled us to distinguish both incompressibility and vorticity in the granular displacement field.

Nonlinear instability and convection in a vertically vibrated granular bed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shukla, Priyanka; Ansari, I. H.; van der Meer, D.; Lohse, Detlef; Alam, Meheboob

2015-11-01

The nonlinear instability of the density-inverted granular Leidenfrost state and the resulting convective motion in strongly shaken granular matter are analysed via a weakly nonlinear analysis. Under a quasi-steady ansatz, the base state temperature decreases with increasing height away from from the vibrating plate, but the density profile consists of three distinct regions: (i) a collisional dilute layer at the bottom, (ii) a levitated dense layer at some intermediate height and (iii) a ballistic dilute layer at the top of the granular bed. For the nonlinear stability analysis, the nonlinearities up-to cubic order in perturbation amplitude are retained, leading to the Landau equation. The genesis of granular convection is shown to be tied to a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation from the Leidenfrost state. Near the bifurcation point the equilibrium amplitude is found to follow a square-root scaling law, Ae √{ ▵} , with the distance ▵ from bifurcation point. The strength of convection is maximal at some intermediate value of the shaking strength, with weaker convection both at weaker and stronger shaking. Our theory predicts a novel floating-convection state at very strong shaking.

Using Space for a Better Foundation on Earth: Mechanics of Granular Materials. Educational Brief. Grades 9-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alshibli, Khalid

This publication presents a science activity and instructional information on the mechanics of granular materials, interparticle friction and geometric interlocking between particles which is a fundamental concept in many fields like in the study of earthquakes. This document describes the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments which…

Non-local rheology for dense granular flows in avalanches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Izzet, Adrien; Clement, Eric; Andreotti, Bruno

A local constitutive relation was proposed to describe dense granular flows (GDR MiDi, EPJE 2004). It provides a rather good prediction of the flowing regime but does not foresee the existence of a ``creep regime'' as observed by Komatsu et al. (PRL 2001). In the context of a 2D shear cell, a relaxation length for the velocity profile was measured (Bouzid et al., PRL 2013) which confirmed the existence of a flow below the standard Coulomb yield threshold. A correction for the local rheology was proposed. To test further this non-local constitutive relation, we built an inclined narrow channel within which we monitor the flow from the side. We managed to observe the ``creep regime'' over five orders of magnitude in velocity and fit the velocity profiles in the depth with an asymptotic solution of the non-local equation. However, the boundary condition at the free surface needs to be selected in order to calibrate the non-local rheology over the whole range of stresses in the system. In this perspective, we complement the experimental results with 2D simulations of hard and frictional discs on an inclined plane in which we introduce a surface friction force proportional to the effective pressure in the granular. We analyze these results in the light of the non-local rheology.

Dynamics of Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Behringer, Robert P.

1996-01-01

Granular materials exhibit a rich variety of dynamical behavior, much of which is poorly understood. Fractal-like stress chains, convection, a variety of wave dynamics, including waves which resemble capillary waves, l/f noise, and fractional Brownian motion provide examples. Work beginning at Duke will focus on gravity driven convection, mixing and gravitational collapse. Although granular materials consist of collections of interacting particles, there are important differences between the dynamics of a collections of grains and the dynamics of a collections of molecules. In particular, the ergodic hypothesis is generally invalid for granular materials, so that ordinary statistical physics does not apply. In the absence of a steady energy input, granular materials undergo a rapid collapse which is strongly influenced by the presence of gravity. Fluctuations on laboratory scales in such quantities as the stress can be very large-as much as an order of magnitude greater than the mean.

Development and utilization of new diagnostics for dense-phase pneumatic transport

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

Dense-phase pneumatic transport is an attractive means of conveying solids. Unfortunately, because of the high solid concentrations, this transport method is a difficult regime in which to carry out detailed measurements. Hence most details of the flow are unknown. In this context, the main objective of this work is to develop probes for local measurements of solid velocity and holdup in dense gas-solid flows. Because we anticipate the recent theories of rapid granular flows will bring insight to the dense pneumatic transport of particles, we have sought to substantiate these theories through computer simulations. There we have verified the theorymore » of Hanes, Jenkins Richman (1988) for the rapid, steady shear flow of identical, smooth, nearly elastics disks driven by identical, parallel, bumpy boundaries. Because granular flows depend strongly on the nature of their interaction with a boundary, we have verified the boundary conditions calculated by Jenkins (1991) for spheres interacting with a flat, frictional surface. During the previous reporting period, we began a study of the time relaxation of the second moment of velocity fluctuations for a collection of disks undergoing simple shear. In the present reporting period, we have completed this study of relaxation by comparing results of simulations with the theoretical predictions of Jenkins and Richman (1988). In addition, we have concluded a series of experiments with flour plugs in the dense-phase pneumatic setup. Finally, we have established several industrial contacts to transfer the diagnostic techniques developed under this contract. 7 refs., 11 figs.« less

Bubbling in vibrated granular films.

PubMed

Zamankhan, Piroz

2011-02-01

With the help of experiments, computer simulations, and a theoretical investigation, a general model is developed of the flow dynamics of dense granular media immersed in air in an intermediate regime where both collisional and frictional interactions may affect the flow behavior. The model is tested using the example of a system in which bubbles and solid structures are produced in granular films shaken vertically. Both experiments and large-scale, three-dimensional simulations of this system are performed. The experimental results are compared with the results of the simulation to verify the validity of the model. The data indicate evidence of formation of bubbles when peak acceleration relative to gravity exceeds a critical value Γ(b). The air-grain interfaces of bubblelike structures are found to exhibit fractal structure with dimension D=1.7±0.05.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lieou, Charles K. C.; Daub, Eric G.; Guyer, Robert A.

In this paper, we model laboratory earthquakes in a biaxial shear apparatus using the Shear-Transformation-Zone (STZ) theory of dense granular flow. The theory is based on the observation that slip events in a granular layer are attributed to grain rearrangement at soft spots called STZs, which can be characterized according to principles of statistical physics. We model lab data on granular shear using STZ theory and document direct connections between the STZ approach and rate-and-state friction. We discuss the stability transition from stable shear to stick-slip failure and show that stick slip is predicted by STZ when the applied shearmore » load exceeds a threshold value that is modulated by elastic stiffness and frictional rheology. Finally, we also show that STZ theory mimics fault zone dilation during the stick phase, consistent with lab observations.« less

Ultrastructure of the synovial membrane in seronegative inflammatory arthropathies.

PubMed Central

Morris, C J; Farr, M; Hollywell, C A; Hawkins, C F; Scott, D L; Walton, K W

1983-01-01

The ultrastructure of the synovial membrane has been studied in 6 patients with seronegative inflammatory arthropathies: Reiter's (2), Crohn's (2), Whipple's (1) and Behçet's disease (1). The most striking changes were found in the synovial B cells, many containing abnormally large mitochondria with altered cristae surrounded by fibrillar material. Similar material was present in dilated endoplasmic reticulum which was the probable source of groups of extracellular fibrillar spheroidal bodies. The B cells also contained electron dense granular lysosomes of very variable size which, in common with the abnormal mitochondria, were often associated with bundles of orientated microfilaments and large golgi complexes. Light microscopy of the synovial membrane was consistent with an inflammatory arthritis, as were the high white cell counts in the synovial fluid. Systemic activity in the patients was indicated by raised ESR and C-reactive protein (CRP). Images Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. A Figure 5. B PMID:6186810

Gravity-driven dense granular flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ertas, Deniz

2002-03-01

Despite their importance in many areas of science and technology, the emergent physics of hard granular systems remain largely obscure, especially when the packing density approaches that of a jammed system. In particular, I will focus on the rheology of gravity-driven dense granular flows on an incline with a ``rough" bottom in two and three dimensions. We have conducted large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of spheres that interact through linear damped spring or Hertzian force laws with a Coulomb failure criterion(D. Ertaş) et al., Europhys. Lett. 56, 214 (2001); L.E. Silbert et al., Phys. Rev. E 64, 051302 (2001).. This flow geometry produces a constant density profile, and reproduces key features of such flows that have been observed experimentally(O. Pouliquen, Phys. Fluids 11), 542 (1999), such as an angle of repose that depends on flow thickness, steady-state solutions at varying heights for a given inclination angle, and the scaling of the mean particle velocity with pile height (< v > ∝ H^3/2). These successes prompted us to carefully examine the rheology in the interior of the pile by measuring the full stress and strain tensors, which are generally unavailable through experiments. The type of force law has little impact on the behavior of the system. The bulk rheology can be approximately described in terms of extensions of Chapman-Enskog theory to dense packings(L. Bocquet et al.), cond-mat/0112072. However, close to the angle of repose, this description fails near the free surface, which exhibits a rheology dominated by normal stress differences that are small in the bulk. This change in rheology can be qualitatively understood in terms of stress-bearing force networks that are continuously formed by ``gravitational inelastic collapse" and destroyed by the imposed strain.

Instability-induced ordering, universal unfolding and the role of gravity in granular Couette flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alam, Meheboob; Arakeri, V. H.; Nott, P. R.; Goddard, J. D.; Herrmann, H. J.

2005-01-01

Linear stability theory and bifurcation analysis are used to investigate the role of gravity in shear-band formation in granular Couette flow, considering a kinetic-theory rheological model. We show that the only possible state, at low shear rates, corresponds to a "plug" near the bottom wall, in which the particles are densely packed and the shear rate is close to zero, and a uniformly sheared dilute region above it. The origin of such plugged states is shown to be tied to the spontaneous symmetry-breaking instabilities of the gravity-free uniform shear flow, leading to the formation of ordered bands of alternating dilute and dense regions in the transverse direction, via an infinite hierarchy of pitchfork bifurcations. Gravity plays the role of an "imperfection", thus destroying the "perfect" bifurcation structure of uniform shear. The present bifurcation problem admits universal unfolding of pitchfork bifurcations which subsequently leads to the formation of a sequence of a countably infinite number of "isolas", with the solution structures being a modulated version of their gravity-free counterpart. While the solution with a plug near the bottom wall looks remarkably similar to the shear-banding phenomenon in dense slow granular Couette flows, a "floating" plug near the top wall is also a solution of these equations at high shear rates. A two-dimensional linear stability analysis suggests that these floating plugged states are unstable to long-wave travelling disturbances.The unique solution having a bottom plug can also be unstable to long waves, but remains stable at sufficiently low shear rates. The implications and realizability of the present results are discussed in the light of shear-cell experiments under "microgravity" conditions.

Flowability of granular materials with industrial applications - An experimental approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torres-Serra, Joel; Romero, Enrique; Rodríguez-Ferran, Antonio; Caba, Joan; Arderiu, Xavier; Padullés, Josep-Manel; González, Juanjo

2017-06-01

Designing bulk material handling equipment requires a thorough understanding of the mechanical behaviour of powders and grains. Experimental characterization of granular materials is introduced focusing on flowability. A new prototype is presented which performs granular column collapse tests. The device consists of a channel whose design accounts for test inspection using visualization techniques and load measurements. A reservoir is attached where packing state of the granular material can be adjusted before run-off to simulate actual handling conditions by fluidisation and deaeration of the pile. Bulk materials on the market, with a wide range of particle sizes, can be tested with the prototype and the results used for classification in terms of flowability to improve industrial equipment selection processes.

Characterization of granular flow dynamics from the generated high-frequency seismic signal: insights from laboratory experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangeney, A.; Farin, M.; de Rosny, J.; Toussaint, R.; Trinh, P. T.

2017-12-01

Landslides, rock avalanche and rockfalls represent a major natural hazard in steep environments. However, owing to the lack of visual observations, the dynamics of these gravitational events is still not well understood. A burning challenge is to deduce the landslide dynamics (flow potential energy, involved volume, particle size…) from the characteristics of the generated seismic signal (radiated seismic energy, maximum amplitude, frequencies,...). Laboratory experiments of granular columns collapse are conducted on an inclined plane. The seismic signal generated by the collapse is recorded by piezoelectric accelerometers sensitive in a wide frequency range (1 Hz - 56 kHz). The granular flow are constituted with steel beads of same diameter. We compare the dynamic parameters of the granular flows, deduced from the movie of the experiments, to the seismic parameters deduced from the measured seismic signals. The ratio of radiated seismic energy to potential energy lost is shown to slightly decrease with slope angle and is between 0.2% and 9%. It decreases as time, slope angle and flow volume increase and when the particle diameter decreases. These results explain the dispersion over several orders of magnitude of the seismic efficiency of natural landslides. We distinguish two successive phases of rise and decay in the time profiles if the amplitude of the seismic signal and of the mean frequency of the signal generated by the granular flows. The rise phase and the maximum are shown to be independent of the slope angle. The maximum seismic amplitude coincides with the maximum flow speed in the direction normal to the slope but not with the maximum downslope speed. We observe that the shape of the seismic envelope and frequencies as a function of time changes after a critical slope angle, between 10° and 15° with respect to the horizontal, with a decay phase lasting much longer as slope angle increases, due to a change in the flow regime, from a dense to a more agitated flow. In addition, we propose a semi-empirical scaling law to describe how the seismic energy radiated by a granular flow increases when the slope angle increases. The fit of this law with the seismic data allows us to retrieve the friction angle of the granular material, which is a crucial rheological parameter.

Rapid granular flows on a rough incline: phase diagram, gas transition, and effects of air drag.

PubMed

Börzsönyi, Tamás; Ecke, Robert E

2006-12-01

We report experiments on the overall phase diagram of granular flows on an incline with emphasis on high inclination angles where the mean layer velocity approaches the terminal velocity of a single particle free falling in air. The granular flow was characterized by measurements of the surface velocity, the average layer height, and the mean density of the layer as functions of the hopper opening, the plane inclination angle, and the downstream distance x of the flow. At high inclination angles the flow does not reach an x -invariant steady state over the length of the inclined plane. For low volume flow rates, a transition was detected between dense and very dilute (gas) flow regimes. We show using a vacuum flow channel that air did not qualitatively change the phase diagram and did not quantitatively modify mean flow velocities of the granular layer except for small changes in the very dilute gaslike phase.

Pressure regulator

DOEpatents

Ebeling, Jr., Robert W.; Weaver, Robert B.

1979-01-01

The pressure within a pressurized flow reactor operated under harsh environmental conditions is controlled by establishing and maintaining a fluidized bed of uniformly sized granular material of selected density by passing the gas from the reactor upwardly therethrough at a rate sufficient to fluidize the bed and varying the height of the bed by adding granular material thereto or removing granular material therefrom to adjust the backpressure on the flow reactor.

Resilient Modulus Characterization of Alaskan Granular Base Materials

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-08-01

Resilient modulus (MR) of base course material is an important material input for : pavement design. In Alaska, due to distinctiveness of local climate, material source, : fines content and groundwater level, resilient properties of D-1 granular base...

Creepy landscapes : river sediment entrainment develops granular flow rheology on creeping bed.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prancevic, J.; Chatanantavet, P.; Ortiz, C. P.; Houssais, M.; Durian, D. J.; Jerolmack, D. J.

2015-12-01

To predict rates of river sediment transport, one must first address the zeroth-order question: when does sediment move? The concept and determination of the critical fluid shear stress remains hazy, as observing particle motion and determining sediment flux becomes increasingly hard in its vicinity. To tackle this problem, we designed a novel annular flume experiment - reproducing an infinite river channel - where the refractive index of particles and the fluid are matched. The fluid is dyed with a fluorescent powder and a green laser sheet illuminates the fluid only, allowing us to observe particle displacements in a vertical plane. Experiments are designed to highlight the basic granular interactions of sediment transport while suppressing the complicating effects of turbulence; accordingly, particles are uniform spheres and Reynolds numbers are of order 1. We have performed sediment transport measurements close to the onset of particle motion, at steady state, and over long enough time to record averaged rheological behavior of particles. We find that particles entrained by a fluid exhibit successively from top to bottom: a suspension regime, a dense granular flow regime, and - instead of a static bed - a creeping regime. Data from experiments at a range of fluid stresses can be collapsed onto one universal rheologic curve that indicates the effective friction is a monotonic function of a dimensionless number called the viscous number. These data are in remarkable agreement with the local rheology model proposed by Boyer et al., which means that dense granular flows, suspensions and bed-load transport are unified under a common frictional flow law. Importantly, we observe slow creeping of the granular bed even in the absence of bed load, at fluid stresses that are below the apparent critical value. This last observation challenges the classical definition of the onset of sediment transport, and points to a continuous transition from quasi-static deformation to granular flow. These results provide a new perspective to connect the transport laws for soil creep, landslides/debris flows and river transport. Although our experiments are highly idealized, evidence from other studies suggest that our observations may be directly relevant to natural systems. Finally we show that our findings are robust for mixed grain sizes.

Rheology of dense granular flows for elongated particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagy, Dániel B.; Claudin, Philippe; Börzsönyi, Tamás; Somfai, Ellák

2017-12-01

We study the rheology of dense granular flows for frictionless spherocylinders by means of 3D numerical simulations. As in the case of spherical particles, the effective friction μ is an increasing function of the inertial number I , and we systematically investigate the dependence of μ on the particle aspect ratio Q , as well as that of the normal stress differences, the volume fraction, and the coordination number. We show in particular that the quasistatic friction coefficient is nonmonotonic with Q : from the spherical case Q =1 , it first sharply increases, reaches a maximum around Q ≃1.05 , and then gently decreases until Q =3 , passing its initial value at Q ≃2 . We provide a microscopic interpretation for this unexpected behavior through the analysis of the distribution of dissipative contacts around the particles: as compared to spheres, slightly elongated grains enhance contacts in their central cylindrical band, whereas at larger aspect ratios particles tend to align and dissipate by preferential contacts at their hemispherical caps.

Unifying Suspension and Granular flows near Jamming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeGiuli, Eric; Wyart, Matthieu

2017-06-01

Rheological properties of dense flows of hard particles are singular as one approaches the jamming threshold where flow ceases, both for granular flows dominated by inertia, and for over-damped suspensions. Concomitantly, the lengthscale characterizing velocity correlations appears to diverge at jamming. Here we review a theoretical framework that gives a scaling description of stationary flows of frictionless particles. Our analysis applies both to suspensions and inertial flows of hard particles. We report numerical results in support of the theory, and show the phase diagram that results when friction is added, delineating the regime of validity of the frictionless theory.

On Critical States, Rupture States and Interlocking Strength of Granular Materials.

PubMed

Szalwinski, Chris M

2017-07-27

The Mohr-Coulomb theory of strength identifies cohesion and internal friction as the two principal contributions to the shear strength of a granular material. The contribution of cohesion in over-compacted granular materials has been challenged and replacing cohesion with interlocking has been proposed. A theory of rupture strength that includes interlocking is derived herein. The physics-chemistry concept of critical state is elaborated to accommodate granular materials, based on empirical definitions established in the fields of soil mechanics and bulk solids' flow. A surface in state space, called the critical compaction surface, separates over-compacted states from lightly compacted states. The intersection of this surface with the Mohr-Coulomb envelope forms the critical state surface for a granular material. The rupture strength of an over-compacted granular material is expressed as the sum of cohesion, internal friction and interlocking strength. Interlocking strength is the shear strength contribution due to over-compaction and vanishes at critical state. The theory allows migrations from one critical state to another. Changes in specific volume during such migrations are related to changes in mean-normal effective stress and uncoupled from changes in shearing strain. The theory is reviewed with respect to two established research programs and underlying assumptions are identified.

A thermomechanical constitutive model for cemented granular materials with quantifiable internal variables. Part II - Validation and localization analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Arghya; Tengattini, Alessandro; Nguyen, Giang D.; Viggiani, Gioacchino; Hall, Stephen A.; Einav, Itai

2014-10-01

We study the mechanical failure of cemented granular materials (e.g., sandstones) using a constitutive model based on breakage mechanics for grain crushing and damage mechanics for cement fracture. The theoretical aspects of this model are presented in Part I: Tengattini et al. (2014), A thermomechanical constitutive model for cemented granular materials with quantifiable internal variables, Part I - Theory (Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 10.1016/j.jmps.2014.05.021). In this Part II we investigate the constitutive and structural responses of cemented granular materials through analyses of Boundary Value Problems (BVPs). The multiple failure mechanisms captured by the proposed model enable the behavior of cemented granular rocks to be well reproduced for a wide range of confining pressures. Furthermore, through comparison of the model predictions and experimental data, the micromechanical basis of the model provides improved understanding of failure mechanisms of cemented granular materials. In particular, we show that grain crushing is the predominant inelastic deformation mechanism under high pressures while cement failure is the relevant mechanism at low pressures. Over an intermediate pressure regime a mixed mode of failure mechanisms is observed. Furthermore, the micromechanical roots of the model allow the effects on localized deformation modes of various initial microstructures to be studied. The results obtained from both the constitutive responses and BVP solutions indicate that the proposed approach and model provide a promising basis for future theoretical studies on cemented granular materials.

Fine-grained linings of leveed channels facilitate runout of granular flows

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kokelaar, B.P.; Graham, R. L.; Gray, J.M.N.T.; Vallance, James W.

2014-01-01

Catastrophic dense granular flows, such as occur in rock avalanches, debris flows and pyroclastic flows, move as fully shearing mixtures that have approximately 60 vol.% solids and tend to segregate to form coarse-grained fronts and leveed channels. Levees restrict spreading of unconfined flows and form as coarse particles that become concentrated in the top of the flow are transported to the front and then advect to the sides in the flow head. Channels from which most material has drained away down slope are commonly lined with fine-grained deposit, widely thought to remain from the tail of the waning flow. We show how segregation in experimental dense flows of carborundum or sand (300–425 μm) mixed with spherical fine ballotini (150–250 μm), on rough slopes of 27–29°, produces fine-grained channel linings that are deposited with the levees, into which they grade laterally. Maximum runout distance is attained with mixtures containing 30–40% sand, just sufficient to segregate and form levees that are adequately robust to restrict the spreading attributable to the low-friction fines. Resin impregnation and serial sectioning of deliberately arrested experimental flows shows how fines-lined levees form from the flow head; the flows create their own stable ‘conduit’ entirely from the front, which in a geophysical context can play an important mechanistic role in facilitating runout. The flow self-organization ensures that low-friction fines at the base of the segregated channel flow shear over fine-grained substrate in the channel, thus reducing frictional energy losses. We propose that in pyroclastic flows and debris flows, which have considerable mobility attributable to pore-fluid pressures, such fine-grained flow-contact zones form similarly and not only reduce frictional energy losses but also reduce flow–substrate permeability so as to enhance pore-fluid pressure retention. Thus the granular flow self-organization that produces fine-grained channel linings can be an important factor in facilitating long runout of catastrophic geophysical flows on the low slopes (few degrees) of depositional fans and aprons around mountains and volcanoes.

Fine-grained linings of leveed channels facilitate runout of granular flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kokelaar, B. P.; Graham, R. L.; Gray, J. M. N. T.; Vallance, J. W.

2014-01-01

Catastrophic dense granular flows, such as occur in rock avalanches, debris flows and pyroclastic flows, move as fully shearing mixtures that have approximately 60 vol.% solids and tend to segregate to form coarse-grained fronts and leveed channels. Levees restrict spreading of unconfined flows and form as coarse particles that become concentrated in the top of the flow are transported to the front and then advect to the sides in the flow head. Channels from which most material has drained away down slope are commonly lined with fine-grained deposit, widely thought to remain from the tail of the waning flow. We show how segregation in experimental dense flows of carborundum or sand (300-425 μm) mixed with spherical fine ballotini (150-250 μm), on rough slopes of 27-29°, produces fine-grained channel linings that are deposited with the levees, into which they grade laterally. Maximum runout distance is attained with mixtures containing 30-40% sand, just sufficient to segregate and form levees that are adequately robust to restrict the spreading attributable to the low-friction fines. Resin impregnation and serial sectioning of deliberately arrested experimental flows shows how fines-lined levees form from the flow head; the flows create their own stable ‘conduit’ entirely from the front, which in a geophysical context can play an important mechanistic role in facilitating runout. The flow self-organization ensures that low-friction fines at the base of the segregated channel flow shear over fine-grained substrate in the channel, thus reducing frictional energy losses. We propose that in pyroclastic flows and debris flows, which have considerable mobility attributable to pore-fluid pressures, such fine-grained flow-contact zones form similarly and not only reduce frictional energy losses but also reduce flow-substrate permeability so as to enhance pore-fluid pressure retention. Thus the granular flow self-organization that produces fine-grained channel linings can be an important factor in facilitating long runout of catastrophic geophysical flows on the low slopes (few degrees) of depositional fans and aprons around mountains and volcanoes.

Summary of Calcine Disposal Development Using Hot Isostatic Pressing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bateman, Ken; Wahlquist, Dennis; Hart, Edward

2015-03-01

Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, has demonstrated the effectiveness of the hot isostatic press (HIP) process for treatment of hazardous high-level waste known as calcine that is stored at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) at Idaho National Laboratory. HIP trials performed with simulated calcines at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex and an Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization facility from 2007 to 2010 produced a dense, monolithic waste form with increased chemical durability and effective (storage) volume reductions of ~10 to ~70% compared to granular calcine forms. In December 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy signedmore » an amended Record of Decision selecting HIP technology as the treatment method for the 4,400 m3 of granular zirconia and alumina calcine stored at INTEC. Testing showed that HIP treatment reduces the risks associated with radioactive and hazardous constituent release, post-production handling, and long-term (repository) storage of calcines and would result in estimated storage cost savings in the billions of dollars. Battelle Energy Alliance has the ability to complete pilot-scale HIP processing of INTEC calcine, which is the next necessary step in implementing HIP processing as a calcine treatment method.« less

Functional morphology of femoral glands in the Tegu lizard, Tupinambis merianae.

PubMed

Chamut, Silvia; Valdez, Valeria García; Manes, Mario E

2009-04-01

Several lizards have femoral glands, which have an influence in various reproductive behaviors. In this paper we describe the morphological organization of the femoral glands in the Tegu, Tupinambis merianae, by means of light and electron microscopy. Even though these glands are present in both genders, secretions during the reproductive period can only be found in males. The glandular parenchyma, which is organized in numerous secretory units, consists of keratinocyte-like cells and granular cells. The holocrine secretion is constituted from both cells, which lose their integrity and become a semi-amorphous material, reinforced by keratin sheets. The discharges of each unit merge together into a solid cylinder of secretion, surrounded by epithelial cells, that is extruded to the exterior. The keratin sheets and epithelial layers that surround both the complete and partial secretions form a sort of structural support suitable for the type of territorial demarcation characteristic of the species. The granular cells, supposedly the producers of pheromones, are characterized by the presence of electron-dense granules and multilaminar membranous bodies that show ultrastructural changes of unknown function. The free granules in the secretion cylinder may act as pheromone deposits.

Comparison of Novel Carboneous Structures to Treat Nitroaromatic Impacted Water

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

MS-15-D-047 Abstract Carboneous materials such as carbon nanotube (CNT), granular activated carbon (GAC), and biochar are promising materials...TECHNOLOGIES ...................................................49 A.3 GRANULAR ACTIVATED CARBON (GAC) ............................................50 A.4...GENERAL ISSUE In this study, we compared the adsorptive capacity of bituminous-coal based granular activated carbon (GAC) versus pristine novel

Experimental study on the signs of particulate structures formation in annular geometry of rapid granular shear flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ritvanen, J.; Jalali, P.

2009-06-01

Rapid granular shear flow is a classical example in granular materials which exhibits both fluid-like and solid-like behaviors. Another interesting feature of rapid granular shear flows is the formation of ordered structures upon shearing. Certain amount of granular material, with uniform size distribution, is required to be loaded in the container in order to shear it under stable conditions. This work concerns the experimental study of rapid granular shear flows in annular Couette geometry. The flow is induced by continuous rotation of the plate over the top of the granular bed in an annulus. The compressive pressure, driving torque, instantaneous bed height from three symmetric locations and rotational speed of the shearing plate are measured. The annulus has a capacity of up to 15 kg of spherical steel balls of 3 mm in diameter. Rapid shear flow experiments are performed in one compressive force and rotation rate. The sensitivity of fluctuations is then investigated by different means through monodisperse packing. In this work, we present the results of the experiments showing how the flow properties depend on the amount of loaded granular material which is varied by small amounts between different experiments. The flow can exist in stable (fixed behavior) and unstable (time-dependent behavior) regimes as a function of the loaded material. We present the characteristics of flow to detect the formation of any additional structured layer in the annulus. As a result, an evolution graph for the bed height has been obtained as material is gradually added. This graph shows how the bed height grows when material increases. Using these results, the structure inside the medium can be estimated at extreme stable and unstable conditions.

Numerical approaches to combustion modeling. Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics. Vol. 135

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oran, E.S.; Boris, J.P.

1991-01-01

Various papers on numerical approaches to combustion modeling are presented. The topics addressed include; ab initio quantum chemistry for combustion; rate coefficient calculations for combustion modeling; numerical modeling of combustion of complex hydrocarbons; combustion kinetics and sensitivity analysis computations; reduction of chemical reaction models; length scales in laminar and turbulent flames; numerical modeling of laminar diffusion flames; laminar flames in premixed gases; spectral simulations of turbulent reacting flows; vortex simulation of reacting shear flow; combustion modeling using PDF methods. Also considered are: supersonic reacting internal flow fields; studies of detonation initiation, propagation, and quenching; numerical modeling of heterogeneous detonations, deflagration-to-detonationmore » transition to reactive granular materials; toward a microscopic theory of detonations in energetic crystals; overview of spray modeling; liquid drop behavior in dense and dilute clusters; spray combustion in idealized configurations: parallel drop streams; comparisons of deterministic and stochastic computations of drop collisions in dense sprays; ignition and flame spread across solid fuels; numerical study of pulse combustor dynamics; mathematical modeling of enclosure fires; nuclear systems.« less

Granular materials interacting with thin flexible rods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neto, Alfredo Gay; Campello, Eduardo M. B.

2017-04-01

In this work, we develop a computational model for the simulation of problems wherein granular materials interact with thin flexible rods. We treat granular materials as a collection of spherical particles following a discrete element method (DEM) approach, while flexible rods are described by a large deformation finite element (FEM) rod formulation. Grain-to-grain, grain-to-rod, and rod-to-rod contacts are fully permitted and resolved. A simple and efficient strategy is proposed for coupling the motion of the two types (discrete and continuum) of materials within an iterative time-stepping solution scheme. Implementation details are shown and discussed. Validity and applicability of the model are assessed by means of a few numerical examples. We believe that robust, efficiently coupled DEM-FEM schemes can be a useful tool to the simulation of problems wherein granular materials interact with thin flexible rods, such as (but not limited to) bombardment of grains on beam structures, flow of granular materials over surfaces covered by threads of hair in many biological processes, flow of grains through filters and strainers in various industrial segregation processes, and many others.

Partial filling of a honeycomb structure by granular materials for vibration and noise reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koch, Sebastian; Duvigneau, Fabian; Orszulik, Ryan; Gabbert, Ulrich; Woschke, Elmar

2017-04-01

In this paper, the damping effect of granular materials is explored to reduce the vibration and noise of mechanical structures. To this end, a honeycomb structure with high stiffness is used to contain a granular filling which presents the possiblity for the distribution of the granular material to be designed. As a particular application example, the oil pan bottom of a combustion engine is used to investigate the influence on the vibration behavior and the sound emission. The effect of the honeycomb structure along with the granular mass, distribution, and type on the vibration behaviour of the structure is investigated via laser scanning vibrometry. From this, an optimized filling is determined and then its noise suppression level validated on an engine test bench through measurements with an acoustic array.

Experimental Tests of Nonlocal Rheology in Dense Granular Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Zhu; Brzinski, Ted; Shearer, Michael; Daniels, Karen

Several nonlocal granular rheology models have been proposed to address shortcomings in local rheology models. One such model, developed by Kamrin & Koval, is based on extending a local Bagnold-type granular flow law by including a Laplacian term that accounts for the grain size and cooperative effects. We perform experiments to test this model in a quasi-2D annular shear geometry with a fixed outer wall and a rotating inner wall. We obtain the speed profile by particle tracking. We measure the inner wall torque, and calculate the pressure and shear stress on the outer wall using deformable laser-cut leaf springs. This allows us to calculate the relationship between the stress ratio μ and the inertial number I at different inner wall rotation speeds and packing fractions. The results are compared with nonlocal models.

Lateral pile cap load tests with gravel backfill of limited width.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-08-01

This study investigated the increase in passive force produced by compacting a dense granular fill adjacent to a pile cap or abutment wall when the surrounding soil is in a relative loose state. Lateral load tests were performed on a pile cap with th...

Discrete element modeling of free-standing wire-reinforced jammed granular columns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iliev, Pavel S.; Wittel, Falk K.; Herrmann, Hans J.

2018-02-01

The use of fiber reinforcement in granular media is known to increase the cohesion and therefore the strength of the material. However, a new approach, based on layer-wise deployment of predetermined patterns of the fiber reinforcement has led self-confining and free-standing jammed structures to become viable. We have developed a novel model to simulate fiber-reinforced granular materials, which takes into account irregular particles and wire elasticity and apply it to study the stability of unconfined jammed granular columns.

The direct mechanical influence of sea ice state on ice sheet mass loss via iceberg mélange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robel, A.

2017-12-01

The interaction between sea ice and land ice has typically been considered as a large-scale exchange of moisture, heat and salinity through the ocean and atmosphere. However, recent observations from marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland indicate that the long-term decline of local sea ice cover has been accompanied by an increase in nearby iceberg calving and associated ice sheet mass loss. Near glacier calving fronts, sea ice binds icebergs together into an aggregate granular material known as iceberg mélange. Studies have hypothesized that mélange may suppress calving by exerting a mechanical buttressing force directly on the glacier terminus. Here, we show explicitly how sea ice thickness and concentration play a critical role in setting the material strength of mélange. To do so, we adapt a discrete element model to simulate mélange as a cohesive granular material. In these simulations, mélange laden with thick, dense, landfast sea ice can produce enough resistance to shut down calving at the terminus. When sea ice thins, mélange weakens, reducing the mechanical force of mélange on the glacier terminus, and increasing the likelihood of calving. We discuss whether longer periods of sea-ice-free conditions in winter may lead to a transition from currently slow calving, predominantly occurring in the summer, to rapid calving, occurring throughout the year. We also discuss the potential role of freshwater discharge in promoting sea ice formation in fjords, potentially strengthening mélange.

Jetting and flooding of granular backfill materials : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-03-01

Granular backfill materials on highway projects are often compacted by mechanical methods. : This requires the contractor to place backfill material into loose lifts of varying thickness : and use compaction equipment to reduce air voids and increase...

Granular flows in constrained geometries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murthy, Tejas; Viswanathan, Koushik

Confined geometries are widespread in granular processing applications. The deformation and flow fields in such a geometry, with non-trivial boundary conditions, determine the resultant mechanical properties of the material (local porosity, density, residual stresses etc.). We present experimental studies of deformation and plastic flow of a prototypical granular medium in different nontrivial geometries- flat-punch compression, Couette-shear flow and a rigid body sliding past a granular half-space. These geometries represent simplified scaled-down versions of common industrial configurations such as compaction and dredging. The corresponding granular flows show a rich variety of flow features, representing the entire gamut of material types, from elastic solids (beam buckling) to fluids (vortex-formation, boundary layers) and even plastically deforming metals (dead material zone, pile-up). The effect of changing particle-level properties (e.g., shape, size, density) on the observed flows is also explicitly demonstrated. Non-smooth contact dynamics particle simulations are shown to reproduce some of the observed flow features quantitatively. These results showcase some central challenges facing continuum-scale constitutive theories for dynamic granular flows.

Physics of Granular Materials: Investigations in Support of Astrobiology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marshall, John R.

2002-01-01

This publication list is submitted as a summary of the work conducted under Cooperative Agreement 1120. The goal of the 1120 research was to study granular materials within a planetary, astrophysical, and astrobiological context. This involved research on the physical, mechanical and electrostatic properties of granular systems, as well as the examination of these materials with atomic force microscopy and x-ray analysis. Instruments for analyzing said materials in planetary environments were developed, including the MECA (Mars Environment Compatibility Assessment) experiment for the MSP '01 lander, the ECHOS/MATADOR experiment for the MSP '03 lander, an ISRU experiment for the '03 lander, and MiniLEAP technology. Flight experiments for microgravity (Space Station and Shuttle) have also been developed for the study of granular materials. As expressed in the publications, work on 1120 encompassed laboratory research, theoretical modeling, field experiments, and flight experiments: a series of successful new models were developed for understanding the behavior of triboelectrostatically charged granular masses, and 4 separate instruments were selected for space flight. No inventions or patents were generated by the research under this Agreement.

The behavior of a macroscopic granular material in vortex flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishikawa, Asami

A granular material is defined as a collection of discrete particles such as powder and grain. Granular materials display a large number of complex behaviors. In this project, the behavior of macroscopic granular materials under tornado-like vortex airflow, with varying airflow velocity, was observed and studied. The experimental system was composed of a 9.20-cm inner diameter acrylic pipe with a metal mesh bottom holding the particles, a PVC duct, and an airflow source controlled by a variable auto-transformer, and a power-meter. A fixed fan blade was attached to the duct's inner wall to create a tornado-like vortex airflow from straight flow. As the airflow velocity was increased gradually, the behavior of a set of same-diameter granular materials was observed. The observed behaviors were classified into six phases based on the macroscopic mechanical dynamics. Through this project, we gained insights on the significant parameters for a computer simulation of a similar system by Heath Rice [5]. Comparing computationally and experimentally observed phase diagrams, we can see similar structure. The experimental observations showed the effect of initial arrangement of particles on the phase transitions.

Small-amplitude acoustics in bulk granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henann, David L.; Valenza, John J., II; Johnson, David L.; Kamrin, Ken

2013-10-01

We propose and validate a three-dimensional continuum modeling approach that predicts small-amplitude acoustic behavior of dense-packed granular media. The model is obtained through a joint experimental and finite-element study focused on the benchmark example of a vibrated container of grains. Using a three-parameter linear viscoelastic constitutive relation, our continuum model is shown to quantitatively predict the effective mass spectra in this geometry, even as geometric parameters for the environment are varied. Further, the model's predictions for the surface displacement field are validated mode-by-mode against experiment. A primary observation is the importance of the boundary condition between grains and the quasirigid walls.

Phase transition and flow-rate behavior of merging granular flows.

PubMed

Hu, Mao-Bin; Liu, Qi-Yi; Jiang, Rui; Hou, Meiying; Wu, Qing-Song

2015-02-01

Merging of granular flows is ubiquitous in industrial, mining, and geological processes. However, its behavior remains poorly understood. This paper studies the phase transition and flow-rate behavior of two granular flows merging into one channel. When the main channel is wider than the side channel, the system shows a remarkable two-sudden-drops phenomenon in the outflow rate when gradually increasing the main inflow. When gradually decreasing the main inflow, the system shows obvious hysteresis phenomenon. We study the flow-rate-drop phenomenon by measuring the area fraction and the mean velocity at the merging point. The phase diagram of the system is also presented to understand the occurrence of the phenomenon. We find that the dilute-to-dense transition occurs when the area fraction of particles at the joint point exceeds a critical value ϕ(c)=0.65±0.03.

Using Advanced Computing in Applied Dynamics: From the Dynamics of Granular Material to the Motion of the Mars Rover

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-26

USING ADVANCED COMPUTING IN APPLIED DYNAMICS : FROM THE DYNAMICS OF GRANULAR MATERIAL TO THE MOTION OF THE MARS ROVER Dan Negrut NVIDIA CUDA...USING ADVANCED COMPUTING IN APPLIED DYNAMICS : FROM THE DYNAMICS OF GRANULAR MATERIAL TO THE MOTION OF THE MARS ROVER 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER W911NF-11-F...University of Parma, Italy • Drs. Paramsothy Jayakumar & David Lamb, US Army TARDEC • Mihai Anitescu, University of Chicago & Argonne National Lab

Slide Conveying of Granular Materials-Thinking Out of the Glovebox

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goddard, J. D.; Didwania, A. K.; Nott, P. R.

2000-01-01

The vibratory conveyor, routinely employed for normal-gravity transport of granular materials, usually consists of a continuous open trough vibrated sinusoidally to induce axial movement of a granular material. Motivated in part by a hypothetical application in zero gravity, we propose a novel modification of the vibratory conveyor based on a closed 2d trough operating in a "slide-conveying" mode, with the granular mass remaining permanently in contact with the trough walls. We present a detailed analysis of the mechanics of transport, based on a rigid-slab model for the granular mass with frictional (Coulomb) slip at the upper and lower walls. The form of the vibration cycle plays a crucial role, and the optimal conveying cycle is not the commonly assumed rectilinear sinusoidal motion. The conveying efficiency for the novel slide conveyor will be presented for several simple vibration cycles, including one believed to represent the theoretical optimum.

Effects of granular charge on flow and mixing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shinbrot, T.; Herrmann, H. J.

2008-12-01

Sandstorms in the desert have long been reported to produce sparks and other electrical disturbances - indeed as long ago as 1850, Faraday commented on the peculiarities of granular charging during desert sandstorms. Similarly, lightning strikes within volcanic dust plumes have been repeatedly reported for over half a century, but remain unexplained. The problem of granular charging has applied, as well as natural, implications, for charged particle clouds frequently generate spectacularly devastating dust explosions in granular processing plants, and sand becomes strongly electrified by helicopters traveling in desert environments. The issue even has implications for missions to the Moon and to Mars, where charged dust degrades solar cells viability and clings to spacesuits, limiting the lifetime of their joints. Despite the wide-ranging importance of granular charging, even the simplest aspects of its causes remain elusive. To take one example, sand grains in the desert manage to charge one another despite having only similar materials to rub against over expanses of many miles - thus existing theories of charging due to material differences fail entirely to account for the observed charging of desert sands. In this talk, we describe recent progress made in identifying underlying causes of granular charging, both in desert-like environments and in industrial applications, and we examine effects of granular charging on flow, mixing and separation of common granular materials. We find that charging of identical grains can occur under simple laboratory conditions, and we make new predictions for the effects of this charging on granular behaviours.

Evaluation of geofabric in undercut on MSE wall stability : executive summary report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-05-01

Compaction of granular base materials at sites with fine grained native soils often causes unwanted material loss due to penetration. In 2007, ODOT began placing geofabrics in the undercut of MSE walls at the soil/ granular material interface to faci...

DEM modeling of flexible structures against granular material avalanches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lambert, Stéphane; Albaba, Adel; Nicot, François; Chareyre, Bruno

2016-04-01

This article presents the numerical modeling of flexible structures intended to contain avalanches of granular and coarse material (e.g. rock slide, a debris slide). The numerical model is based on a discrete element method (YADE-Dem). The DEM modeling of both the flowing granular material and the flexible structure are detailed before presenting some results. The flowing material consists of a dry polydisperse granular material accounting for the non-sphericity of real materials. The flexible structure consists in a metallic net hanged on main cables, connected to the ground via anchors, on both sides of the channel, including dissipators. All these components were modeled as flexible beams or wires, with mechanical parameters defined from literature data. The simulation results are presented with the aim of investigating the variability of the structure response depending on different parameters related to the structure (inclination of the fence, with/without brakes, mesh size opening), but also to the channel (inclination). Results are then compared with existing recommendations in similar fields.

Measurements of the frame acoustic properties of porous and granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Junhong

2005-12-01

For porous and granular materials, the dynamic characteristics of the solid component (frame) are important design factors that significantly affect the material's acoustic properties. The primary goal of this study was to present an experimental method for measuring the vibration characteristics of this frame. The experimental setup was designed to induce controlled vibration of the solid component while minimizing the influence from coupling between vibrations of the fluid and the solid component. The Biot theory was used to verify this assumption, taking the two dilatational wave propagations and interactions into account. The experimental method was applied to measure the dynamic properties of glass spheres, lightweight microspheres, acoustic foams, and fiberglass. A continuous variation of the frame vibration characteristics with frequency similar to that of typical viscoelastic materials was measured. The vibration amplitude had minimal effects on the dynamic characteristics of the porous material compared to those of the granular material. For the granular material, materials comprised of larger particles and those under larger vibration amplitudes exhibited lower frame wave speeds and larger decay rates.

Down-regulation of zinc transporter 8 (SLC30A8) in pancreatic beta-cells promotes cell survival

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The pancreatic islet contains high levels of zinc in granular vesicles of beta-cells where insulin is matured, crystallized, and stored before secretion. Zinc is an essential co-factor for insulin crystallization forming dense core in secretory granules. In insulin-containing secretory granules, zin...

Down-regulation of zinc transporter 8 (SLC30A8) in pancreatic beta-cells promotes cell survival.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The pancreatic islet contains high levels of zinc in granular vesicles of ß-cells where insulin is matured, crystallized, and stored before secretion. Zinc is an essential co-factor for insulin crystallization forming dense cores in secretory granules. In insulin-containing secretory granules, zinc ...

Metagenomic and metaproteomic analyses of Accumulibacter phosphatis-enriched floccular and granular biofilm.

PubMed

Barr, Jeremy J; Dutilh, Bas E; Skennerton, Connor T; Fukushima, Toshikazu; Hastie, Marcus L; Gorman, Jeffrey J; Tyson, Gene W; Bond, Philip L

2016-01-01

Biofilms are ubiquitous in nature, forming diverse adherent microbial communities that perform a plethora of functions. Here we operated two laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors enriched with Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis (Accumulibacter) performing enhanced biological phosphorus removal. Reactors formed two distinct biofilms, one floccular biofilm, consisting of small, loose, microbial aggregates, and one granular biofilm, forming larger, dense, spherical aggregates. Using metagenomic and metaproteomic methods, we investigated the proteomic differences between these two biofilm communities, identifying a total of 2022 unique proteins. To understand biofilm differences, we compared protein abundances that were statistically enriched in both biofilm states. Floccular biofilms were enriched with pathogenic secretion systems suggesting a highly competitive microbial community. Comparatively, granular biofilms revealed a high-stress environment with evidence of nutrient starvation, phage predation pressure, and increased extracellular polymeric substance and cell lysis. Granular biofilms were enriched in outer membrane transport proteins to scavenge the extracellular milieu for amino acids and other metabolites, likely released through cell lysis, to supplement metabolic pathways. This study provides the first detailed proteomic comparison between Accumulibacter-enriched floccular and granular biofilm communities, proposes a conceptual model for the granule biofilm, and offers novel insights into granule biofilm formation and stability. © 2015 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Advances in the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted granular material: 2. Direct measures of particle properties

USGS Publications Warehouse

Buscombe, Daniel D.; Rubin, David M.

2012-01-01

1. In this, the second of a pair of papers on the structure of well-sorted natural granular material (sediment), new methods are described for automated measurements from images of sediment, of: 1) particle-size standard deviation (arithmetic sorting) with and without apparent void fraction; and 2) mean particle size in material with void fraction. A variety of simulations of granular material are used for testing purposes, in addition to images of natural sediment. Simulations are also used to establish that the effects on automated particle sizing of grains visible through the interstices of the grains at the very surface of a granular material continue to a depth of approximately 4 grain diameters and that this is independent of mean particle size. Ensemble root-mean squared error between observed and estimated arithmetic sorting coefficients for 262 images of natural silts, sands and gravels (drawn from 8 populations) is 31%, which reduces to 27% if adjusted for bias (slope correction between observed and estimated values). These methods allow non-intrusive and fully automated measurements of surfaces of unconsolidated granular material. With no tunable parameters or empirically derived coefficients, they should be broadly universal in appropriate applications. However, empirical corrections may need to be applied for the most accurate results. Finally, analytical formulas are derived for the one-step pore-particle transition probability matrix, estimated from the image's autocorrelogram, from which void fraction of a section of granular material can be estimated directly. This model gives excellent predictions of bulk void fraction yet imperfect predictions of pore-particle transitions.

Advances in the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted granular material: 2. Direct measures of particle properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buscombe, D.; Rubin, D. M.

2012-06-01

In this, the second of a pair of papers on the structure of well-sorted natural granular material (sediment), new methods are described for automated measurements from images of sediment, of: 1) particle-size standard deviation (arithmetic sorting) with and without apparent void fraction; and 2) mean particle size in material with void fraction. A variety of simulations of granular material are used for testing purposes, in addition to images of natural sediment. Simulations are also used to establish that the effects on automated particle sizing of grains visible through the interstices of the grains at the very surface of a granular material continue to a depth of approximately 4 grain diameters and that this is independent of mean particle size. Ensemble root-mean squared error between observed and estimated arithmetic sorting coefficients for 262 images of natural silts, sands and gravels (drawn from 8 populations) is 31%, which reduces to 27% if adjusted for bias (slope correction between observed and estimated values). These methods allow non-intrusive and fully automated measurements of surfaces of unconsolidated granular material. With no tunable parameters or empirically derived coefficients, they should be broadly universal in appropriate applications. However, empirical corrections may need to be applied for the most accurate results. Finally, analytical formulas are derived for the one-step pore-particle transition probability matrix, estimated from the image's autocorrelogram, from which void fraction of a section of granular material can be estimated directly. This model gives excellent predictions of bulk void fraction yet imperfect predictions of pore-particle transitions.

Shear-induced organization of forces in dense suspensions: signatures of discontinuous shear thickening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarkar, Sumantra; Shatoff, Elan; Ramola, Kabir; Mari, Romain; Morris, Jeffrey; Chakraborty, Bulbul

2017-06-01

Dense suspensions can exhibit an abrupt change in their viscosity in response to increasing shear rate. The origin of this discontinuous shear thickening (DST) has been ascribed to the transformation of lubricated contacts to frictional, particle-on-particle contacts. Recent research on the flowing and jamming behavior of dense suspensions has explored the intersection of ideas from granular physics and Stokesian fluid dynamics to better understand this transition from lubricated to frictional rheology. DST is reminiscent of classical phase transitions, and a key question is how interactions between the microscopic constituents give rise to a macroscopic transition. In this paper, we extend a formalism that has proven to be successful in understanding shear jamming of dry grains to dense suspensions. Quantitative analysis of the collective evolution of the contactforce network accompanying the DST transition demonstrates clear changes in the distribution of microscopic variables, and leads to the identification of an "order parameter" characterizing DST.

Axoglial contacts in the area postrema of the cat - An ultrastructural study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Damelio, Fernando E.; Gibbs, Michael A.; Mehler, William R.; Philpott, Delbert E.; Savage, Wayne

1986-01-01

Axoglial contacts were observed in an ultrastructural study of the area postrema of the cat. According to the disposition of the electron-dense projections attached to the adjoining membranes these contacts were classified as symmetrical or asymmetrical. The axon profiles contained aggregations of clear vesicles randomly distributed or grouped in clusters adjacent to the electron-dense projections. Dense core vesicles were occasionally seen. The neuroglial profiles were either astrocytic or ependymoglial in nature. The astrocytes showed a clear cytoplasm, polymorphous vesicles, mitochondria, glycogen granules, and bundles of filaments. The ependymal cells, in contrast, had a more electron-dense and granular appearance, tubular structures, irregular vesicular formations, profiles of smooth reticuloendoplasm, and filaments grouped in bundles or isolated in the cytoplasm. The possibility that these contacts might play a role in the chemical transfer from neurons to glial cells is discussed on the basis of existing biochemical data.

Characterization, modeling and application of aerobic granular sludge for wastewater treatment.

PubMed

Liu, Xian-Wei; Yu, Han-Qing; Ni, Bing-Jie; Sheng, Guo-Ping

2009-01-01

Recently extensive studies have been carried out to cultivate aerobic granular sludge worldwide, including in China. Aerobic granules, compared with conventional activated sludge flocs, are well known for their regular, dense, and strong microbial structure, good settling ability, high biomass retention, and great ability to withstand shock loadings. Studies have shown that the aerobic granules could be applied for the treatment of low- or high-strength wastewaters, simultaneous removal of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and decomposition of toxic wastewaters. Thus, this new form of activate sludge, like anaerobic granular sludge, could be employed for the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters in near future. This chapter attempts to provide an up-to-date review on the definition, cultivation, characterization, modeling and application of aerobic granular sludge for biological wastewater treatment. This review outlines some important discoveries with regard to the factors affecting the formation of aerobic granular sludge, their physicochemical characteristics, as well as their microbial structure and diversity. It also summarizes the modeling of aerobic granule formation. Finally, this chapter highlights the applications of aerobic granulation technology in the biological wastewater treatment. It is concluded that the knowledge regarding aerobic granular sludge is far from complete. Although previous studies in this field have undoubtedly improved our understanding on aerobic granular sludge, it is clear that much remains to be learned about the process and that many unanswered questions still remain. One of the challenges appears to be the integration of the existing and growing scientific knowledge base with the observations and applications in practice, which this paper hopes to partially achieve.

Characterization, Modeling and Application of Aerobic Granular Sludge for Wastewater Treatment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xian-Wei; Yu, Han-Qing; Ni, Bing-Jie; Sheng, Guo-Ping

Recently extensive studies have been carried out to cultivate aerobic granular sludge worldwide, including in China. Aerobic granules, compared with conventional activated sludge flocs, are well known for their regular, dense, and strong microbial structure, good settling ability, high biomass retention, and great ability to withstand shock loadings. Studies have shown that the aerobic granules could be applied for the treatment of low- or high-strength wastewaters, simultaneous removal of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and decomposition of toxic wastewaters. Thus, this new form of activate sludge, like anaerobic granular sludge, could be employed for the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters in near future. This chapter attempts to provide an up-to-date review on the definition, cultivation, characterization, modeling and application of aerobic granular sludge for biological wastewater treatment. This review outlines some important discoveries with regard to the factors affecting the formation of aerobic granular sludge, their physicochemical characteristics, as well as their microbial structure and diversity. It also summarizes the modeling of aerobic granule formation. Finally, this chapter highlights the applications of aerobic granulation technology in the biological wastewater treatment. It is concluded that the knowledge regarding aerobic granular sludge is far from complete. Although previous studies in this field have undoubtedly improved our understanding on aerobic granular sludge, it is clear that much remains to be learned about the process and that many unanswered questions still remain. One of the challenges appears to be the integration of the existing and growing scientific knowledge base with the observations and applications in practice, which this paper hopes to partially achieve.

Rational Selection of Tailored Amendment Mixtures and Composites for In Situ Remediation of Contaminated Sediments

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

Certification Program GAC granular activated carbon HGR sulfur impregnated activated carbon MCA Menzie Cura and Associates MRM Minimum Required...determination of iodine number was followed. The materials tested were granular activated carbon (GAC), alumina powder, ATS, apatite, bentonite, barite...materials tested were granular activated carbon (GAC), alumina powder, ATS, apatite, bentonite, barite, ConSep 20 and 42%, and ATC. The Iodine Number

A finite area scheme for shallow granular flows on three-dimensional surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rauter, Matthias

2017-04-01

Shallow granular flow models have become a popular tool for the estimation of natural hazards, such as landslides, debris flows and avalanches. The shallowness of the flow allows to reduce the three-dimensional governing equations to a quasi two-dimensional system. Three-dimensional flow fields are replaced by their depth-integrated two-dimensional counterparts, which yields a robust and fast method [1]. A solution for a simple shallow granular flow model, based on the so-called finite area method [3] is presented. The finite area method is an adaption of the finite volume method [4] to two-dimensional curved surfaces in three-dimensional space. This method handles the three dimensional basal topography in a simple way, making the model suitable for arbitrary (but mildly curved) topography, such as natural terrain. Furthermore, the implementation into the open source software OpenFOAM [4] is shown. OpenFOAM is a popular computational fluid dynamics application, designed so that the top-level code mimics the mathematical governing equations. This makes the code easy to read and extendable to more sophisticated models. Finally, some hints on how to get started with the code and how to extend the basic model will be given. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the OEAW project "beyond dense flow avalanches". Savage, S. B. & Hutter, K. 1989 The motion of a finite mass of granular material down a rough incline. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 199, 177-215. Ferziger, J. & Peric, M. 2002 Computational methods for fluid dynamics, 3rd edn. Springer. Tukovic, Z. & Jasak, H. 2012 A moving mesh finite volume interface tracking method for surface tension dominated interfacial fluid flow. Computers & fluids 55, 70-84. Weller, H. G., Tabor, G., Jasak, H. & Fureby, C. 1998 A tensorial approach to computational continuum mechanics using object-oriented techniques. Computers in physics 12(6), 620-631.

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alshibli, Khalid A.; Costes, Nicholas C.; Porter, Ronald F.

1996-01-01

The constitutive behavior of uncemented granular materials such as strength, stiffness, and localization of deformations are to a large extend derived from interparticle friction transmitted between solid particles and particle groups. Interparticle forces are highly dependent on gravitational body forces. At very low effective confining pressures, the true nature of the Mohr envelope, which defines the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion for soils, as well as the relative contribution of each of non-frictional components to soil's shear strength cannot be evaluated in terrestrial laboratories. Because of the impossibility of eliminating gravitational body forces on earth, the weight of soil grains develops interparticle compressive stresses which mask true soil constitutive behavior even in the smallest samples of models. Therefore the microgravity environment induced by near-earth orbits of spacecraft provides unique experimental opportunities for testing theories related to the mechanical behavior of terrestrial granular materials. Such materials may include cohesionless soils, industrial powders, crushed coal, etc. This paper will describe the microgravity experiment, 'Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM)', scheduled to be flown on Space Shuttle-MIR missions. The paper will describe the experiment's hardware, instrumentation, specimen preparation procedures, testing procedures in flight, as well as a brief summary of the post-mission analysis. It is expected that the experimental results will significantly improve the understanding of the behavior of granular materials under very low effective stress levels.

Rate of deoxygenation modulates rheologic behavior of sickle red blood cells at a given mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration.

PubMed

Kaul, D K; Liu, X D

1999-01-01

Although the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) plays a dominant role in the rheologic behavior of deoxygenated density-defined sickle red blood cells (SS RBCs), previous studies have not explored the relationship between the rate of deoxygenation and the bulk viscosity of SS RBCs at a given MCHC. In the present study, we have subjected density-defined SS classes (i.e., medium-density SS4 and dense SS5 discocytes) to varying deoxygenation rates. This approach has allowed us to minimize the effects of SS RBC heterogeneity and investigate the effect of deoxygenation rates at a given MCHC. The results show that the percentages of granular cells, classic sickle cells and holly leaf forms in deoxygenated samples are significantly influenced by the rate of deoxygenation and the MCHC of a given discocyte subpopulation. Increasing the deoxygenation rate using high K+ medium (pH 6.8), results in a greater percentage of granular cells in SS4 suspensions, accompanied by a pronounced increase in the bulk viscosity of these cells compared with gradually deoxygenated samples (mainly classic sickle cells and holly leaf forms). The effect of MCHC becomes apparent when SS5 dense cells are subjected to varying deoxygenation rates. At a given deoxygenation rate, SS5 dense discocytes show a greater increase in the percentage of granular cells than that observed for SS4 RBCs. Also, at a given deoxygenation rate, SS5 suspensions exhibit a higher viscosity than SS4 suspensions with fast deoxygenation resulting in maximal increase in viscosity. Although MCHC is the main determinant of SS RBC rheologic behavior, these studies demonstrate for the first time that at a given MCHC, the rate of deoxygenation (hence HbS polymerization rates) further modulates the rheologic behavior of SS RBCs. Thus, both MCHC and the deoxygenation rate may contribute to microcirculatory flow behavior of SS RBCs.

Granular Material Scoop and Near-Vertical Lifting Feeder/Conveyor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walton, Otis (Inventor); Vollmer, Hubert J. (Inventor)

2017-01-01

An integrated granular-material scoop and near-vertical lifting feeder/conveyor includes special connections and skirts between a bullnose rotating scoop and an open-helical screw that provides the rotations and material lift and evacuation. A conical working-face of the bullnose rotating scoop has symmetrically distributed graters and vents to break loose and force-in granular material from natural deposits and cargo holds. The bullnose rotating scoop and the open-helical screw its attached to move the material into a continuous layer on the inside surface of an outer stationary sheathing. A motor drive attached to the open-helical screw above at the delivery end provides the lifting force necessary.

Ultrastructures and classification of circulating hemocytes in 9 botryllid ascidians (chordata: ascidiacea).

PubMed

Hirose, Euichi; Shirae, Maki; Saito, Yasunori

2003-05-01

Ultrastructures of circulating hemocytes were studied in 9 botryllid ascidians. The hemocytes are classified into five types: hemoblasts, phagocytes, granulocytes, morula cells, and pigment cells. These five types are always found in the 9 species. They should represent the major hemocyte types of the circulating cells in the blood. Hemoblasts are small hemocytes having a high nucleus/cytoplasm ratio. There are few granular or vacuolar inclusions in the cytoplasm. Phagocytes have phagocytic activity and their shape is variable depending on the amount of engulfed materials. In granulocytes, shape and size of granules are different among the species. Morula cells are characterized by several vacuoles filled with electron dense materials. In pigment cells, the bulk of the cytoplasm is occupied by one or a few vacuoles containing pigment granules. We also described some other hemocyte types found in particular species. Furthermore, we encountered free oocytes circulating in the blood in two species, Botryllus primigenus and Botrylloides lentus.

Granular crystals: Nonlinear dynamics meets materials engineering

DOE PAGES

Porter, Mason A.; Kevrekidis, Panayotis G.; Daraio, Chiara

2015-11-01

In this article, the freedom to choose the size, stiffness, and spatial distribution of macroscopic particles in a lattice makes granular crystals easily tailored building blocks for shock-absorbing materials, sound-focusing devices, acoustic switches, and other exotica.

Implicit continuum mechanics approach to heat conduction in granular materials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Massoudi, M.; Mehrabadi, M.

In this paper, we derive a properly frame-invariant implicit constitutive relationship for the heat flux vector for a granular medium (or a density-gradient-type fluid). The heat flux vector is commonly modeled by Fourier’s law of heat conduction, and for complex materials such as nonlinear fluids, porous media, or granular materials, the coefficient of thermal conductivity is generalized by assuming that it would depend on a host of material and kinematic parameters such as temperature, shear rate, porosity, concentration, etc. In this paper, we extend the approach of Massoudi [Massoudi, M. Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 2006, 29, 1585; Massoudi, M. Math.more » Methods Appl. Sci. 2006, 29, 1599], who provided explicit constitutive relations for the heat flux vector for flowing granular materials; in order to do so, we use the implicit scheme suggested by Fox [Fox, N. Int. J. Eng. Sci. 1969, 7, 437], who obtained implicit relations in thermoelasticity.« less

Acoustic monitoring of a ball sinking in vibrated granular sediments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van den Wildenberg, Siet; Léopoldès, Julien; Tourin, Arnaud; Jia, Xiaoping

2017-06-01

We develop an ultrasound probing to investigate the dynamics of a high density ball sinking in 3D opaque dense granular suspensions under horizontal weak vibrations. We show that the motion of the ball in these horizontally vibrated glass bead packings saturated by water is consistent with the frictional rheology. The extracted stress-strain relation evidences an evolution of flow behaviour from frictional creep to inertial regimes. Our main finding is that weak external vibration primarily affects the yield stress and controls the depth of sinking via vibration-induced sliding at the grain contact. Also, we observe that the extracted rheological parameters depend on the size of the probing ball, suggesting thus a non-local rheology.

Consideration of reinforcement mechanism in the short fiber mixing granular materials by granular element simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mori, Kentaro; Kaneko, Kenji; Hashizume, Yutaka

2017-06-01

The short fiber mixing method is well known as one of the method to improve the strength of gran- ular soils in geotechnical engineering. Mechanical properties of the short fiber mixing granular materials are influenced by many factors, such as the mixture ratio of the short fiber, the material of short fiber, the length, and the orientation. In particular, the mixture ratio of the short fibers is very important in mixture design. In the past study, we understood that the strength is reduced by too much short fiber mixing by a series of tri-axial compression experiments. Namely, there is "optimum mixture ratio" in the short fiber mixing granular soils. In this study, to consider the mechanism of occurrence of the optimum mixture ratio, we carried out the numerical experiments by granular element method. As the results, we can understand that the strength decrease when too much grain-fiber contact points exist, because a friction coefficient is smaller than the grain-grain contact points.

Terminal velocity of liquids and granular materials dispersed by a high explosive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, J.; Pontalier, Q.; Milne, A. M.; Goroshin, S.; Frost, D. L.

2018-05-01

The explosive dispersal of a layer of solid particles or a layer of liquid surrounding a spherical high-explosive charge generates a turbulent, multiphase flow. Shock compression of the material layer during the initial acceleration may partially consolidate the material, leading to the formation of jet-like structures when the layer fragments and sheds particles upon release. Similarly, release of a shock-compressed liquid shell causes the nucleation of cavitation sites, leading to the radial breakup of the shell and the formation of jets upon expansion. In the current study, a wide variety of granular materials and liquids were explosively dispersed. The maximum terminal jet tip or shell velocity was measured using high-speed videography. Charges were constructed using thin-walled glass bulbs of various diameters and contained a central C-4 charge surrounded by the material to be dispersed. This permitted variation of the ratio of material mass to charge mass ( M/ C) from 4 to 300. Results indicated that material velocity broadly correlates with predictions of the Gurney model. For liquids, the terminal velocity was accurately predicted by the Gurney model. For granular materials, Gurney over-predicted the terminal velocity by 25-60%, depending on the M/ C ratio, with larger M/ C values exhibiting larger deficits. These deficits are explained by energy dissipation during the collapse of voids in the granular material bed. Velocity deficits were insensitive to the degree of jetting and granular material properties. Empirical corrections to the Gurney model are presented with improved agreement with the dry powder experimental velocities.

Terminal velocity of liquids and granular materials dispersed by a high explosive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, J.; Pontalier, Q.; Milne, A. M.; Goroshin, S.; Frost, D. L.

2018-04-01

The explosive dispersal of a layer of solid particles or a layer of liquid surrounding a spherical high-explosive charge generates a turbulent, multiphase flow. Shock compression of the material layer during the initial acceleration may partially consolidate the material, leading to the formation of jet-like structures when the layer fragments and sheds particles upon release. Similarly, release of a shock-compressed liquid shell causes the nucleation of cavitation sites, leading to the radial breakup of the shell and the formation of jets upon expansion. In the current study, a wide variety of granular materials and liquids were explosively dispersed. The maximum terminal jet tip or shell velocity was measured using high-speed videography. Charges were constructed using thin-walled glass bulbs of various diameters and contained a central C-4 charge surrounded by the material to be dispersed. This permitted variation of the ratio of material mass to charge mass (M/C) from 4 to 300. Results indicated that material velocity broadly correlates with predictions of the Gurney model. For liquids, the terminal velocity was accurately predicted by the Gurney model. For granular materials, Gurney over-predicted the terminal velocity by 25-60%, depending on the M/C ratio, with larger M/C values exhibiting larger deficits. These deficits are explained by energy dissipation during the collapse of voids in the granular material bed. Velocity deficits were insensitive to the degree of jetting and granular material properties. Empirical corrections to the Gurney model are presented with improved agreement with the dry powder experimental velocities.

Studies of elasticity, sound propagation and attenuation of acoustic modes in granular media: final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makse, Hernan A.; Johnson, David L.

2014-09-03

This is the final report describing the results of DOE Grant # DE-FG02-03ER15458 with original termination date of April 31, 2013, which has been extended to April 31, 2014. The goal of this project is to develop a theoretical and experimental understanding of sound propagation, elasticity and dissipation in granular materials. The topic is relevant for the efficient production of hydrocarbon and for identifying and characterizing the underground formation for storage of either CO 2 or nuclear waste material. Furthermore, understanding the basic properties of acoustic propagation in granular media is of importance not only to the energy industry, butmore » also to the pharmaceutical, chemical and agricultural industries. We employ a set of experimental, theoretical and computational tools to develop a study of acoustics and dissipation in granular media. These include the concept effective mass of granular media, normal modes analysis, statistical mechanics frameworks and numerical simulations based on Discrete Element Methods. Effective mass measurements allow us to study the mechanisms of the elastic response and attenuation of acoustic modes in granular media. We perform experiments and simulations under varying conditions, including humidity and vacuum, and different interparticle force-laws to develop a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of damping and acoustic propagation in granular media. A theoretical statistical approach studies the necessary phase space of configurations in pressure, volume fraction to classify granular materials.« less

Granular materials flow like complex fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kou, Binquan; Cao, Yixin; Li, Jindong; Xia, Chengjie; Li, Zhifeng; Dong, Haipeng; Zhang, Ang; Zhang, Jie; Kob, Walter; Wang, Yujie

2017-11-01

Granular materials such as sand, powders and foams are ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial and geotechnical applications. These disordered systems form stable structures when unperturbed, but in the presence of external influences such as tapping or shear they `relax', becoming fluid in nature. It is often assumed that the relaxation dynamics of granular systems is similar to that of thermal glass-forming systems. However, so far it has not been possible to determine experimentally the dynamic properties of three-dimensional granular systems at the particle level. This lack of experimental data, combined with the fact that the motion of granular particles involves friction (whereas the motion of particles in thermal glass-forming systems does not), means that an accurate description of the relaxation dynamics of granular materials is lacking. Here we use X-ray tomography to determine the microscale relaxation dynamics of hard granular ellipsoids subject to an oscillatory shear. We find that the distribution of the displacements of the ellipsoids is well described by a Gumbel law (which is similar to a Gaussian distribution for small displacements but has a heavier tail for larger displacements), with a shape parameter that is independent of the amplitude of the shear strain and of the time. Despite this universality, the mean squared displacement of an individual ellipsoid follows a power law as a function of time, with an exponent that does depend on the strain amplitude and time. We argue that these results are related to microscale relaxation mechanisms that involve friction and memory effects (whereby the motion of an ellipsoid at a given point in time depends on its previous motion). Our observations demonstrate that, at the particle level, the dynamic behaviour of granular systems is qualitatively different from that of thermal glass-forming systems, and is instead more similar to that of complex fluids. We conclude that granular materials can relax even when the driving strain is weak.

Simulating Regoliths in a Microgravity Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murdoch, N.; Rozitis, B.; Green, S. F.; Michel, P.; Losert, W.; de Lophem, T. L.

2011-10-01

The dynamics of granular materials are involved in the evolution of solid planets and small bodies in our Solar System, whose surfaces are generally covered with regolith. An understanding of granular dynamics appears also to be critical for the design and/or operations of landers, sampling devices and rovers to be included in space missions. The AstEx experiment uses a microgravity modified Taylor-Couette shear cell to investigate granular motion caused by shear and shear reversal forces under the microgravity conditions of parabolic flight. The results will lead to a greater understanding of the mechanical response of granular materials subject to external forces in varying gravitational environments.

Resilient moduli of typical Missouri soils and unbound granular base materials.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-01-01

The objective of this project was to determine the resilient moduli for common Missouri subgrade soils and typical unbound granular base materials in accordance with the AASHTO T 307 test method. The results allow Missouri Department of Transportatio...

A Jamming Phase Diagram for Pressing Polymers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teng, Chao; Zhang, Zexin; Wang, Xiaoliang; Xue, Gi; Nanjing University Team; Soochow University Collaboration

2011-03-01

Molecular glasses begin to flow when they are heated. Other glassy systems, such as dense foams, emulsions, colloidal suspensions and granular materials, begin to flow when subjected to sufficiently large stresses. The equivalence of these two routes to flow is a basic tenet of jamming, a conceptual means of unifying glassy behavior in a swath of disordered, dynamical arrested systems. However, a full understanding of jamming transition for polymers remains elusive. By controlling the packing densities of polymer glasses, we found that polymer glasses could once flow under cold-pressing at temperatures well below its calorimetric glass transition temperature (Tg). The thermomechanical analysis (TMA) results confirmed that Tg changed with density as well as the applied stress, which is exactly what to be expected within the jamming picture. We propose a jamming phase diagram for polymers based on our laboratory experiments.

Noise Propagation and Uncertainty Quantification in Hybrid Multiphysics Models: Initiation and Reaction Propagation in Energetic Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-23

general model for heterogeneous granular media under compaction and (ii) the lack of a reliable multiscale discrete -to-continuum framework for...dynamics. These include a continuum- discrete model of heat dissipation/diffusion and a continuum- discrete model of compaction of a granular material with...the lack of a general model for het- erogeneous granular media under compac- tion and (ii) the lack of a reliable multi- scale discrete -to-continuum

USE OF GRANULAR GRAPHITE FOR ELECTROLYTIC DECHLORINATION OF TRICHLOROETHYLENE

EPA Science Inventory

Granular graphite is a potential electrode material for the electrochemical remediation of refractory chlorinated organic compounds such as trichloroethylene (TCE). However, the use of granular graphite can complicate the experimental results. On one hand, up to 99% of TCE was re...

Particle size effect on strength, failure, and shock behavior in polytetrafluoroethylene-Al-W granular composite materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herbold, E. B.; Nesterenko, V. F.; Benson, D. J.; Cai, J.; Vecchio, K. S.; Jiang, F.; Addiss, J. W.; Walley, S. M.; Proud, W. G.

2008-11-01

The variation of metallic particle size and sample porosity significantly alters the dynamic mechanical properties of high density granular composite materials processed using a cold isostatically pressed mixture of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), aluminum (Al), and tungsten (W) powders. Quasistatic and dynamic experiments are performed with identical constituent mass fractions with variations in the size of the W particles and pressing conditions. The relatively weak polymer matrix allows the strength and fracture modes of this material to be governed by the granular type behavior of agglomerated metal particles. A higher ultimate compressive strength was observed in relatively high porosity samples with small W particles compared to those with coarse W particles in all experiments. Mesoscale granular force chains of the metallic particles explain this unusual phenomenon as observed in hydrocode simulations of a drop-weight test. Macrocracks forming below the critical failure strain for the matrix and unusual behavior due to a competition between densification and fracture in dynamic tests of porous samples were also observed. Numerical modeling of shock loading of this granular composite material demonstrated that the internal energy, specifically thermal energy, of the soft PTFE matrix can be tailored by the W particle size distribution.

Resilient moduli of typical Missouri soils and unbound granular base materials

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-03-01

The objective of this project is to accurately determine the resilient moduli for common Missouri subgrade soils and unbound granular base materials in accordance with the AASHTO T 307 test method. The test results included moduli data from 27 common...

Cultivation of aerobic granular sludge for rubber wastewater treatment.

PubMed

Rosman, Noor Hasyimah; Nor Anuar, Aznah; Othman, Inawati; Harun, Hasnida; Sulong Abdul Razak, Muhammad Zuhdi; Elias, Siti Hanna; Mat Hassan, Mohd Arif Hakimi; Chelliapan, Shreesivadass; Ujang, Zaini

2013-02-01

Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was successfully cultivated at 27±1 °C and pH 7.0±1 during the treatment of rubber wastewater using a sequential batch reactor system mode with complete cycle time of 3 h. Results showed aerobic granular sludge had an excellent settling ability and exhibited exceptional performance in the organics and nutrients removal from rubber wastewater. Regular, dense and fast settling granule (average diameter, 1.5 mm; settling velocity, 33 m h(-1); and sludge volume index, 22.3 mL g(-1)) were developed in a single reactor. In addition, 96.5% COD removal efficiency was observed in the system at the end of the granulation period, while its ammonia and total nitrogen removal efficiencies were up to 94.7% and 89.4%, respectively. The study demonstrated the capabilities of AGS development in a single, high and slender column type-bioreactor for the treatment of rubber wastewater. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Order - disorder transitions in granular sphere packings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panaitescu, Andreea M.

Granular materials are ubiquitous in many industrial and natural processes, yet their complex behaviors characterized by unusual static and dynamic properties are still poorly understood. In this dissertation we investigate both the geometrical structure and the dynamical properties (the response to shear deformations, disorder-order transition and crystallization) of packings of mono-sized spheres as a function of the packing volume fraction. Different average packing fractions were obtained by submitting a dense granular material to periodic shear deformations and by epitaxy. Using advanced imaging techniques including the refractive index matched imaging (RIM) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) enables us to determine the three dimensional particles position inside the packing. From positions we obtain the Voronoi tessellation corresponding to the particles in the bulk and calculate the radial distribution and the bond-order metric. These two parameters are widely used to quantify the structure of the spherical particle systems. A granular packing undergoing periodic shear deformations is observed to slowly evolve towards crystallization and the packing fraction is correspondingly observed to increase smoothly from loose packing fraction, 0.59, well above the random close packing fraction, 0.637. Tracking the particles over several shear cycles allows us to obtain the probability distributions of particle displacements and the mean-square displacements and to compute the components of the diffusion tensor. We find that in a shear flow, the initial self-diffusion of the particles is anisotropic with diffusion greater in the flow direction compared with the velocity gradient direction which in turn is greater than in the vorticity direction. We further find that the granular matter under cyclic shear shows reversible as well as irreversible or plastic response for small enough strain amplitude. The appearance and the propagation of the crystalline order were studied using the orientational order metric. By following the evolution of the nucleating crystallites, we identified critical nuclei, determined their size and symmetry, and measured the average surface free energy. The structure of the nuclei was found to be random hexagonal close-packed, their average shape was non-spherical and they were oriented preferentially along the shear axis. When the packing volume fraction approaches a value close to the random close packing, crystallites with face centered cubic (fcc) order are observed with increasing probability, and ordered domains grow rapidly. A polycrystalline phase with domains of fcc and hcp order is obtained after hundreds of thousands of shear cycles. Depositing spheres on a substrate under the influence of gravity gives rise to a wide range of volume fractions and packing structures by simply controlling the nature of the substrate, the deposition rate and the energy of the particles. We analyzed the structures formed and investigate the development of the disordered phases as a function of the deposition rate. Furthermore, by comparing these structures with packings obtained by cyclic shear we showed that the structure of a granular packing depends strongly on the protocol used.

Origin of Granular Capillarity Revealed by Particle-Based Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Fengxian; Parteli, Eric J. R.; Pöschel, Thorsten

2017-05-01

When a thin tube is dipped into water, the water will ascend to a certain height, against the action of gravity. While this effect, termed capillarity, is well known, recent experiments have shown that agitated granular matter reveals a similar behavior. Namely, when a vertical tube is inserted into a container filled with granular material and is then set into vertical vibration, the particles rise up along the tube. In the present Letter, we investigate the effect of granular capillarity by means of numerical simulations and show that the effect is caused by convection of the granular material in the container. Moreover, we identify two regimes of behavior for the capillary height Hc∞ depending on the tube-to-particle-diameter ratio, D /d . For large D /d , a scaling of Hc∞ with the inverse of the tube diameter, which is reminiscent of liquids, is observed. However, when D /d decreases down to values smaller than a few particle sizes, a uniquely granular behavior is observed where Hc∞ increases linearly with the tube diameter.

Modeling of Abrasion and Crushing of Unbound Granular Materials During Compaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ocampo, Manuel S.; Caicedo, Bernardo

2009-06-01

Unbound compacted granular materials are commonly used in engineering structures as layers in road pavements, railroad beds, highway embankments, and foundations. These structures are generally subjected to dynamic loading by construction operations, traffic and wheel loads. These repeated or cyclic loads cause abrasion and crushing of the granular materials. Abrasion changes a particle's shape, and crushing divides the particle into a mixture of many small particles of varying sizes. Particle breakage is important because the mechanical and hydraulic properties of these materials depend upon their grain size distribution. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the evolution of the grain size distribution of these materials. In this paper an analytical model for unbound granular materials is proposed in order to evaluate particle crushing of gravels and soils subjected to cyclic loads. The model is based on a Markov chain which describes the development of grading changes in the material as a function of stress levels. In the model proposed, each particle size is a state in the system, and the evolution of the material is the movement of particles from one state to another in n steps. Each step is a load cycle, and movement between states is possible with a transition probability. The crushing of particles depends on the mechanical properties of each grain and the packing density of the granular material. The transition probability was calculated using both the survival probability defined by Weibull and the compressible packing model developed by De Larrard. Material mechanical properties are considered using the Weibull probability theory. The size and shape of the grains, as well as the method of processing the packing density are considered using De Larrard's model. Results of the proposed analytical model show a good agreement with the experimental tests carried out using the gyratory compaction test.

Two approaches for numerical modelling of waves generated by landslides : macroscopic and grain scales.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clous, Lucie; Abadie, Stéphane

2017-04-01

The present works aims to show two approaches for the numerical modelling of waves generated by landslides. The first approach is based on a macroscopic view of the landslide. Two cases are introduced : the pyroclastic flow and the generation by a granular flow. Regarding the pyroclastic flow, if we consider that the high interstitial pressure persists during the propagation as showed in some experiments (Roche et al.), the slide has a fluid-like behaviour and therefore can be modelled as a Newtonian fluid. Some experiments are in process to assess this hypothesis. In the case of granular flow, we deal with the experiment of glass beads falling on a slope into water (Viroulet) for two diameters of beads. First, the landslide is modelled as a Newtonian fluid. The aim is to determine the viscosity value for each case and be able to reproduce the first wave. To be closer to the granular media, the mu(I)-rheology is also introduced (GDR MiDi). This rheology has been proposed to model dense granular flow and parameters are defined by the media. The second approach is to model the grain itself in the granular media. It can be done by coupling a DEM code with a Navier-Stokes code for example (Shan and Zhao). However, here, the idea is to compute the slide and the fluids with only a Navier-Stokes (NS) code. To realise that, the solid are modelled using penalised fluid (Ducassou et al.). Yet, the interactions between solid have to be manage by an additional routine in the NS code. A first model has been developed for interaction between discs. Experimental results are expected for the validation of this routine like the fall of several cylinders on a slope into water. References : O. Roche, S. Montserrat, Y. Niño, and A. Tamburrino. Pore fluid pressure and internal kinematics of gravitational laboratory air-particle flows: Insights into the emplacement dynamics of pyroclastic flows. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115(B9), September 2010. Sylvain Viroulet. Simulations de tsunamis générés par glissements de terrains aériens. Thèse de doctorat, Aix-Marseille Université, France, 2013. GDR MiDi. On dense granular flows. The European Physical Journal E, 14(4):341-365, August 2004. Tong Shan and Zidong Zhao. A coupled CFD-DEM analysis of granular flow impacting on a water reservoir. Acta Mechanica, 225(8):2449-2470, August 2014. B. Ducassou, J. Nunez, M. Cruchaga, and S. Abadie. A fictitious domain approach on a viscosity penalty method to simulate wave / structure interaction. To appear in Journal of Hydraulic Research.

Chaos emerging in soil failure patterns observed during tillage: Normalized deterministic nonlinear prediction (NDNP) and its application.

PubMed

Sakai, Kenshi; Upadhyaya, Shrinivasa K; Andrade-Sanchez, Pedro; Sviridova, Nina V

2017-03-01

Real-world processes are often combinations of deterministic and stochastic processes. Soil failure observed during farm tillage is one example of this phenomenon. In this paper, we investigated the nonlinear features of soil failure patterns in a farm tillage process. We demonstrate emerging determinism in soil failure patterns from stochastic processes under specific soil conditions. We normalized the deterministic nonlinear prediction considering autocorrelation and propose it as a robust way of extracting a nonlinear dynamical system from noise contaminated motion. Soil is a typical granular material. The results obtained here are expected to be applicable to granular materials in general. From a global scale to nano scale, the granular material is featured in seismology, geotechnology, soil mechanics, and particle technology. The results and discussions presented here are applicable in these wide research areas. The proposed method and our findings are useful with respect to the application of nonlinear dynamics to investigate complex motions generated from granular materials.

A new perspective of particle adsorption: Dispersed oil and granular materials interactions in simulated coastal environment.

PubMed

Meng, Long; Bao, Mutai; Sun, Peiyan

2017-09-15

This study, adsorption behaviors of dispersed oil in seawaters by granular materials were explored in simulation environment. We quantitatively demonstrated the dispersed oil adsorbed by granular materials were both dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons (DPHs) and oil droplets. Furthermore, DPHs were accounted for 42.5%, 63.4%, and 85.2% (35.5% was emulsion adsorption) in the adsorption of dispersed oil by coastal rocks, sediments, and bacterial strain particles respectively. Effects of controlling parameters, such as temperature, particle size and concentration on adsorption of petroleum hydrocarbons were described in detail. Most strikingly, adsorption concentration was followed a decreasing order of bacterial strain (0.5-2μm)>sediments (0.005-0.625mm)>coastal rocks (0.2-1cm). With particle concentration or temperature increased, adsorption concentration increased for coastal rocks particle but decreased for sediments particle. Besides, particle adsorption rate of petroleum hydrocarbons (n-alkanes and PAHs) was different among granular materials during 60 days. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Installing Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Experiment Test Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Astronaut Carl Walz installs Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) test cell on STS-79. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: NASA/John Space Center

Mechanical analysis and force chain determination in granular materials using digital image correlation.

PubMed

Chen, Fanxiu; Zhuang, Qi; Zhang, Huixin

2016-06-20

The mechanical behaviors of granular materials are governed by the grain properties and microstructure of the materials. We conducted experiments to study the force transmission in granular materials using plane strain tests. The large amount of nearly continuous displacement data provided by the advanced noncontact experimental technique of digital image correlation (DIC) has provided a means to quantify local displacements and strains at the particle level. The average strain of each particle could be calculated based on the DIC method, and the average stress could be obtained using Hooke's law. The relationship between the stress and particle force could be obtained based on basic Newtonian mechanics and the balance of linear momentum at the particle level. This methodology is introduced and validated. In the testing procedure, the system is tested in real 2D particle cases, and the contact forces and force chain are obtained and analyzed. The system has great potential for analyzing a real granular system and measuring the contact forces and force chain.

Dynamic compaction of granular materials

PubMed Central

Favrie, N.; Gavrilyuk, S.

2013-01-01

An Eulerian hyperbolic multiphase flow model for dynamic and irreversible compaction of granular materials is constructed. The reversible model is first constructed on the basis of the classical Hertz theory. The irreversible model is then derived in accordance with the following two basic principles. First, the entropy inequality is satisfied by the model. Second, the corresponding ‘intergranular stress’ coming from elastic energy owing to contact between grains decreases in time (the granular media behave as Maxwell-type materials). The irreversible model admits an equilibrium state corresponding to von Mises-type yield limit. The yield limit depends on the volume fraction of the solid. The sound velocity at the yield surface is smaller than that in the reversible model. The last one is smaller than the sound velocity in the irreversible model. Such an embedded model structure assures a thermodynamically correct formulation of the model of granular materials. The model is validated on quasi-static experiments on loading–unloading cycles. The experimentally observed hysteresis phenomena were numerically confirmed with a good accuracy by the proposed model. PMID:24353466

Dynamic Effective Mass of Granular Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Chaur-Jian; Johnson, David L.; Ingale, Rohit A.; Valenza, John J.; Gland, Nicolas; Makse, Hernán A.

2009-02-01

We develop the concept of frequency dependent effective mass, Mtilde (ω), of jammed granular materials which occupy a rigid cavity to a filling fraction of 48%, the remaining volume being air of normal room condition or controlled humidity. The dominant features of Mtilde (ω) provide signatures of the dissipation of acoustic modes, elasticity, and aging effects in the granular medium. We perform humidity controlled experiments and interpret the data in terms of a continuum model and a “trap” model of thermally activated capillary bridges at the contact points. The results suggest that attenuation of acoustic waves in granular materials can be influenced significantly by the kinetics of capillary condensation between the asperities at the contacts.

Sounds of Failure: Passive Acoustic Measurements of Excited Vibrational Modes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brzinski, Theodore A.; Daniels, Karen E.

2018-05-01

Granular materials can fail through spontaneous events like earthquakes or brittle fracture. However, measurements and analytic models which forecast failure in this class of materials, while of both fundamental and practical interest, remain elusive. Materials including numerical packings of spheres, colloidal glasses, and granular materials have been known to develop an excess of low-frequency vibrational modes as the confining pressure is reduced. Here, we report experiments on sheared granular materials in which we monitor the evolving density of excited modes via passive monitoring of acoustic emissions. We observe a broadening of the distribution of excited modes coincident with both bulk and local plasticity, and evolution in the shape of the distribution before and after bulk failure. These results provide a new interpretation of the changing state of the material on its approach to stick-slip failure.

Sounds of Failure: Passive Acoustic Measurements of Excited Vibrational Modes.

PubMed

Brzinski, Theodore A; Daniels, Karen E

2018-05-25

Granular materials can fail through spontaneous events like earthquakes or brittle fracture. However, measurements and analytic models which forecast failure in this class of materials, while of both fundamental and practical interest, remain elusive. Materials including numerical packings of spheres, colloidal glasses, and granular materials have been known to develop an excess of low-frequency vibrational modes as the confining pressure is reduced. Here, we report experiments on sheared granular materials in which we monitor the evolving density of excited modes via passive monitoring of acoustic emissions. We observe a broadening of the distribution of excited modes coincident with both bulk and local plasticity, and evolution in the shape of the distribution before and after bulk failure. These results provide a new interpretation of the changing state of the material on its approach to stick-slip failure.

Reduction of intergranular exchange coupling and grain size for high Ku CoPt-based granular media: Metal-oxide buffer layer and multiple oxide boundary materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tham, Kim Kong; Kushibiki, Ryosuke; Kamada, Tomonari; Hinata, Shintaro; Saito, Shin

2018-05-01

Investigation of magnetic properties and microstructure of granular media with various multiple oxides as the grain boundary material is reported. Saturation magnetization (Ms), uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy (Ku), and magnetic grain diameter (GD) of the granular media show linear correlation with volume weighted average for melting point (Tm) of each oxides (Tmave). Ku of magnetic grains (Kugrain) shows a trade-off relation with GD that it is a big challenge to satisfy both high Kugrain and small GD by only controlling Tmave. To obtain a granular medium with appropriate Kugrain, GD, and low degree of intergranular exchange coupling, the combination of Tmave control of grain boundary material by mixing oxides and employment of a buffer layer are required. Here the degree of intergranular exchange coupling is estimated from the slope of M-H loop at around coercivity (α). By applying this technique, a typical granular medium with Kugrain of 1.0×107 erg/cm3, GD of 5.1 nm, and α of 1.2 is realized.

Preliminary research on flow rate and free surface of the accelerator driven subcritical system gravity-driven dense granular-flow target

PubMed Central

Li, Xiaodong; Wan, Jiangfeng; Zhang, Sheng; Lin, Ping; Zhang, Yanshi; Yang, Guanghui; Wang, Mengke; Duan, Wenshan; Sun, Jian’an

2017-01-01

A spallation target is one of the three core parts of the accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS), which has already been investigated for decades. Recently, a gravity-driven Dense Granular-flow Target (DGT) is proposed, which consists of a cylindrical hopper and an internal coaxial cylindrical beam pipe. The research on the flow rate and free surface are important for the design of the target whether in Heavy Liquid Metal (HLM) targets or the DGT. In this paper, the relations of flow rate and the geometry of the DGT are investigated. Simulations based on the discrete element method (DEM) implementing on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and experiments are both performed. It is found that the existence of an internal pipe doesn’t influence the flow rate when the distance from the bottom of the pipe to orifice is large enough even in a larger system. Meanwhile, snapshots of the free surface formed just below the beam pipe are given. It is observed that the free surface is stable over time. The entire research is meaningful for the design of DGT. PMID:29095910

Towards a universal description of cohesive-particle flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lamarche, Casey; Liu, Peiyuan; Kellogg, Kevin; Lattanzi, Aaron; Hrenya, Christine

2017-11-01

A universal framework for describing cohesive granular flows seems unattainable based on prior works, making a fundamental continuum theory to predict such flows appear unachievable. For the first time, universal behavior of cohesive-grain flows is demonstrated by linking the macroscopic (many-grain) behavior to grain-grain interactions via two dimensionless groups: a generalized Bond number BoG - ratio of maximum cohesive force to the force driving flow - and a new Agglomerate number Ag - ratio of critical cohesive energy to the granular energy. Cohesive-grain flow is investigated in several systems, and universal behavior is determined via collapse of a cohesion-dependent output variable from each system with the appropriate dimensionless group. Universal behavior is observed using BoG for dense (enduring-contact-dominated) flows and Ag for dilute (collision-dominated) flows, as BoG accounts for the cohesive contact force and Ag for increased collisional dissipation due to cohesion. Hence, a new physical picture is presented, namely, BoG dominates in dense flows, where force chains drive momentum transfer, and Ag dominates in dilute systems, where the dissipative collisions dominate momentum transfer. Apparent discrepancies with past treatments are resolved. Dow Corning Corporation.

Preliminary research on flow rate and free surface of the accelerator driven subcritical system gravity-driven dense granular-flow target.

PubMed

Li, Xiaodong; Wan, Jiangfeng; Zhang, Sheng; Lin, Ping; Zhang, Yanshi; Yang, Guanghui; Wang, Mengke; Duan, Wenshan; Sun, Jian'an; Yang, Lei

2017-01-01

A spallation target is one of the three core parts of the accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS), which has already been investigated for decades. Recently, a gravity-driven Dense Granular-flow Target (DGT) is proposed, which consists of a cylindrical hopper and an internal coaxial cylindrical beam pipe. The research on the flow rate and free surface are important for the design of the target whether in Heavy Liquid Metal (HLM) targets or the DGT. In this paper, the relations of flow rate and the geometry of the DGT are investigated. Simulations based on the discrete element method (DEM) implementing on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and experiments are both performed. It is found that the existence of an internal pipe doesn't influence the flow rate when the distance from the bottom of the pipe to orifice is large enough even in a larger system. Meanwhile, snapshots of the free surface formed just below the beam pipe are given. It is observed that the free surface is stable over time. The entire research is meaningful for the design of DGT.

Some exact velocity profiles for granular flow in converging hoppers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cox, Grant M.; Hill, James M.

2005-01-01

Gravity flow of granular materials through hoppers occurs in many industrial processes. For an ideal cohesionless granular material, which satisfies the Coulomb-Mohr yield condition, the number of known analytical solutions is limited. However, for the special case of the angle of internal friction δ equal to ninety degrees, there exist exact parametric solutions for the governing coupled ordinary differential equations for both two-dimensional wedges and three-dimensional cones, both of which involve two arbitrary constants of integration. These solutions are the only known analytical solutions of this generality. Here, we utilize the double-shearing theory of granular materials to determine the velocity field corresponding to these exact parametric solutions for the two problems of gravity flow through converging wedge and conical hoppers. An independent numerical solution for other angles of internal friction is shown to coincide with the analytical solution.

Effect of Anisotropy on the Resilient Behaviour of a Granular Material in Low Traffic Pavement

PubMed Central

Jing, Peng; Nowamooz, Hossein; Chazallon, Cyrille

2017-01-01

Granular materials are often used in pavement structures. The influence of anisotropy on the mechanical behaviour of granular materials is very important. The coupled effects of water content and fine content usually lead to more complex anisotropic behaviour. With a repeated load triaxial test (RLTT), it is possible to measure the anisotropic deformation behaviour of granular materials. This article initially presents an experimental study of the resilient repeated load response of a compacted clayey natural sand with three fine contents and different water contents. Based on anisotropic behaviour, the non-linear resilient model (Boyce model) is improved by the radial anisotropy coefficient γ3 instead of the axial anisotropy coefficient γ1. The results from both approaches (γ1 and γ3) are compared with the measured volumetric and deviatoric responses. These results confirm the capacity of the improved model to capture the general trend of the experiments. Finally, finite element calculations are performed with CAST3M in order to validate the improvement of the modified Boyce model (from γ1 to γ3). The modelling results indicate that the modified Boyce model with γ3 is more widely available in different water contents and different fine contents for this granular material. Besides, based on the results, the coupled effects of water content and fine content on the deflection of the structures can also be observed. PMID:29207504

Effect of Anisotropy on the Resilient Behaviour of a Granular Material in Low Traffic Pavement.

PubMed

Jing, Peng; Nowamooz, Hossein; Chazallon, Cyrille

2017-12-03

Granular materials are often used in pavement structures. The influence of anisotropy on the mechanical behaviour of granular materials is very important. The coupled effects of water content and fine content usually lead to more complex anisotropic behaviour. With a repeated load triaxial test (RLTT), it is possible to measure the anisotropic deformation behaviour of granular materials. This article initially presents an experimental study of the resilient repeated load response of a compacted clayey natural sand with three fine contents and different water contents. Based on anisotropic behaviour, the non-linear resilient model (Boyce model) is improved by the radial anisotropy coefficient γ ₃ instead of the axial anisotropy coefficient γ ₁. The results from both approaches ( γ ₁ and γ ₃) are compared with the measured volumetric and deviatoric responses. These results confirm the capacity of the improved model to capture the general trend of the experiments. Finally, finite element calculations are performed with CAST3M in order to validate the improvement of the modified Boyce model (from γ ₁ to γ ₃). The modelling results indicate that the modified Boyce model with γ ₃ is more widely available in different water contents and different fine contents for this granular material. Besides, based on the results, the coupled effects of water content and fine content on the deflection of the structures can also be observed.

77 FR 59979 - Pure Magnesium (Granular) From China

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-01

... (Granular) From China Determination On the basis of the record \\1\\ developed in the subject five-year review... magnesium (granular) from China would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to... China: Investigation No.731-TA- 895 (Second Review). Issued: September 25, 2012. By order of the...

Aerofractures in Confined Granular Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eriksen, Fredrik K.; Turkaya, Semih; Toussaint, Renaud; Måløy, Knut J.; Flekkøy, Eirik G.

2015-04-01

We will present the optical analysis of experimental aerofractures in confined granular media. The study of this generic process may have applications in industries involving hydraulic fracturing of tight rocks, safe construction of dams, tunnels and mines, and in earth science where phenomena such as mud volcanoes and sand injectites are results of subsurface sediment displacements driven by fluid overpressure. It is also interesting to increase the understanding the flow instability itself, and how the fluid flow impacts the solid surrounding fractures and in the rest of the sample. Such processes where previously studied numerically [Niebling 2012a, Niebling 2012b] or in circular geometries. We will here explore experimentally linear geometries. We study the fracturing patterns that form when air flows into a dense, non-cohesive porous medium confined in a Hele-Shaw cell - i.e. into a packing of dry 80 micron beads placed between two glass plates separated by ~1mm. The cell is rectangular and fitted with a semi-permeable boundary to the atmosphere - blocking beads but not air - on one short edge, while the other three edges are impermeable. The porous medium is packed inside the cell between the semi-permeable boundary and an empty volume at the sealed side where the air pressure can be set and kept at a constant overpressure (1-2bar). Thus, for the air trapped inside the cell to release the overpressure it has to move through the solid. At high enough overpressures the air flow deforms the solid and increase permeability in some regions along the air-solid interface, which results in unstable flow and aerofracturing. Aerofractures are thought to be an analogue to hydrofractures, and an advantage of performing aerofracturing experiments in a Hele-Shaw cell is that the fracturing process can easily be observed in the lab. Our experiments are recorded with a high speed camera with a framerate of 1000 frames per second. In the analysis, by using various image processing techniques, we segment out and study the aerofractures over time looking at growth dynamics, fractal dimension and characteristics such as average finger thickness as function of depth into the solid. Also, by performing image correlation on two subsequent frames we estimate displacement fields and investigate the surrounding stress and strain fields in the solid around the fractures. Several experiments are performed with various overpressures and packing densities, and we compare the results. In a directly related project, acoustic emissions are recorded on a cell plate during experiments, and one of our goals is to correlate acoustic events and observations. We will also compare the dependence of the patterns on the saturation of the initial deformable porous material, by comparing experiments performed by air injection in air saturated granular media, to some in liquid saturated granular media. References: MJ Niebling, R Toussaint, EG Flekkøy, KJ Måløy, 2012, Dynamic aerofracture of dense granular packings, 2012, Physical Review E 86 (6), 061315 M Niebling, R Toussaint, EG Flekkøy, KJ Måløy, 2012, Numerical studies of aerofractures in porous media, Revista Cubana de Fisica 29 (1E), pp. 1E66-1E70

On the finite length-scale of compressible shock-waves formed in free-surface flows of dry granular materials down a slope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faug, Thierry

2017-04-01

The Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions traditionally describe the theoretical relationship between the equilibrium state on both sides of a shock-wave. They are based on the crucial assumption that the length-scale needed to adjust the equilibrium state upstream of the shock to downstream of it is too small to be of significance to the problem. They are often used with success to describe the shock-waves in a number of applications found in both fluid and solid mechanics. However, the relations based on jump conditions at singular surfaces may fail to capture some features of the shock-waves formed in complex materials, such as granular matter. This study addresses the particular problem of compressible shock-waves formed in flows of dry granular materials down a slope. This problem is for instance relevant to full-scale geophysical granular flows in interaction with natural obstacles or man-made structures, such as topographical obstacles or mitigation dams respectively. Steady-state jumps formed in granular flows and travelling shock-waves produced at the impact of a granular avalanche-flow with a rigid wall are considered. For both situations, new analytical relations which do not consider that the granular shock-wave shrinks into a singular surface are derived, by using balance equations in their depth-averaged forms for mass and momentum. However, these relations need additional inputs that are closure relations for the size and the shape of the shock-wave, and a relevant constitutive friction law. Small-scale laboratory tests and numerical simulations based on the discrete element method are shortly presented and used to infer crucial information needed for the closure relations. This allows testing some predictive aspects of the simple analytical approach proposed for both steady-state and travelling shock-waves formed in free-surface flows of dry granular materials down a slope.

Characterising fabric, force distributions and porosity evolution in sheared granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mair, Karen; Abe, Steffen; Jettestuen, Espen

2014-05-01

Active faults, landslides, subglacial tills and poorly or unconsolidated sands essentially contain accumulations of granular debris that evolve under load. Both the macroscopic motions and the bulk fluid flow characteristics that result are determined by the particular grain scale processes operating in this deformed or transformed granular material. A relevant question is how the local behavior at the individual granular contacts actually sums up, and in particular how the load bearing skeleton (an important expression of connected load) and spatial distribution of pore space (and hence fluid pathways) are linked. Here we investigate the spatial distribution of porosity with granular rearrangements (specifically contact force network characteristics) produced in 3D discrete element models of granular layers under shear. We use percolation measures to identify, characterize, compare and track the evolution of strongly connected contact force networks. We show that specific topological measures used in describing the networks, such as number of contacts and coordination number, are sensitive to grain size distribution of the material as well as loading conditions. In addition we probe the 3D spatial distribution of porosity as a function of increasing strain. Two cases will be considered. The first, a non-fracture regime where configurational changes occur during shear but grain size distribution remains constant. This would be expected for a soil or granular material under relatively low normal loading. Secondly we consider a fragmentation regime where the grain size distributions of the granular material evolve with accumulated strain. This mirrors the scenario for faults or basal shear zones of slides under higher normal stress where comminution is typically a mark of increasing maturity and plays a major role in the poro-perm evolution of the system. We will present the correlated and anti-correlated features appearing in our simulations as well as discussing the triggers and relative persistence of fluid pathway creation versus destruction mechanisms. We will also demonstrate how the individual grain interactions are manifested in the macroscopic sliding behavior we observe.

Self-Structuring of Granular material under Capillary Bulldozing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dumazer, Guillaume; Sandnes, Bjørnar; Ayaz, Monem; Måløy, Knut Jørgen; Flekkøy, Eirik

2017-06-01

An experimental observation of the structuring of a granular suspension under the progress of a gas/liquid meniscus in a narrow tube is reported here. The granular material is moved and compactifies as a growing accumulation front. The frictional interaction with the confining walls increases until the pore capillary entry pressure is reached. The gas then penetrates the clogged granular packing and a further accumulation front is formed at the far side of the plug. This cyclic process continues until the gas/liquid interface reaches the tube's outlet, leaving a trail of plugs in the tube. Such 1D pattern formation belongs to a larger family of patterning dynamics observed in 2D Hele-Shaw geometry. The cylindrical geometry considered here provides an ideal case for a theoretical modelling for forced granular matter oscillating between a long frictional phase and a sudden viscous fluidization.

Surface instabilities in shock loaded granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kandan, K.; Khaderi, S. N.; Wadley, H. N. G.; Deshpande, V. S.

2017-12-01

The initiation and growth of instabilities in granular materials loaded by air shock waves are investigated via shock-tube experiments and numerical calculations. Three types of granular media, dry sand, water-saturated sand and a granular solid comprising PTFE spheres were experimentally investigated by air shock loading slugs of these materials in a transparent shock tube. Under all shock pressures considered here, the free-standing dry sand slugs remained stable while the shock loaded surface of the water-saturated sand slug became unstable resulting in mixing of the shocked air and the granular material. By contrast, the PTFE slugs were stable at low pressures but displayed instabilities similar to the water-saturated sand slugs at higher shock pressures. The distal surfaces of the slugs remained stable under all conditions considered here. Eulerian fluid/solid interaction calculations, with the granular material modelled as a Drucker-Prager solid, reproduced the onset of the instabilities as seen in the experiments to a high level of accuracy. These calculations showed that the shock pressures to initiate instabilities increased with increasing material friction and decreasing yield strain. Moreover, the high Atwood number for this problem implied that fluid/solid interaction effects were small, and the initiation of the instability is adequately captured by directly applying a pressure on the slug surface. Lagrangian calculations with the directly applied pressures demonstrated that the instability was caused by spatial pressure gradients created by initial surface perturbations. Surface instabilities are also shown to exist in shock loaded rear-supported granular slugs: these experiments and calculations are used to infer the velocity that free-standing slugs need to acquire to initiate instabilities on their front surfaces. The results presented here, while in an idealised one-dimensional setting, provide physical understanding of the conditions required to initiate instabilities in a range of situations involving the explosive dispersion of particles.

Granular giant magnetoresistive materials and their ferromagnetic resonances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rubinstein, M.; Das, B. N.; Koon, N. C.; Chrisey, D. B.; Horwitz, J.

1994-11-01

Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) can reveal important information on the size and shape of the ferromagnetic particles which are dispersed in granular giant magnetoresistive (GMR) materials. We have investigated the FMR spectra of three different types of granular GMR material, each with different properties: (1) melt-spun ribbons of Fe5Co15Cu80 and Co20Cu80, (2) thin films of Co20Cu80 produced by pulsed laser deposition, and (3) a granular multilayer film of (Cu(50 A)/Fe(10 A)) x 50. We interpret the linewidth of these materials in as simple a manner as possible, as a 'powder pattern' of noninteracting ferromagnetic particles. The linewidth of the melt-spun ribbons is caused by a completely random distribution of crystalline anisotropy axes. The linewidth of these samples is strongly dependent upon the annealing temperature: the linewidth of the as-spun sample is 2.5 kOe (appropriate for single-domain particles) while the linewidth of a melt-spun sample annealed at 900 C for 15 min is 3.8 kOe (appropriate for larger, multidomain particles). The linewidth of the granular multilayer is attributed to a restricted distribution of shape anisotropies, as expected from a discontinuous multilayer, and is only 0.98 kOe with the magnetic field in the plane of the film.

Ferromagnetic-resonance studies of granular giant-magnetoresistive materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rubinstein, M.; Das, B. N.; Koon, N. C.; Chrisey, D. B.; Horwitz, J.

1994-07-01

Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) can reveal important information on the size and shape of the ferromagnetic particles which are dispersed in granular giant magnetoresistive (GMR) materials. We have investigated the FMR spectra of three different types of granular GMR material, each with different properties: (1) melt-spun ribbons of Fe5Co15Cu80 and Co20Cu80, (2) thin films of Co20Cu80 produced by pulsed laser deposition, and (3) a granular multilayer film of [Cu(50 Å)/Fe(10 Å)]×50. We interpret the linewidth of these materials in as simple a manner as possible, as a ``powder pattern'' of noninteracting ferromagnetic particles. The linewidth of the melt-spun ribbons is caused by a completely random distribution of crystalline anisotropy axes. The linewidth of these samples is strongly dependent upon the annealing temperature: the linewidth of the as-spun sample is 2.5 kOe (appropriate for single-domain particles) while the linewidth of a melt-spun sample annealed at 900 °C for 15 min is 4.5 kOe (appropriate for larger, multidomain particles). The linewidth of the granular multilayer is attributed to a restricted distribution of shape anisotropies, as expected from a discontinuous multilayer, and is only 0.98 kOe when the applied magnetic field is in the plane of the film.

Measurements of Acoustic Properties of Porous and Granular Materials and Application to Vibration Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Park, Junhong; Palumbo, Daniel L.

2004-01-01

For application of porous and granular materials to vibro-acoustic controls, a finite dynamic strength of the solid component (frame) is an important design factor. The primary goal of this study was to investigate structural vibration damping through this frame wave propagation for various poroelastic materials. A measurement method to investigate the vibration characteristics of the frame was proposed. The measured properties were found to follow closely the characteristics of the viscoelastic materials - the dynamic modulus increased with frequency and the degree of the frequency dependence was determined by its loss factor. The dynamic stiffness of hollow cylindrical beams containing porous and granular materials as damping treatment was measured also. The data were used to extract the damping materials characteristics using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The results suggested that the acoustic structure interaction between the frame and the structure enhances the dissipation of the vibration energy significantly.

Effect of particle stiffness on contact dynamics and rheology in a dense granular flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bharathraj, S.; Kumaran, V.

2018-01-01

Dense granular flows have been well described by the Bagnold rheology, even when the particles are in the multibody contact regime and the coordination number is greater than 1. This is surprising, because the Bagnold law should be applicable only in the instantaneous collision regime, where the time between collisions is much larger than the period of a collision. Here, the effect of particle stiffness on rheology is examined. It is found that there is a rheological threshold between a particle stiffness of 104-105 for the linear contact model and 105-106 for the Hertzian contact model above which Bagnold rheology (stress proportional to square of the strain rate) is valid and below which there is a power-law rheology, where all components of the stress and the granular temperature are proportional to a power of the strain rate that is less then 2. The system is in the multibody contact regime at the rheological threshold. However, the contact energy per particle is less than the kinetic energy per particle above the rheological threshold, and it becomes larger than the kinetic energy per particle below the rheological threshold. The distribution functions for the interparticle forces and contact energies are also analyzed. The distribution functions are invariant with height, but they do depend on the contact model. The contact energy distribution functions are well fitted by Gamma distributions. There is a transition in the shape of the distribution function as the particle stiffness is decreased from 107 to 106 for the linear model and 108 to 107 for the Hertzian model, when the contact number exceeds 1. Thus, the transition in the distribution function correlates to the contact regime threshold from the binary to multibody contact regime, and is clearly different from the rheological threshold. An order-disorder transition has recently been reported in dense granular flows. The Bagnold rheology applies for both the ordered and disordered states, even though the rheological constants differ by orders of magnitude. The effect of particle stiffness on the order-disorder transition is examined here. It is found that when the particle stiffness is above the rheological threshold, there is an order-disorder transition as the base roughness is increased. The order-disorder transition disappears after the crossover to the soft-particle regime when the particle stiffness is decreased below the rheological threshold, indicating that the transition is a hard-particle phenomenon.

Effect of particle stiffness on contact dynamics and rheology in a dense granular flow.

PubMed

Bharathraj, S; Kumaran, V

2018-01-01

Dense granular flows have been well described by the Bagnold rheology, even when the particles are in the multibody contact regime and the coordination number is greater than 1. This is surprising, because the Bagnold law should be applicable only in the instantaneous collision regime, where the time between collisions is much larger than the period of a collision. Here, the effect of particle stiffness on rheology is examined. It is found that there is a rheological threshold between a particle stiffness of 10^{4}-10^{5} for the linear contact model and 10^{5}-10^{6} for the Hertzian contact model above which Bagnold rheology (stress proportional to square of the strain rate) is valid and below which there is a power-law rheology, where all components of the stress and the granular temperature are proportional to a power of the strain rate that is less then 2. The system is in the multibody contact regime at the rheological threshold. However, the contact energy per particle is less than the kinetic energy per particle above the rheological threshold, and it becomes larger than the kinetic energy per particle below the rheological threshold. The distribution functions for the interparticle forces and contact energies are also analyzed. The distribution functions are invariant with height, but they do depend on the contact model. The contact energy distribution functions are well fitted by Gamma distributions. There is a transition in the shape of the distribution function as the particle stiffness is decreased from 10^{7} to 10^{6} for the linear model and 10^{8} to 10^{7} for the Hertzian model, when the contact number exceeds 1. Thus, the transition in the distribution function correlates to the contact regime threshold from the binary to multibody contact regime, and is clearly different from the rheological threshold. An order-disorder transition has recently been reported in dense granular flows. The Bagnold rheology applies for both the ordered and disordered states, even though the rheological constants differ by orders of magnitude. The effect of particle stiffness on the order-disorder transition is examined here. It is found that when the particle stiffness is above the rheological threshold, there is an order-disorder transition as the base roughness is increased. The order-disorder transition disappears after the crossover to the soft-particle regime when the particle stiffness is decreased below the rheological threshold, indicating that the transition is a hard-particle phenomenon.

Open problems in active chaotic flows: Competition between chaos and order in granular materials.

PubMed

Ottino, J. M.; Khakhar, D. V.

2002-06-01

There are many systems where interaction among the elementary building blocks-no matter how well understood-does not even give a glimpse of the behavior of the global system itself. Characteristic for these systems is the ability to display structure without any external organizing principle being applied. They self-organize as a consequence of synthesis and collective phenomena and the behavior cannot be understood in terms of the systems' constitutive elements alone. A simple example is flowing granular materials, i.e., systems composed of particles or grains. How the grains interact with each other is reasonably well understood; as to how particles move, the governing law is Newton's second law. There are no surprises at this level. However, when the particles are many and the material is vibrated or tumbled, surprising behavior emerges. Systems self-organize in complex patterns that cannot be deduced from the behavior of the particles alone. Self-organization is often the result of competing effects; flowing granular matter displays both mixing and segregation. Small differences in either size or density lead to flow-induced segregation and order; similar to fluids, noncohesive granular materials can display chaotic mixing and disorder. Competition gives rise to a wealth of experimental outcomes. Equilibrium structures, obtained experimentally in quasi-two-dimensional systems, display organization in the presence of disorder, and are captured by a continuum flow model incorporating collisional diffusion and density-driven segregation. Several open issues remain to be addressed. These include analysis of segregating chaotic systems from a dynamical systems viewpoint, and understanding three-dimensional systems and wet granular systems (slurries). General aspects of the competition between chaos-enhanced mixing and properties-induced de-mixing go beyond granular materials and may offer a paradigm for other kinds of physical systems. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Subcutaneous hemangiosarcoma induced by a foreign body (steel staple) in a cat.

PubMed

Tan, Rommel Max; Singh, Kuldeep; Sandman, Kristi

2013-04-01

An 8-year-old, female domestic shorthair cat was presented with a ventral abdominal subcutaneous mass. A radiograph showed that the center of the mass contained what appeared to be steel sutures, presumed to be from an ovariohysterectomy performed 7 years earlier. The excised mass was irregular and contained numerous pockets filled with friable necrotic material and hemorrhages that were dissected by fibrous connective tissue bands. Multiple tangled and fragmented pieces of steel staples were deeply embedded within the mass. Histologically, the mass was non-encapsulated, densely cellular, and infiltrative. Neoplastic cells lined caverns and channels and were factor VIII-positive by immunohistochemistry. The neoplastic cells were oval to round with granular cytoplasm and vesicular nucleus and exhibited moderate cellular and nuclear pleomorphism. A diagnosis of subcutaneous hemangiosarcoma was made. To our knowledge, this is the first report of foreign body associated hemangiosarcoma and the first case of steel staple associated neoplasm in domestic animals.

Ultrastructure of the gravid uterus of Hymenolepis diminuta (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda).

PubMed

Conn, D B

1993-08-01

The fine structure of the uterus in gravid proglottids of Hymenolepis diminuta was examined by standard techniques for scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The uterus consisted of a syncytial uterine epithelium attached to the medullary parenchyma through a thin extracellular basal matrix. The epithelium contained prominent nuclei in the juxtalumenal cytoplasm. The cytoplasm was dominated by extensive granular endoplasmic reticulum, with dilated cisternae containing an electron-lucent material and widely scattered electron-dense spherical bodies. No Golgi body or other agranular endomembrane component was observed, but the epithelium contained numerous free ribosomes and a few mitochondria. The apical plasma membrane was folded into long microlamellae. Epithelial and epitheliomesenchymal folds and villi resulted in a compartmentalized uterine lumen, with each chamber containing 1 to several eggs. These data suggest a high level of synthetic activity within the uterine epithelium, but the chemical products and functional significance of this activity are not yet known.

The Use of Empirical Methods for Testing Granular Materials in Analogue Modelling

PubMed Central

Montanari, Domenico; Agostini, Andrea; Bonini, Marco; Corti, Giacomo; Del Ventisette, Chiara

2017-01-01

The behaviour of a granular material is mainly dependent on its frictional properties, angle of internal friction, and cohesion, which, together with material density, are the key factors to be considered during the scaling procedure of analogue models. The frictional properties of a granular material are usually investigated by means of technical instruments such as a Hubbert-type apparatus and ring shear testers, which allow for investigating the response of the tested material to a wide range of applied stresses. Here we explore the possibility to determine material properties by means of different empirical methods applied to mixtures of quartz and K-feldspar sand. Empirical methods exhibit the great advantage of measuring the properties of a certain analogue material under the experimental conditions, which are strongly sensitive to the handling techniques. Finally, the results obtained from the empirical methods have been compared with ring shear tests carried out on the same materials, which show a satisfactory agreement with those determined empirically. PMID:28772993

Compaction Behavior of Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Endicott, Mark R.; Kenkre, V. M.; Glass, S. Jill; Hurd, Alan J.

1996-03-01

We report the results of our recent study of compaction of granular materials. A theoretical model is developed for the description of the compaction of granular materials exemplified by granulated ceramic powders. Its predictions are compared to observations of uniaxial compaction tests of ceramic granules of PMN-PT, spray dried alumina and rutile. The theoretical model employs a volume-based statistical mechanics treatment and an activation analogy. Results of a computer simulation of random packing of discs in two dimensions are also reported. The effect of type of particle size distribution and other parameters of that distribution on the calculated quantities are discussed. We examine the implications of the results of the simulation for the theoretical model.

A two-phase solid/fluid model for dense granular flows including dilatancy effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangeney, Anne; Bouchut, Francois; Fernandez-Nieto, Enrique; Koné, El-Hadj; Narbona-Reina, Gladys

2016-04-01

Describing grain/fluid interaction in debris flows models is still an open and challenging issue with key impact on hazard assessment [{Iverson et al.}, 2010]. We present here a two-phase two-thin-layer model for fluidized debris flows that takes into account dilatancy effects. It describes the velocity of both the solid and the fluid phases, the compression/dilatation of the granular media and its interaction with the pore fluid pressure [{Bouchut et al.}, 2016]. The model is derived from a 3D two-phase model proposed by {Jackson} [2000] based on the 4 equations of mass and momentum conservation within the two phases. This system has 5 unknowns: the solid and fluid velocities, the solid and fluid pressures and the solid volume fraction. As a result, an additional equation inside the mixture is necessary to close the system. Surprisingly, this issue is inadequately accounted for in the models that have been developed on the basis of Jackson's work [{Bouchut et al.}, 2015]. In particular, {Pitman and Le} [2005] replaced this closure simply by imposing an extra boundary condition at the surface of the flow. When making a shallow expansion, this condition can be considered as a closure condition. However, the corresponding model cannot account for a dissipative energy balance. We propose here an approach to correctly deal with the thermodynamics of Jackson's model by closing the mixture equations by a weak compressibility relation following {Roux and Radjai} [1998]. This relation implies that the occurrence of dilation or contraction of the granular material in the model depends on whether the solid volume fraction is respectively higher or lower than a critical value. When dilation occurs, the fluid is sucked into the granular material, the pore pressure decreases and the friction force on the granular phase increases. On the contrary, in the case of contraction, the fluid is expelled from the mixture, the pore pressure increases and the friction force diminishes. To account for this transfer of fluid into and out of the mixture, a two-layer model is proposed with a fluid layer on top of the two-phase mixture layer. Mass and momentum conservation are satisfied for the two phases, and mass and momentum are transferred between the two layers. A thin-layer approximation is used to derive average equations. Special attention is paid to the drag friction terms that are responsible for the transfer of momentum between the two phases and for the appearance of an excess pore pressure with respect to the hydrostatic pressure. We present several numerical tests of two-phase granular flows over sloping topography that are compared to the results of the model proposed by {Pitman and Le} [2005]. In particular, we quantify the role of the fluid and compression/dilatation processes on granular flow velocity field and runout distance. F. Bouchut, E.D. Fernandez-Nieto, A. Mangeney, G. Narbona-Reina, A two-phase shallow debris flow model with energy balance, {ESAIM: Math. Modelling Num. Anal.}, 49, 101-140 (2015). F. Bouchut, E. D. Fernandez-Nieto, A. Mangeney, G. Narbona-Reina, A two-phase two-layer model for fluidized granular flows with dilatancy effects, {J. Fluid Mech.}, submitted (2016). R.M. Iverson, M. Logan, R.G. LaHusen, M. Berti, The perfect debris flow? Aggregated results from 28 large-scale experiments, {J. Geophys. Res.}, 115, F03005 (2010). R. Jackson, The Dynamics of Fluidized Particles, {Cambridges Monographs on Mechanics} (2000). E.B. Pitman, L. Le, A two-fluid model for avalanche and debris flows, {Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A}, 363, 1573-1601 (2005). S. Roux, F. Radjai, Texture-dependent rigid plastic behaviour, {Proceedings: Physics of Dry Granular Media}, September 1997. (eds. H. J. Herrmann et al.). Kluwer. Cargèse, France, 305-311 (1998).

Phase diagram for inertial granular flows.

PubMed

DeGiuli, E; McElwaine, J N; Wyart, M

2016-07-01

Flows of hard granular materials depend strongly on the interparticle friction coefficient μ_{p} and on the inertial number I, which characterizes proximity to the jamming transition where flow stops. Guided by numerical simulations, we derive the phase diagram of dense inertial flow of spherical particles, finding three regimes for 10^{-4}≲I≲10^{-1}: frictionless, frictional sliding, and rolling. These are distinguished by the dominant means of energy dissipation, changing from collisional to sliding friction, and back to collisional, as μ_{p} increases from zero at constant I. The three regimes differ in their kinetics and rheology; in particular, the velocity fluctuations and the stress ratio both display nonmonotonic behavior with μ_{p}, corresponding to transitions between the three regimes of flow. We rationalize the phase boundaries between these regimes, show that energy balance yields scaling relations between microscopic properties in each of them, and derive the strain scale at which particles lose memory of their velocity. For the frictional sliding regime most relevant experimentally, we find for I≥10^{-2.5} that the growth of the macroscopic friction μ(I) with I is induced by an increase of collisional dissipation. This implies in that range that μ(I)-μ(0)∼I^{1-2b}, where b≈0.2 is an exponent that characterizes both the dimensionless velocity fluctuations L∼I^{-b} and the density of sliding contacts χ∼I^{b}.

Healing in Unconsolidated Granular Earth Materials: a Mechanistic Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lieou, C.; Daub, E. G.; Ecke, R. E.; Johnson, P. A.

2017-12-01

Abstract: Rock materials often display long-time relaxation, commonly termed aging or ``slow dynamics'', after the cessation of acoustic perturbations. In this presentation, we focus on unconsolidated rock materials and propose to explain such nonlinear relaxation through the Shear-Transformation-Zone (STZ) theory of granular media, adapted for small stresses and strains. The theory attributes the observed relaxation to the slow change of positions of constituent grains, and posits that the aging process can be described in three stages: fast recovery before some characteristic time associated with the fast nonlinear plasticity carriers, log-linear recovery of the elastic modulus at intermediate times, and gradual turnover to equilibrium steady-state behavior at long times. We demonstrate good agreement with experiments on aging in granular materials such as simulated fault gouge after an external disturbance.

Accumulation of sphingolipid activator proteins (SAPs) A and D in granular osmiophilic deposits in miniature Schnauzer dogs with ceroid-lipofuscinosis.

PubMed

Palmer, D N; Tyynelä, J; van Mil, H C; Westlake, V J; Jolly, R D

1997-03-01

The neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses (NCL, Batten disease) are fatal inherited neurodegenerative diseases of children characterized by retinal and brain atrophy and the accumulation of electron-dense storage bodies in cells. Mutations in different genes underlie different major forms. The infantile disease (CLN-1, McKusick 256730) is distinguished by the storage of the sphingolipid activator proteins (SAPs) A and D in distinctive granular osmiophilic deposits (GRODs). This contrasts with the other major forms, where subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase is stored in various multilamellar profiles. Ceroid-lipofuscinoses also occur in dogs, including a form in miniature Schnauzers with distinctive granular osmiophilic deposit-like storage bodies. Antisera to SAPs A and D reacted to these storage bodies in situ. The presence of SAP D was confirmed by Western blotting and of SAP A by protein sequencing. Neither subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase nor of vacuolar ATPase is stored. This suggests that there are two families of ceroid-lipofuscinoses, the subunit c-storing forms, and those in which SAPs A and D, and perhaps other proteins, accumulate. Further work is required to determine whether other forms with granular osmiophilic deposits belong to the latter class and the genetic relationships between them and the human infantile disease.

An Experimental Investigation on the Generation of a Stable Arch in Granular Materials Using a Developed Trapdoor Apparatus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadi, Ali; Seyedi Hosseininia, Ehsan

2017-06-01

This paper discusses the formation of stable arches in granular materials by using a series of laboratory tests. To this aim, a developed trapdoor apparatus is designed to find dimensions of arches formed over the door in cohesionless aggregates. This setup has two new important applications. In order to investigate the maximum width of the opening generated exactly on the verge of failure, the door can be open to an arbitrary size. In addition, the box containing granular materials (or base angle) is able to be set on optional angles from zero to 90 degrees with respect to the horizontal. Therefore, it is possible to understand the effect of different levels of gravity accelerations on the formed arches. It is observed that for all tested granular materials, increasing the door size and decreasing the base angle, both cause to increase the width and height of the arch. Moreover, the shape of all arches is governed by a parabola. Furthermore, the maximum door width is approximately five to 8.6 times the particle size, depending on the internal friction angle of materials and the base angle.

Mechanics of Granular Materials-3 (MGM-3)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sture, Stein; Alshibi, Khalid; Guynes, Buddy (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Scientists are going to space to understand how earthquakes and other forces disturb grains of soil and sand. They will examine how the particle arrangement and structure of soils, grains and powders are changed by external forces and gain knowledge about the strength, stiffness and volume changes properties of granular materials at low pressures. The Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment uses the microgravity of orbit to test sand columns under conditions that cannot be obtained in experiments on Earth. Research can only go so far on Earth because gravity-induced stresses complicate the analysis and change loads too quickly for detailed analysis. This new knowledge will be applied to improving foundations for buildings, managing undeveloped land, and handling powdered and granular materials in chemical, agricultural, and other industries. NASA wants to understand the way soil behaves under different gravity levels so that crews can safely build habitats on Mars and the Moon. Future MGM experiments will benefit from extended tests aboard the International Space Station, including experiments under simulated lunar and Martian gravity in the science centrifuge.

Visualizing Perturbation Decay in Shocked Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooper, Marcia; Vogler, Tracy

2017-06-01

A new experiment continuously visualizing shock wave perturbation decay through an increasing thickness of granular material has been tested with a gas gun. The experiment confines powders of either tungsten carbide or cerium oxide into a wedge geometry formed by tilting the downstream observation window, plated with a reflective aluminum film, at a shallow angle from the driver plate. The driver is machined with a sinusoidal wavy pattern for incident shock wave perturbation. After projectile impact, the perturbed shock wave passes through the granular material, first emerging at the wedge toe. Image sequences collected at 5 MHz of reflectivity loss at the plated window-granular material interface capture the spatial variation in wave propagation with increasing sample thickness. Extracting the evolving wavy pattern from the images determines the temporal perturbation amplitude. The data are compared to continuum and mesoscale simulations in normalized terms of perturbation amplitude and wavelength. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Test Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is shown approximately 20 and 60 minutes after the start of an experiment on STS-89. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Mechanics of Granular Materials Test Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is shown from all three sides by its video camera during STS-89. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Computational Modeling of Sinkage of Objects into Porous Bed under Cyclic Loading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheikh, B.; Qiu, T.; Liu, X.

2017-12-01

This work is a companion of another abstract submitted to this session on the computational modeling for the prediction of underwater munitions. In the other abstract, the focus is the hydrodynamics and sediment transport. In this work, the focus is on the geotechnical aspect and granular material behavior when the munitions interact with the porous bed. The final goal of the project is to create and utilize a comprehensive modeling framework, which integrates the flow and granular material models, to simulate and investigate the motion of the munitions. In this work, we present the computational modeling of one important process: the sinkage of rigid-body objects into porous bed under cyclic loading. To model the large deformation of granular bed materials around sinking objects under cyclic loading, a rate-independent elasto-plastic constitutive model is implemented into a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model. The effect of loading conditions (e.g., amplitude and frequency of shaking), object properties (e.g., geometry and density), and granular bed material properties (e.g., density) on object singkage is discussed.

Vesta and low gravity impact mixing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffmann, Martin; Nathues, Andreas; Vincent, Jean-Baptiste; Sierks, Holger

2013-04-01

Re-impacting material in the velocity range of a few meters per second to a couple of hundred meters per second encounters the surface of Vesta. Studying Vesta's ejecta blankets, this specific constraint has to be taken into account. As on other planetary bodies, young craters are characterized by ray patterns. Combining this information with the evidence of Vesta's unique compaction patterns, the kinematics of the deposition process and its consequences for the spectral properties can be studied. We attempt to tackle the following questions: From which depth of a primary crater and to which extent does ejected material contribute to the mixing of surface material? What are the consequences for the local morphology and a global layer of regolith? Experiments of slow impacts into granular material resulted in the following significant effects: 1) Different depth to diameter ratios, and different profiles of the impact crater have been found, indicating transition from three dimensional interaction to surface effects. 2) The inner surfaces as well as their ejecta blanket showed quite different mixtures of material from different depths of the target area. These are interpreted as the result of pattern formation, slope and boundary effects. 3) At sufficiently low velocity and suitable projectile density the transition from inelastic to elastic interaction has been observed. 4) Between the elastic response of very slow impacts and a violent irregular agitation of the material by faster impacts, a regime of de-voiding and hence of compaction has been observed. 5) The action of force chains (Daniels et al. 2004, Rivas et al. 2011) became apparent inside the granular material, which efficiently trap energy (Daraio et al. 2006) and lead to the ray system. These results confirm and expand previous experimental, simulated and theoretically investigated evidence on the behavior of mobilized granular material. As already demonstrated by Cook and Mortensen (1967), low velocity impacts into granular material lead to anything but a simple crater morphology. Unusual scaling laws (Uehara et al. 2003) and much more diverse phase patterns than in ordinary solid media have to be taken into account, if a consistent interpretation of the formation of a crater in very deep regolith is attempted (e.g. Opsomer et al. 2011). Additional effects are due to the low gravity environment on a small planetary body like Vesta (Tancredi et al. 2012). On Vesta many apparent counterparts to the results of the experiments can be found, as demonstrated by some examples. On a global scale, the multitude of small, unresolved primary and secondary impacts into the granular regolith contributes to the observed maturity on Vesta even after short time scales. References Cook, M. A., Mortensen, K. S. 1967. Impact cratering in granular materials. J. Appl. Phys. 38, 5125-5128. Daniels, K. E., Coppock, J. E., Behringer, R. P. 2004. Dynamics of meteor impacts. Chaos 14, 84. Daraio, C., Nesterenko, V. F., Herbold, E. B., Jin S. 2006. Energy trapping and shock desintegration in a composite granular medium. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 058002, 1-4. Opsomer, E., Ludewig, F., Vandewalle, N. 2011. Phase transitions in vibrated granular systems in microgravity. Phys. Rev. E84, 051306, 1-5. Rivas, N., Ponce, S., Gellet, B., Risso, D., Soto, R., Cordero, P. 2011. Sudden chain energy transfer events in vibrated granular media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 088001, 1-4. Tancredi, G., Maciel, A., Heredia, L., Richeri, P., Nesmachnow, S. 2012. Granular physics in low-gravity environments using discrete element method. Monthly Not. Royal Astron. Soc. 420, 3368-3380. Uehara, J. S., Ambroso, M. A., Ojha, R. J., Durian, D. J. 2003. Low-speed impact craters in loose granular media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 194301, 1-4.

Granular dynamics under shear with deformable boundaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geller, Drew; Backhaus, Scott; Ecke, Robert

2015-03-01

Granular materials under shear develop complex patterns of stress as the result of granular positional rearrangements under an applied load. We consider the simple planar shear of a quasi two-dimensional granular material consisting of bi-dispersed nylon cylinders confined between deformable boundaries. The aspect ratio of the gap width to total system length is 50, and the ratio of particle diameter to gap width is about 10. This system, designed to model a long earthquake fault with long range elastic coupling through the plates, is an interesting model system for understanding effective granular friction because it essentially self tunes to the jamming condition owing to the hardness of the grains relative to that of the boundary material, a ratio of more than 1000 in elastic moduli. We measure the differential strain displacements of the plates, the inhomogeneous stress distribution in the plates, the positions and angular orientations of the individual grains, and the shear force, all as functions of the applied normal stress. There is significant stick-slip motion in this system that we quantify through our quantitative measurements of both the boundary and the grain motion, resulting in a good characterization of this sheared 2D hard sphere system.

Fine structural changes in the lateral vestibular nucleus of aging rats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, J. E., Jr.; Miquel, J.

1974-01-01

The fine structure of the lateral vestibular nucleus was investigated in Sprague-Dawley rats, that were sacrified at 4 weeks, 6-8 weeks, 6-8 months, and 18-20 months of age. In the neuronal perikaria, the following age-associated changes were seen with increasing frequency with advancing age: rodlike nuclear inclusions and nuclear membrane invaginations; cytoplasmic dense bodies with the characteristics of lipofuscin; and moderate disorganization of the granular endoplasmic reticulum. Dense bodies were also seen in glial cells. Rats 18 to 20 months old showed dendritic swellings, axonal degeneration, and an apparent increase in the number of axosomatic synaptic terminals containing flattened vesicles (presumed to be inhibitory in function).

Granular-front formation in free-surface flow of concentrated suspensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leonardi, Alessandro; Cabrera, Miguel; Wittel, Falk K.; Kaitna, Roland; Mendoza, Miller; Wu, Wei; Herrmann, Hans J.

2015-11-01

A granular front emerges whenever the free-surface flow of a concentrated suspension spontaneously alters its internal structure, exhibiting a higher concentration of particles close to its front. This is a common and yet unexplained phenomenon, which is usually believed to be the result of fluid convection in combination with particle size segregation. However, suspensions composed of uniformly sized particles also develop a granular front. Within a large rotating drum, a stationary recirculating avalanche is generated. The flowing material is a mixture of a viscoplastic fluid obtained from a kaolin-water dispersion with spherical ceramic particles denser than the fluid. The goal is to mimic the composition of many common granular-fluid materials, such as fresh concrete or debris flow. In these materials, granular and fluid phases have the natural tendency to separate due to particle settling. However, through the shearing caused by the rotation of the drum, a reorganization of the phases is induced, leading to the formation of a granular front. By tuning the particle concentration and the drum velocity, it is possible to control this phenomenon. The setting is reproduced in a numerical environment, where the fluid is solved by a lattice-Boltzmann method, and the particles are explicitly represented using the discrete element method. The simulations confirm the findings of the experiments, and provide insight into the internal mechanisms. Comparing the time scale of particle settling with the one of particle recirculation, a nondimensional number is defined, and is found to be effective in predicting the formation of a granular front.

Granular-front formation in free-surface flow of concentrated suspensions.

PubMed

Leonardi, Alessandro; Cabrera, Miguel; Wittel, Falk K; Kaitna, Roland; Mendoza, Miller; Wu, Wei; Herrmann, Hans J

2015-11-01

A granular front emerges whenever the free-surface flow of a concentrated suspension spontaneously alters its internal structure, exhibiting a higher concentration of particles close to its front. This is a common and yet unexplained phenomenon, which is usually believed to be the result of fluid convection in combination with particle size segregation. However, suspensions composed of uniformly sized particles also develop a granular front. Within a large rotating drum, a stationary recirculating avalanche is generated. The flowing material is a mixture of a viscoplastic fluid obtained from a kaolin-water dispersion with spherical ceramic particles denser than the fluid. The goal is to mimic the composition of many common granular-fluid materials, such as fresh concrete or debris flow. In these materials, granular and fluid phases have the natural tendency to separate due to particle settling. However, through the shearing caused by the rotation of the drum, a reorganization of the phases is induced, leading to the formation of a granular front. By tuning the particle concentration and the drum velocity, it is possible to control this phenomenon. The setting is reproduced in a numerical environment, where the fluid is solved by a lattice-Boltzmann method, and the particles are explicitly represented using the discrete element method. The simulations confirm the findings of the experiments, and provide insight into the internal mechanisms. Comparing the time scale of particle settling with the one of particle recirculation, a nondimensional number is defined, and is found to be effective in predicting the formation of a granular front.

Phase transitions in shocked porous quartz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akin, M. C.; Crum, R. S.; Lind, J.; Pagan, D. C.; Homel, M. A.; Hurley, R. C.; Herbold, E. B.

2017-06-01

The presence of porosity in granular media provides the means to probe regions of the phase diagram that do not coincide with the principal Hugoniot. In particular, the potential for increased heating is likely to lead to observable changes in phase boundaries. 55% dense quartz and forsterite were prepared by tap filling. These samples were shock compressed using the two stage light gas gun at DCS-APS to examine the impact of the increased porosity on the phase boundary. Here we discuss the observed changes to phase in quartz and forsterite compared to the fully dense materials, the effects of porosity upon compaction and phase transitions, and the implications for constructing the phase diagram. This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Work was supported by LLNL's LDRD program under Grant 16-ERD-010. The Dynamic Compression Sector (35) is supported by Department of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0002442. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Contribution of Surface Chemistry to the Shear Thickening of Silica Nanoparticle Suspensions.

PubMed

Yang, Wufang; Wu, Yang; Pei, Xiaowei; Zhou, Feng; Xue, Qunji

2017-01-31

Shear thickening is a general process crucial for many processed products ranging from food and personal care to pharmaceuticals. Theoretical calculations and mathematical simulations of hydrodynamic interactions and granular-like contacts have proved that contact forces between suspended particles dominate the rheological characteristic of colloidal suspensions. However, relevant experimental studies are very rare. This study was conducted to reveal the influence of nanoparticle (NP) interactions on the rheological behavior of shear-thickening fluids (STFs) by changing the colloidal surface chemistries. Silica NPs with various surface chemical compositions are fabricated and used to prepare dense suspensions. Rheological experiments are conducted to determine the influence of NP interactions on corresponding dense suspension systems. The results suggest that the surface chemistries of silica NPs determine the rheological behavior of dense suspensions, including shear-thickening behavior, onset stress, critical volume fraction, and jamming volume fraction. This study provides useful reference for designing effective STFs and regulating their characteristics.

Granular Formation during Apoptosis in Blastocystis sp. Exposed to Metronidazole (MTZ)

PubMed Central

Suresh, Kumar; Tan, Tian Chye

2016-01-01

The role and function of the granular life cycle stage in Blastocystis sp, remains uncertain despite suggestions being made that the granules are metabolic, reproductive and lipid in nature. This present study aims to understand granular formation by triggering apoptosis in Blastocystis sp. by treating them with metronidazole (MTZ). Blastocystis sp.cultures of 4 sub-types namely 1, 2, 3 and 5 when treated with 0.01 and 0.0001 mg/ml of metronidazole (MTZ) respectively showed many of the parasites to be both viable and apoptotic (VA). Treated subtype 3 isolates exhibited the highest number of granular forms i.e. 88% (p<0.001) (0.0001 mg/ml) and 69% (p<0.01) (0.01 mg/ml) respectively at the 72 h in in vitro culture compared to other subtypes. These VA forms showed distinct granules using acridine orange (AO) and 4’,6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining with a mean per cell ranging from 5 in ST 5 to as high as 16 in ST 3. These forms showed intact mitochondria in both viable apoptotic (VA) and viable non-apoptotic (VNA) cells with a pattern of accumulation of lipid droplets corresponding to viable cells. Granular VA forms looked ultra-structurally different with prominent presence of mitochondria-like organelle (MLO) and a changed mitochondrial trans-membrane potential with thicker membrane and a highly convoluted inner membrane than the less dense non-viable apoptotic (NVA) cells. This suggests that granular formation during apoptosis is a self-regulatory mechanism to produce higher number of viable cells in response to treatment. This study directs the need to search novel chemotherapeutic approaches by incorporating these findings when developing drugs against the emerging Blastocystis sp. infections. PMID:27471855

Insights on landscape dynamics from tiny spheres in oil, or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the lab

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jerolmack, D. J.; Durian, D. J.; Ferdowsi, B.; Houssais, M.; Ortiz, C. P.

2016-12-01

As in most of Earth science, there is a tension in the design of sediment transport experiments between simplicity and the ability to isolate variables, and realism so that results maybe extrapolated to the field. This leads to tradeoffs in data acquisition, as "simple" experiments may be designed around the goal of maximizing observation of fundamental dynamics, while the dynamics of "realistic" experiments are typically more opaque. Here we present results from a series of "simple" sediment transport experiments involving a laminar shear flow over spherical plastic grains, where refractive-index matched scanning techniques are used to perform tomographic imaging of the sediment bed. This setup allows us to measure particle velocities over seven orders of magnitude - encompassing much of the range of natural flows from creeping soil to suspended load - and these measurements reveal new phenomena relevant for geomorphology and granular physics. We show that the onset of sediment transport is actually a continuous transition from creeping to bed load, and that sub-threshold creep in this laboratory "river" is similar to creep observed on hillslopes and in glassy materials. We also show that the transition from bed load to suspension can be modeled as a continuous transition from a dense to dilute granular flow, uniting sediment transport with granular rheology. We then perform experiments with bi-modal grains, which undergo granular segregation that delivers coarse grains from the subsurface to the surface. This results in armoring that is entirely consistent with observations of more realistic systems, but by a completely different mechanism from surface-transport based theories. Although these phenomena may likely be quantitatively or even qualitatively different in natural settings, they cannot be dismissed out of hand because experiments are "too simple". Indeed, most of our findings can be mapped to observations from more complicated experiments and also field studies. By embracing the control and resolution afforded by "simple" experiments, we allow the possibility to both determine the mechanistic underpinnings of transport, and to reveal fundamentally new dynamics that may change our perspective on how landscapes work.

Kinematic Model of Transient Shape-Induced Anisotropy in Dense Granular Flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nadler, B.; Guillard, F.; Einav, I.

2018-05-01

Nonspherical particles are ubiquitous in nature and industry, yet previous theoretical models of granular media are mostly limited to systems of spherical particles. The problem is that in systems of nonspherical anisotropic particles, dynamic particle alignment critically affects their mechanical response. To study the tendency of such particles to align, we propose a simple kinematic model that relates the flow to the evolution of particle alignment with respect to each other. The validity of the proposed model is supported by comparison with particle-based simulations for various particle shapes ranging from elongated rice-like (prolate) to flattened lentil-like (oblate) particles. The model shows good agreement with the simulations for both steady-state and transient responses, and advances the development of comprehensive constitutive models for shape-anisotropic particles.

Influence of granulometry in the Hurst exponent of air liquid interfaces formed during capillary rising in a granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gontijo, Guilherme L.; Souza, Flávia B.; Braga, Rafael M. L.; Silva, Pedro H. E.; Correia, Maury D.; Atman, A. P. F.

2017-06-01

We report results concerning the fractal dimension of a air/fluid interface formed during the capillary rising of a fluid into a dense granular media. The system consists in a modified Hele-Shaw cell filled with grains at different granulometries and confined in a narrow gap between the glass plates. The system is then placed onto a water reservoir, and the liquid penetrates the medium due to capillary forces. We measure the Hurst exponent of the liquid/air interface with help of image processing, and follow the temporal evolution of the profiles. We observe that the Hurst exponent can be related with the granulometry, but the range of values are odd to the predicted values from models or theory.

Viscoinertial regime of immersed granular flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amarsid, L.; Delenne, J.-Y.; Mutabaruka, P.; Monerie, Y.; Perales, F.; Radjai, F.

2017-07-01

By means of extensive coupled molecular dynamics-lattice Boltzmann simulations, accounting for grain dynamics and subparticle resolution of the fluid phase, we analyze steady inertial granular flows sheared by a viscous fluid. We show that, for a broad range of system parameters (shear rate, confining stress, fluid viscosity, and relative fluid-grain density), the frictional strength and packing fraction can be described by a modified inertial number incorporating the fluid effect. In a dual viscous description, the effective viscosity diverges as the inverse square of the difference between the packing fraction and its jamming value, as observed in experiments. We also find that the fabric and force anisotropies extracted from the contact network are well described by the modified inertial number, thus providing clear evidence for the role of these key structural parameters in dense suspensions.

Shear-induced crystallization of a dense rapid granular flow: hydrodynamics beyond the melting point.

PubMed

Khain, Evgeniy; Meerson, Baruch

2006-06-01

We investigate shear-induced crystallization in a very dense flow of monodisperse inelastic hard spheres. We consider a steady plane Couette flow under constant pressure and neglect gravity. We assume that the granular density is greater than the melting point of the equilibrium phase diagram of elastic hard spheres. We employ a Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics with constitutive relations all of which (except the shear viscosity) diverge at the crystal-packing density, while the shear viscosity diverges at a smaller density. The phase diagram of the steady flow is described by three parameters: an effective Mach number, a scaled energy loss parameter, and an integer number m: the number of half-oscillations in a mechanical analogy that appears in this problem. In a steady shear flow the viscous heating is balanced by energy dissipation via inelastic collisions. This balance can have different forms, producing either a uniform shear flow or a variety of more complicated, nonlinear density, velocity, and temperature profiles. In particular, the model predicts a variety of multilayer two-phase steady shear flows with sharp interphase boundaries. Such a flow may include a few zero-shear (solidlike) layers, each of which moving as a whole, separated by fluidlike regions. As we are dealing with a hard sphere model, the granulate is fluidized within the "solid" layers: the granular temperature is nonzero there, and there is energy flow through the boundaries of the solid layers. A linear stability analysis of the uniform steady shear flow is performed, and a plausible bifurcation diagram of the system, for a fixed m, is suggested. The problem of selection of m remains open.

Universal scaling of permeability through the granular-to-continuum transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wadsworth, F. B.; Scheu, B.; Heap, M. J.; Kendrick, J. E.; Vasseur, J.; Lavallée, Y.; Dingwell, D. B.

2015-12-01

Magmas fragment forming a transiently granular material, which can weld back to a fluid-continuum. This process results in dramatic changes in the gas-volume fraction of the material, which impacts the gas permeability. We collate published data for the gas-volume fraction and permeability of volcanic and synthetic materials which have undergone this process to different amounts and note that in all cases there exists a discontinuity in the relationship between these two properties. By discriminating data for which good microstructural information are provided, we use simple scaling arguments to collapse the data in both the still-granular, high gas-volume fraction regime and the fluid-continuum low gas-volume fraction regime such that a universal description can be achieved. We use this to argue for the microstructural meaning of the well-described discontinuity between gas-permeability and gas-volume fraction and to infer the controls on the position of this transition between dominantly granular and dominantly fluid-continuum material descriptions. As a specific application, we consider the transiently granular magma transported through and deposited in fractures in more-coherent magmas, thought to be a primary degassing pathway in high viscosity systems. We propose that our scaling coupled with constitutive laws for densification can provide insights into the longevity of such degassing channels, informing sub-surface pressure modelling at such volcanoes.

The Quantified Characterization Method of the Micro-Macro Contacts of Three-Dimensional Granular Materials on the Basis of Graph Theory.

PubMed

Guan, Yanpeng; Wang, Enzhi; Liu, Xiaoli; Wang, Sijing; Luan, Hebing

2017-08-03

We have attempted a multiscale and quantified characterization method of the contact in three-dimensional granular material made of spherical particles, particularly in cemented granular material. Particle contact is defined as a type of surface contact with voids in its surroundings, rather than a point contact. Macro contact is a particle contact set satisfying the restrictive condition of a two-dimensional manifold with a boundary. On the basis of graph theory, two dual geometrical systems are abstracted from the granular pack. The face and the face set, which satisfies the two-dimensional manifold with a boundary in the solid cell system, are extracted to characterize the particle contact and the macro contact, respectively. This characterization method is utilized to improve the post-processing in DEM (Discrete Element Method) from a micro perspective to describe the macro effect of the cemented granular material made of spherical particles. Since the crack has the same shape as its corresponding contact, this method is adopted to characterize the crack and realize its visualization. The integral failure route of the sample can be determined by a graph theory algorithm. The contact force is assigned to the weight value of the face characterizing the particle contact. Since the force vectors can be added, the macro contact force can be solved by adding the weight of its corresponding faces.

Dilatant shear bands in solidifying metals.

PubMed

Gourlay, C M; Dahle, A K

2007-01-04

Compacted granular materials expand in response to shear, and can exhibit different behaviour from that of the solids, liquids and gases of which they are composed. Application of the physics of granular materials has increased the understanding of avalanches, geological faults, flow in hoppers and silos, and soil mechanics. During the equiaxed solidification of metallic alloys, there exists a range of solid fractions where the microstructure consists of a geometrically crowded disordered assembly of crystals saturated with liquid. It is therefore natural to ask if such a microstructure deforms as a granular material and what relevance this might have to solidification processing. Here we show that partially solidified alloys can exhibit the characteristics of a cohesionless granular material, including Reynolds' dilatancy and strain localization in dilatant shear bands 7-18 mean crystals wide. We show that this behaviour is important in defect formation during high pressure die casting of Al and Mg alloys, a global industry that contributes over $7.3 billion to the USA's economy alone and is used in the manufacture of products that include mobile-phone covers and steering wheels. More broadly, these findings highlight the potential to apply the principles and modelling approaches developed in granular mechanics to the field of solidification processing, and also indicate the possible benefits that might be gained from exploring and exploiting further synergies between these fields.

Ultrafine-grained mineralogy and matrix chemistry of olivine-rich chondritic interplanetary dust particles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rietmeijer, F. J. M.

1989-01-01

Olivine-rich chondritic interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are an important subset of fluffy chondritic IDPs collected in the earth's stratosphere. Particles in this subset are characterized by a matrix of nonporous, ultrafine-grained granular units. Euhedral single crystals, crystals fragments, and platey single crystals occur dispersed in the matrix. Analytical electron microscopy of granular units reveals predominant magnesium-rich olivines and FeNi-sulfides embedded in amorphous carbonaceous matrix material. The variable ratio of ultrafine-grained minerals vs. carbonaceous matrix material in granular units support variable C/Si ratios, and some fraction of sulfur is associated with carbonaceous matrix material. The high Mg/(Mg+Fe) ratios in granular units is similar to this distribution in P/Comet Halley dust. The chondritic composition of fine-grained, polycrystalline IDPs gradually breaks down into nonchondritic, and ultimately, single mineral compositions as a function of decreased particle mass. The relationship between particle mass and composition in the matrix of olivine-rich chondritic IDPs is comparable with the relationship inferred for P/Comet Halley dust.

Thermal Properties of Consolidated Granular Salt as a Backfill Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paneru, Laxmi P.; Bauer, Stephen J.; Stormont, John C.

2018-03-01

Granular salt has been proposed as backfill material in drifts and shafts of a nuclear waste disposal facility where it will serve to conduct heat away from the waste to the host rock. Creep closure of excavations in rock salt will consolidate (reduce the porosity of) the granular salt. This study involved measuring the thermal conductivity and specific heat of granular salt as a function of porosity and temperature to aid in understanding how thermal properties will change during granular salt consolidation accomplished at pressures and temperatures consistent with a nuclear waste disposal facility. Thermal properties of samples from laboratory-consolidated granular salt and in situ consolidated granular salt were measured using a transient plane source method at temperatures ranging from 50 to 250 °C. Additional measurements were taken on a single crystal of halite and dilated polycrystalline rock salt. Thermal conductivity of granular salt decreased with increases in temperature and porosity. Specific heat of granular salt at lower temperatures decreased with increasing porosity. At higher temperatures, porosity dependence was not apparent. The thermal conductivity and specific heat data were fit to empirical models and compared with results presented in the literature. At comparable densities, the thermal conductivities of granular salt samples consolidated hydrostatically in this study were greater than those measured previously on samples formed by quasi-static pressing. Petrographic studies of the consolidated salt indicate that the consolidation method influenced the nature of the porosity; these observations are used to explain the variation of measured thermal conductivities between the two consolidation methods. Thermal conductivity of dilated polycrystalline salt was lower than consolidated salt at comparable porosities. The pervasive crack network along grain boundaries in dilated salt impedes heat flow and results in a lower thermal conductivity compared to hydrostatically consolidated salt.

Negative permittivity and permeability spectra of Cu/yttrium iron garnet hybrid granular composite materials in the microwave frequency range

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tsutaoka, Takanori, E-mail: tsutaok@hiroshima-u.ac.jp; Fukuyama, Koki; Kinoshita, Hideaki

2013-12-23

The relative complex permittivity and permeability spectra of the coagulated copper and yttrium iron garnet (Cu/YIG) hybrid granular composite materials have been studied in the microwave range. The insulator to metal transition was observed at the percolation threshold of Cu particle content (φ{sub Cu} = 16.0 vol. %) in the electrical conductivity. In the percolation threshold, the low frequency plasmonic state caused by the metallic Cu particle networks was observed. The percolated Cu/YIG granular composites show simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability spectra under external magnetic fields.

Sound-absorbing slabs and structures based on granular materials (bound and unbound). [energy absorbing efficiency of porous material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petre-Lazar, S.; Popeea, G.

1974-01-01

Sound absorbing slabs and structures made up of bound or unbound granular materials are considered and how to manufacture these elements at the building site. The raw material is a single grain powder (sand, expanded blast furnace slag, etc.) that imparts to the end products an apparent porosity of 25-45% and an energy dissipation within the structure leading to absorption coefficients that can be compared with those of mineral wool and urethane.

Analysis of granular flow in a pebble-bed nuclear reactor.

PubMed

Rycroft, Chris H; Grest, Gary S; Landry, James W; Bazant, Martin Z

2006-08-01

Pebble-bed nuclear reactor technology, which is currently being revived around the world, raises fundamental questions about dense granular flow in silos. A typical reactor core is composed of graphite fuel pebbles, which drain very slowly in a continuous refueling process. Pebble flow is poorly understood and not easily accessible to experiments, and yet it has a major impact on reactor physics. To address this problem, we perform full-scale, discrete-element simulations in realistic geometries, with up to 440,000 frictional, viscoelastic 6-cm-diam spheres draining in a cylindrical vessel of diameter 3.5m and height 10 m with bottom funnels angled at 30 degrees or 60 degrees. We also simulate a bidisperse core with a dynamic central column of smaller graphite moderator pebbles and show that little mixing occurs down to a 1:2 diameter ratio. We analyze the mean velocity, diffusion and mixing, local ordering and porosity (from Voronoi volumes), the residence-time distribution, and the effects of wall friction and discuss implications for reactor design and the basic physics of granular flow.

Response to perturbations for granular flow in a hopper

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wambaugh, John F.; Behringer, Robert P.; Matthews, John V.; Gremaud, Pierre A.

2007-11-01

We experimentally investigate the response to perturbations of circular symmetry for dense granular flow inside a three-dimensional right-conical hopper. These experiments consist of particle tracking velocimetry for the flow at the outer boundary of the hopper. We are able to test commonly used constitutive relations and observe granular flow phenomena that we can model numerically. Unperturbed conical hopper flow has been described as a radial velocity field with no azimuthal component. Guided by numerical models based upon continuum descriptions, we find experimental evidence for secondary, azimuthal circulation in response to perturbation of the symmetry with respect to gravity by tilting. For small perturbations we can discriminate between constitutive relations, based upon the agreement between the numerical predictions they produce and our experimental results. We find that the secondary circulation can be suppressed as wall friction is varied, also in agreement with numerical predictions. For large tilt angles we observe the abrupt onset of circulation for parameters where circulation was previously suppressed. Finally, we observe that for large tilt angles the fluctuations in velocity grow, independent of the onset of circulation.

Performance and microbial community structure of a polar Arctic Circle aerobic granular sludge system operating at low temperature.

PubMed

Gonzalez-Martinez, Alejandro; Muñoz-Palazon, Barbara; Maza-Márquez, Paula; Rodriguez-Sanchez, Alejandro; Gonzalez-Lopez, Jesus; Vahala, Riku

2018-05-01

The aim of this work was to study the performance and microbial community structure of a polar Arctic Circle aerobic granular sludge (AGS) system operating at low temperature. Thus, an AGS bioreactor was operated at 7, 5 and 3 °C of temperature using a cold-adapted sludge from Lapland. At 5 °C, it yielded acceptable conversion rates, in terms of nitrogen, phosphorous, and organic matter. However, under 3 °C a negligible nitrogen and phosphorous removal performance was observed. Below 5 °C, scanning electron microscopy studies showed a wispy, non-dense and irregular granular structure with a strong outgrowth of filamentous. Moreover, Illumina next-generation sequencing showed a heterogeneous microbial population where SM1K20 (Archaea), Trichosporon domesticum (Fungus), and Zooglea, Arcobacter and Acinetobacter (Bacteria) were the dominant phylotypes. Our study suggests that AGS technologies inoculated with North Pole sludge could be operated, in cold regions for a period longer than 3 months (winter season) under 5 °C of water temperature. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rheology of granular materials composed of crushable particles.

PubMed

Nguyen, Duc-Hanh; Azéma, Émilien; Sornay, Philippe; Radjaï, Farhang

2018-04-11

We investigate sheared granular materials composed of crushable particles by means of contact dynamics simulations and the bonded-cell model for particle breakage. Each particle is paved by irregular cells interacting via cohesive forces. In each simulation, the ratio of the internal cohesion of particles to the confining pressure, the relative cohesion, is kept constant and the packing is subjected to biaxial shearing. The particles can break into two or more fragments when the internal cohesive forces are overcome by the action of compressive force chains between particles. The particle size distribution evolves during shear as the particles continue to break. We find that the breakage process is highly inhomogeneous both in the fragment sizes and their locations inside the packing. In particular, a number of large particles never break whereas a large number of particles are fully shattered. As a result, the packing keeps the memory of its initial particle size distribution, whereas a power-law distribution is observed for particles of intermediate size due to consecutive fragmentation events whereby the memory of the initial state is lost. Due to growing polydispersity, dense shear bands are formed inside the packings and the usual dilatant behavior is reduced or cancelled. Hence, the stress-strain curve no longer passes through a peak stress, and a progressive monotonic evolution towards a pseudo-steady state is observed instead. We find that the crushing rate is controlled by the confining pressure. We also show that the shear strength of the packing is well expressed in terms of contact anisotropies and force anisotropies. The force anisotropy increases while the contact orientation anisotropy declines for increasing internal cohesion of the particles. These two effects compensate each other so that the shear strength is nearly independent of the internal cohesion of particles.

A Simple Method for Determination of the Density of Granular Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsutsumanova, G. G.; Kirilov, K. M.; Russev, S. C.

2012-01-01

A simple experiment using low cost equipment for the determination of the density of granular materials, without immersing them in a liquid, is presented. It is based only on the ideal gas state equation, so it is a good experimental task for undergraduate and high school students. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

DEM study on the interaction between wet cohesive granular materials and tools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsuji, Takuya; Matsui, Yu; Nakagawa, Yuta; Kadono, Yuuichi; Tanaka, Toshitsugu

2013-06-01

A model based on discrete element method has been developed for the interaction between wet cohesive granular materials and mechanical tools with complex geometry. To obtain realistic results, the motion of 52.5 million particles has been simulated and the formation of multiple shear bands during an excavation process by a bulldozer blade was observed.

Submicron and Nanoparticulate Matter Removal by HEPA-Rated Media Filters and Packed Beds of Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perry, J. L.; Agui, J. H.; Vijayakimar, R

2016-01-01

Contaminants generated aboard crewed spacecraft by diverse sources consist of both gaseous chemical contaminants and particulate matter. Both HEPA media filters and packed beds of granular material, such as activated carbon, which are both commonly employed for cabin atmosphere purification purposes have efficacy for removing nanoparticulate contaminants from the cabin atmosphere. The phenomena associated with particulate matter removal by HEPA media filters and packed beds of granular material are reviewed relative to their efficacy for removing fine (less than 2.5 micrometers) and ultrafine (less than 0.01 micrometers) sized particulate matter. Considerations are discussed for using these methods in an appropriate configuration to provide the most effective performance for a broad range of particle sizes including nanoparticulates.

Wet granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitarai, Namiko; Nori, Franco

2006-04-01

Most studies on granular physics have focused on dry granular media, with no liquids between the grains. However, in geology and many real world applications (e.g. food processing, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, civil engineering, construction, and many industrial applications), liquid is present between the grains. This produces inter-grain cohesion and drastically modifies the mechanical properties of the granular media (e.g. the surface angle can be larger than 90 degrees). Here we present a review of the mechanical properties of wet granular media, with particular emphasis on the effect of cohesion. We also list several open problems that might motivate future studies in this exciting but mostly unexplored field.

Compaction of granular materials composed of deformable particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Thanh Hai; Nezamabadi, Saeid; Delenne, Jean-Yves; Radjai, Farhang

2017-06-01

In soft particle materials such as metallic powders the particles can undergo large deformations without rupture. The large elastic or plastic deformations of the particles are expected to strongly affect the mechanical properties of these materials compared to hard particle materials more often considered in research on granular materials. Herein, two numerical approaches are proposed for the simulation of soft granular systems: (i) an implicit formulation of the Material Point Method (MPM) combined with the Contact Dynamics (CD) method to deal with contact interactions, and (i) Bonded Particle Model (BPM), in which each deformable particle is modeled as an aggregate of rigid primary particles using the CD method. These two approaches allow us to simulate the compaction of an assembly of elastic or plastic particles. By analyzing the uniaxial compaction of 2D soft particle packings, we investigate the effects of particle shape change on the stress-strain relationship and volume change behavior as well as the evolution of the microstructure.

Parallel Program Systems for the Analysis of Wave Processes in Elastic-Plastic, Granular, Porous and Multi-Blocky Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadovskaya, Oxana; Sadovskii, Vladimir

2017-04-01

Under modeling the wave propagation processes in geomaterials (granular and porous media, soils and rocks) it is necessary to take into account the structural inhomogeneity of these materials. Parallel program systems for numerical solution of 2D and 3D problems of the dynamics of deformable media with constitutive relationships of rather general form on the basis of universal mathematical model describing small strains of elastic, elastic-plastic, granular and porous materials are worked out. In the case of an elastic material, the model is reduced to the system of equations, hyperbolic by Friedrichs, written in terms of velocities and stresses in a symmetric form. In the case of an elastic-plastic material, the model is a special formulation of the Prandtl-Reuss theory in the form of variational inequality with one-sided constraints on the stress tensor. Generalization of the model to describe granularity and the collapse of pores is obtained by means of the rheological approach, taking into account different resistance of materials to tension and compression. Rotational motion of particles in the material microstructure is considered within the framework of a mathematical model of the Cosserat continuum. Computational domain may have a blocky structure, composed of an arbitrary number of layers, strips in a layer and blocks in a strip from different materials with self-consistent curvilinear interfaces. At the external boundaries of computational domain the main types of dissipative boundary conditions in terms of velocities, stresses or mixed boundary conditions can be given. Shock-capturing algorithm is proposed for implementation of the model on supercomputers with cluster architecture. It is based on the two-cyclic splitting method with respect to spatial variables and the special procedures of the stresses correction to take into account plasticity, granularity or porosity of a material. An explicit monotone ENO-scheme is applied for solving one-dimensional systems of equations at the stages of splitting method. The parallelizing of computations is carried out using the MPI library and the SPMD technology. The data exchange between processors occurs at step "predictor" of the finite-difference scheme. Program systems allow simulate the propagation of waves produced by external mechanical effects in a medium, aggregated of arbitrary number of heterogeneous blocks. Some computations of dynamic problems with and without taking into account the moment properties of a material were performed on clusters of ICM SB RAS (Krasnoyarsk) and JSCC RAS (Moscow). Parallel program systems 2Dyn_Granular, 3Dyn_Granular, 2Dyn_Cosserat, 3Dyn_Cosserat and 2Dyn_Blocks_MPI for numerical solution of 2D and 3D elastic-plastic problems of the dynamics of granular media and problems of the Cosserat elasticity theory, as well as for modeling of the dynamic processes in multi-blocky media with pliant viscoelastic, porous and fluid-saturated interlayers on cluster systems were registered by Rospatent.

Planning for the Collection and Analysis of Samples of Martian Granular Materials Potentially to be Returned by Mars Sample Return

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrier, B. L.; Beaty, D. W.

2017-12-01

NASA's Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to land on Mars in 2021 and will be equipped with a sampling system capable of collecting rock cores, as well as a specialized drill bit for collecting unconsolidated granular material. A key mission objective is to collect a set of samples that have enough scientific merit to justify returning to Earth. In the case of granular materials, we would like to catalyze community discussion on what we would do with these samples if they arrived in our laboratories, as input to decision-making related to sampling the regolith. Numerous scientific objectives have been identified which could be achieved or significantly advanced via the analysis of martian rocks, "regolith," and gas samples. The term "regolith" has more than one definition, including one that is general and one that is much more specific. For the purpose of this analysis we use the term "granular materials" to encompass the most general meaning and restrict "regolith" to a subset of that. Our working taxonomy includes the following: 1) globally sourced airfall dust (dust); 2) saltation-sized particles (sand); 3) locally sourced decomposed rock (regolith); 4) crater ejecta (ejecta); and, 5) other. Analysis of martian granular materials could serve to advance our understanding areas including habitability and astrobiology, surface-atmosphere interactions, chemistry, mineralogy, geology and environmental processes. Results of these analyses would also provide input into planning for future human exploration of Mars, elucidating possible health and mechanical hazards caused by the martian surface material, as well as providing valuable information regarding available resources for ISRU and civil engineering purposes. Results would also be relevant to matters of planetary protection and ground-truthing orbital observations. We will present a preliminary analysis of the following, in order to generate community discussion and feedback on all issues relating to: What are the specific reasons (and their priorities) for collecting samples of granular materials? How do those reasons translate to sampling priorities? In what condition would these samples be expected to be received? What is our best projection of the approach by which these samples would be divided, prepared, and analyzed to achieve our objectives?

Investigation of sub-slab pressure field extension in specified granular fill materials incorporating a sump-based soil depressurisation system for radon mitigation.

PubMed

Hung, Le Chi; Goggins, Jamie; Fuente, Marta; Foley, Mark

2018-05-14

Design of bearing layers (granular fill material layers) is important for a house with a soil depressurisation (SD) system for indoor radon mitigation. These layers should not only satisfy the bearing capacity and serviceability criteria but should also provide a sufficient degree of the air permeability for the system. Previous studies have shown that a critical parameter for a SD system is the sub-slab pressure field extension in the bearing layers, but this issue has not been systematically investigated. A series of two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic simulations that investigate the behaviour of the sub-slab pressure field extension developed in a SD system is presented in this paper. The SD system considered in this paper consists of a granular fill material layer and a radon sump. The granular fill materials are 'T1 Struc' and 'T2 Perm', which are standard materials for building in the Republic of Ireland. Different conditions, which might be encountered in a practical situation, were examined. The results show that the air permeability and thickness of the granular fill materials are the two key factors which affect the sub slab pressure field extension (SPFE) significantly. Furthermore, the air permeability of native soil is found to be a fundamental factor for the SPFE so that it should be well understood when designing a SD system. Therefore, these factors should be considered sufficiently in each practical situation. Finally, a significant improvement of the pressure field extension can be achieved by ensuring air tightness of the SD system. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Four-way coupling of a three-dimensional debris flow solver to a Lagrangian Particle Simulation: method and first results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

von Boetticher, Albrecht; Rickenmann, Dieter; McArdell, Brian; Kirchner, James W.

2017-04-01

Debris flows are dense flowing mixtures of water, clay, silt, sand and coarser particles. They are a common natural hazard in mountain regions and frequently cause severe damage. Modeling debris flows to design protection measures is still challenging due to the complex interactions within the inhomogeneous material mixture, and the sensitivity of the flow process to the channel geometry. The open-source, OpenFOAM-based finite-volume debris flow model debrisInterMixing (von Boetticher et al, 2016) defines rheology parameters based on the material properties of the debris flow mixture to reduce the number of free model parameters. As a simplification in this first model version, gravel was treated as a Coulomb-viscoplastic fluid, neglecting grain-to-grain collisions and the coupling between the coarser gravel grains and the interstitial fluid. Here we present an extension of that solver, accounting for the particle-to-particle and particle-to-boundary contacts with a Lagrangian Particle Simulation composed of spherical grains and a user-defined grain size distribution. The grain collisions of the Lagrangian particles add granular flow behavior to the finite-volume simulation of the continuous phases. The two-way coupling exchanges momentum between the phase-averaged flow in a finite volume cell, and among all individual particles contained in that cell, allowing the user to choose from a number of different drag models. The momentum exchange is implemented in the momentum equation and in the pressure equation (ensuring continuity) of the so-called PISO-loop, resulting in a stable 4-way coupling (particle-to-particle, particle-to-boundary, particle-to-fluid and fluid-to-particle) that represents the granular and viscous flow behavior of debris flow material. We will present simulations that illustrate the relative benefits and drawbacks of explicitly representing grain collisions, compared to the original debrisInterMixing solver.

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Test Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is tested for long-term storage with water in the system as plarned for STS-107. This view shows the compressed sand column with the protective water jacket removed. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

One of three Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) test cells after flight on STS-79 and before impregnation with resin. Note that the sand column has bulged in the middle, and that the top of the column is several inches lower than the top of the plastic enclosure. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Test Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is tested for long-term storage with water in the system as plarned for STS-107. This view shows the top of the sand column with the metal platten removed. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Simulation of cemented granular materials. II. Micromechanical description and strength mobilization at the onset of macroscopic yielding.

PubMed

Estrada, Nicolas; Lizcano, Arcesio; Taboada, Alfredo

2010-07-01

This is the second of two papers investigating the mechanical response of cemented granular materials by means of contact dynamics simulations. In this paper, a two-dimensional polydisperse sample with high void ratio is sheared in a load-controlled simple shear numerical device until the stress state of the sample reaches the yield stress. We first study the stress transmission properties of the granular material in terms of the fabric of different subsets of contacts characterized by the magnitude of their normal forces. This analysis highlights the existence of a peculiar force carrying structure in the cemented material, which is reminiscent of the bimodal stress transmission reported for cohesionless granular media. Then, the evolution of contact forces and torques is investigated trying to identify the micromechanical conditions that trigger macroscopic yielding. It is shown that global failure can be associated to the apparition of a group of particles whose contacts fulfill at least one of the local rupture conditions. In particular, these particles form a large region that percolates through the sample at the moment of failure, evidencing the relationship between macroscopic yielding and the emergence of large-scale correlations in the system.

Effects of fabric anisotropy on elastic shear modulus of granular soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bo; Zeng, Xiangwu

2014-06-01

The fabric anisotropy of a granular soil deposit can strongly influence its engineering properties and behavior. This paper presents the results of a novel experimental study designed to examine the effects of fabric anisotropy on smallstrain stiffness and its evolution with loading on the elastic shear modulus of granular materials under a K 0 condition. Two primary categories of fabric anisotropy, i.e., deposition-induced and particle shape-induced, are investigated. Toyoura sand deposits with relative densities of 40% and 80% were prepared using deposition angles oriented at 0° and 90°. Piezoelectric transducers were used to obtain the elastic shear modulus in the vertical and horizontal directions ( G vh and G hh). The measurements indicate distinct differences in the values of G with respect to the different deposition angles. Particle shapeinduced fabric anisotropy was examined using four selected sands. It was concluded that sphericity is a controlling factor dominating the small-strain stiffness of granular materials. The degree of fabric anisotropy proves to be a good indicatorin the characterization of stress-induced fabric evolution during loading and unloading stress cycles. The experimental data were used to calibrate an existing micromechanical model, which was able to represent the behavior of the granular material and the degree of fabric anisotropy reasonably well.

Apparatus and methods for filtering granular solid material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Backes, Douglas J. (Inventor); Poulter, Clay B. (Inventor); Godfrey, Max R. (Inventor); Tolman, Dennis K. (Inventor); Dutton, Melinda S. (Inventor)

2011-01-01

Apparatuses for screening granular solid particulate material include a generally planar first screen and a second screen. A plurality of apertures extends through the first screen. At least a portion of the second screen is oriented at an angle to the first screen, and apertures extend through a perforated region of the second screen. The second screen includes at least one region configured to prevent at least some particles of solid material from passing through the second screen.

Noise and diffusion of a vibrated self-propelled granular particle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walsh, Lee; Wagner, Caleb G.; Schlossberg, Sarah; Olson, Christopher; Baskaran, Aparna; Menon, Narayanan

Granular materials are an important physical realization of active matter. In vibration-fluidized granular matter, both diffusion and self-propulsion derive from the same collisional forcing, unlike many other active systems where there is a clean separation between the origin of single-particle mobility and the coupling to noise. Here we present experimental studies of single-particle motion in a vibrated granular monolayer, along with theoretical analysis that compares grain motion at short and long time scales to the assumptions and predictions, respectively, of the active Brownian particle (ABP) model. The results demonstrate that despite the unique relation between noise and propulsion, granular media do show the generic features predicted by the ABP model and indicate that this is a valid framework to predict collective phenomena. Additionally, our scheme of analysis for validating the inputs and outputs of the model can be applied to other granular and non-granular systems.

A Study of SDT in an Ammonium Nitrate (NH4 NO3) Based Granular Explosive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burns, Malcolm; Taylor, Peter

2007-06-01

In order to study the SDT process in a granular non ideal explosive (NIE) an experimental technique has been developed that allows the granular explosive to be shock initiated at a well controlled ``tap density''. The granular NIE was contained in a PMMA cone and a planar shock was delivered to the explosive through buffer plates of varying material. A combination of piezoelectric probes, ionization pins, PVDF stress gauges and a high speed framing camera were used to measure the input shock pressure and shock and detonation wave positions in the explosive. Four trials were performed to characterize the run to detonation distance versus pressure relationship (Pop plot) of the granular NH4 NO3 explosive. Input pressures ranged from close to the 4GPa predicted CJ pressure of the granular explosive down to 1.4 GPa, giving run distances up to 14mm for the lowest pressure. The data indicates a steady acceleration of the input shock to the detonation velocity, implying significant reaction growth at the shock front. This is in contrast to the behaviour of most high density pressed PBXs which show little growth in shock front velocity before transit to detonation. The experimentally observed initiation behaviour is compared to that predicted by a simple JWL++ reactive burn model for the granular NH4 NO3 explosive which has been fitted to other detonics experiments on this material.

Discrete-element simulation of sea-ice mechanics: Contact mechanics and granular jamming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damsgaard, A.; Adcroft, A.; Sergienko, O. V.; Stern, A. A.

2017-12-01

Lagrangian models of sea-ice dynamics offer several advantages to Eulerian continuum methods. Spatial discretization on the ice-floe scale is natural for Lagrangian models, which additionally offer the convenience of being able to handle arbitrary sea-ice concentrations. This is likely to improve model performance in ice-marginal zones with strong advection. Furthermore, phase transitions in granular rheology around the jamming limit, such as observed when sea ice moves through geometric confinements, includes sharp thresholds in effective viscosity which are typically ignored in Eulerian models. Granular jamming is a stochastic process dependent on having the right grains in the right place at the right time, and the jamming likelihood over time can be described by a probabilistic model. Difficult to parameterize in continuum formulations, jamming occurs naturally in dense granular systems simulated in a Lagrangian framework, and is a very relevant process controlling sea-ice transport through narrow straits. We construct a flexible discrete-element framework for simulating Lagrangian sea-ice dynamics at the ice-floe scale, forced by ocean and atmosphere velocity fields. Using this framework, we demonstrate that frictionless contact models based on compressive stiffness alone are unlikely to jam, and describe two different approaches based on friction and tensile strength which both result in increased bulk shear strength of the granular assemblage. The frictionless but cohesive contact model, with certain tensile strength values, can display jamming behavior which on the large scale is very similar to a more complex and realistic model with contact friction and ice-floe rotation.

ELECTROCHEMICAL DEGRADATION OF POLYCHLOROBIPHENYLS

EPA Science Inventory

Granular graphite is an ideal conductive material for electrochemical reduction technology applications in the field. Granular graphite was used to enhance the transfer of chlorinated aliphatic compounds in saturated, low permeability soils by electroosmosis. It was also used to ...

The relevance of stress percolation in polycrystalline solids to the deformation of deep earth materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burnley, P. C.

2013-12-01

One of the fundamental challenges in characterizing the plastic properties of deep earth materials at relevant length and time scales is that some form of extrapolation will always be required. With increasing computational power, single crystal mechanical properties will probably be accessible to first principles calculations in the not too distant future. If the relationship between single crystal and polycrystal mechanical properties were straightforward, with some ground truthing in the lab, the bulk behavior could be confidently extrapolated to experimentally inaccessible conditions. However, we currently lack a satisfactory paradigm to describe the relationship between single crystal and polycrystalline deformation. Existing mechanical models, including self-consistent models cannot predict or account for the spatial variations in the local stress and strain states observed in real-world materials. Full field models can be constructed so as to explicitly include the spatial relationships between crystals and their neighbors, but in their explicitness they lose the ability to generalize. Using finite element (FEM) simulations of a polycrystalline material (Figure 1a), I show that local variations in stress and strain participate in large-scale patterns, that are a function of the heterogeneity and statistical distribution of elastic and plastic properties across the population of mechanical components (grains and grain boundaries) in the material. The patterns of modulation in the local stress tensor are similar to the patterns of stress distribution observed in granular materials - often referred to as force chains. Force chains are caused by percolation of stress through strong contacts between particles in a granular aggregate. The patterns in stress modulation observed in the FEM simulations are caused by stress percolation through the elastically heterogeneous mechanical elements. Greater degrees of heterogeneity lead to more intense stress concentrations across a less dense pattern (Figure 1b). Lower degrees of elastic heterogeneity lead to a denser pattern of stress transmission that carries smaller modulations (Figure1e). Paralleling the development of shear bands in granular materials, the stress patterns lead directly to shear localization even in the absence of strain softening. The recognition of stress percolation provides a foundation for devising models that link single crystal mechanics and local interactions to bulk behavior. Such rheological models should provide a more robust platform for extrapolating to deep earth conditions including spatial and time scales. Figure 1: Panel a) FE model mesh, inset shows an enlarged region. Properties are assigned to each of 25 grain sets (coded by color). Panels b)-e) Equivalent von Mises stress patterns for models in compression. For b) Young's modulus E of grain sets ranges from 500 to 0 GPa with v=0.1 to 0.4, for c) E= 500 to 0 GPa with v=0.3 for d) E= 200 to 20 GPa with v=0.3 and for e) E =120 to 100 GPa with v=0.3. The maximum value of the equivalent stress in b) is 10 times that found in e).

Normal stress differences and beyond-Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alam, Meheboob; Saha, Saikat

2017-06-01

A recently proposed beyond-Navier-Stokes order hydrodynamic theory for dry granular fluids is revisited by focussing on the behaviour of the stress tensor and the scaling of related transport coefficients in the dense limit. For the homogeneous shear flow, it is shown that the eigen-directions of the second-moment tensor and those of the shear tensor become co-axial, thus making the first normal stress difference (N1) to zero in the same limit. In contrast, the origin of the second normal stress difference (N2) is tied to the `excess' temperature along the mean-vorticity direction and the imposed shear field, respectively, in the dilute and dense flows. The scaling relations for transport coefficients are suggested based on the present theory.

Blurring the boundary between rapid granular flow and dense granular flow regimes: Evidence from DEM simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tripathi, Anurag; Prasad, Mahesh; Kumar, Puneet

2017-11-01

The saturation of the effective friction coefficient for granular flows at high inertial numbers has been assumed widely by researchers, despite little simulation/experimental evidence. In contrast, a recent simulation study of plane shear flows by Mandal and Khakhar, suggests that the effective friction coefficient becomes maximum and then starts to decrease with increase in the inertial number for I > 0.5 . In order to investigate whether such a dip at higher inertial numbers is indeed a feature of granular rheology, we perform DEM simulations of chute flow of highly inelastic disks. We show that steady, fully developed flows are possible at inclinations much higher than those normally reported in literature. At such high inclinations, the flow is characterised by a significant slip at the base; the height of the layer increases by more than 300 % and kinetic energy of the layer increases by nearly 5 orders of magnitude. We observe, for the first time, steady chute flows at inertial number I 2 and show that the dip at higher inertial numbers can be observed in case of chute flow as well. The predictions of modified μ - I rheology, however, seem to remain valid in the bulk of the layer for packing fractions as low as 0.2. AT acknowledges the funding obtained from IIT Kanpur through the initiation Grant for this study.

Coupled flow and deformations in granular systems beyond the pendular regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Chao; Chareyre, Bruno; Darve, Felix

2017-06-01

A pore-scale numerical model is proposed for simulating the quasi-static primary drainage and the hydro-mechanical couplings in multiphase granular systems. The solid skeleton is idealized to a dense random packing of polydisperse spheres by DEM. The fluids (nonwetting and wetting phases) space is decomposed to a network of tetrahedral pores based on the Regular Triangulation method. The local drainage rules and invasion logic are defined. The fluid forces acting on solid grains are formulated. The model can simulate the hydraulic evolution from a fully saturated state to a low level of saturation but beyond the pendular regime. The features of wetting phase entrapments and capillary fingering can also be reproduced. Finally, a primary drainage test is performed on a 40,000 spheres of sample. The water retention curve is obtained. The solid skeleton first shrinks then swells.

The automated design of materials far from equilibrium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miskin, Marc Z.

Automated design is emerging as a powerful concept in materials science. By combining computer algorithms, simulations, and experimental data, new techniques are being developed that start with high level functional requirements and identify the ideal materials that achieve them. This represents a radically different picture of how materials become functional in which technological demand drives material discovery, rather than the other way around. At the frontiers of this field, materials systems previously considered too complicated can start to be controlled and understood. Particularly promising are materials far from equilibrium. Material robustness, high strength, self-healing and memory are properties displayed by several materials systems that are intrinsically out of equilibrium. These and other properties could be revolutionary, provided they can first be controlled. This thesis conceptualizes and implements a framework for designing materials that are far from equilibrium. We show how, even in the absence of a complete physical theory, design from the top down is possible and lends itself to producing physical insight. As a prototype system, we work with granular materials: collections of athermal, macroscopic identical objects, since these materials function both as an essential component of industrial processes as well as a model system for many non-equilibrium states of matter. We show that by placing granular materials in the context of design, benefits emerge simultaneously for fundamental and applied interests. As first steps, we use our framework to design granular aggregates with extreme properties like high stiffness, and softness. We demonstrate control over nonlinear effects by producing exotic aggregates that stiffen under compression. Expanding on our framework, we conceptualize new ways of thinking about material design when automatic discovery is possible. We show how to build rules that link particle shapes to arbitrary granular packing density. We examine how the results of a design process are contingent upon operating conditions by studying which shapes dissipate energy fastest in a granular gas. We even move to create optimization algorithms for the expressed purpose of material design, by integrating them with statistical mechanics. In all of these cases, we show that turning to machines puts a fresh perspective on materials far from equilibrium. By matching forms to functions, complexities become possibilities, motifs emerge that describe new physics, and the door opens to rational design.

Spatiotemporally Resolved Acoustics in a Photoelastic Granular Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Owens, Eli; Daniels, Karen

2010-03-01

In granular materials, stress transmission is manifested as force chains that propagate through the material in a branching structure. We send acoustic pulses into a two dimensional photoelastic granular material in which force chains are visible and investigate how the force chains influence the amplitude, speed, and dispersion of the sound waves. We observe particle scale dynamics using two methods, movies which provide spatiotemporally resolved measurements and accelerometers within individual grains. The movies allow us to visualize the sound's path through the material, revealing that the sound travels primarily along the force chains. Using the brightness of the photoelastic particles as a measure of the force chain strength, we observe that the sound travels both faster and at higher amplitude along the strong force chains. An exception to this trend is seen in transient force chains that only exist while the sound is closing particle contacts. We also measure the frequency dependence of the amplitude, speed, and dispersion of the sound wave.

Accretion Dynamics on Wet Granular Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saingier, Guillaume; Sauret, Alban; Jop, Pierre

2017-05-01

Wet granular aggregates are common precursors of construction materials, food, and health care products. The physical mechanisms involved in the mixing of dry grains with a wet substrate are not well understood and difficult to control. Here, we study experimentally the accretion of dry grains on a wet granular substrate by measuring the growth dynamics of the wet aggregate. We show that this aggregate is fully saturated and its cohesion is ensured by the capillary depression at the air-liquid interface. The growth dynamics is controlled by the liquid fraction at the surface of the aggregate and exhibits two regimes. In the viscous regime, the growth dynamics is limited by the capillary-driven flow of liquid through the granular packing to the surface of the aggregate. In the capture regime, the capture probability depends on the availability of the liquid at the saturated interface, which is controlled by the hydrostatic depression in the material. We propose a model that rationalizes our observations and captures both dynamics based on the evolution of the capture probability with the hydrostatic depression.

General scaling relations for locomotion in granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slonaker, James; Motley, D. Carrington; Zhang, Qiong; Townsend, Stephen; Senatore, Carmine; Iagnemma, Karl; Kamrin, Ken

2017-05-01

Inspired by dynamic similarity in fluid systems, we have derived a general dimensionless form for locomotion in granular materials, which is validated in experiments and discrete element method (DEM) simulations. The form instructs how to scale size, mass, and driving parameters in order to relate dynamic behaviors of different locomotors in the same granular media. The scaling can be derived by assuming intrusion forces arise from resistive force theory or equivalently by assuming the granular material behaves as a continuum obeying a frictional yield criterion. The scalings are experimentally confirmed using pairs of wheels of various shapes and sizes under many driving conditions in a common sand bed. We discuss why the two models provide such a robust set of scaling laws even though they neglect a number of the complexities of granular rheology. Motivated by potential extraplanetary applications, the dimensionless form also implies a way to predict wheel performance in one ambient gravity based on tests in a different ambient gravity. We confirm this using DEM simulations, which show that scaling relations are satisfied over an array of driving modes even when gravity differs between scaled tests.

Nonlinear coherent structures in granular crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chong, C.; Porter, Mason A.; Kevrekidis, P. G.; Daraio, C.

2017-10-01

The study of granular crystals, which are nonlinear metamaterials that consist of closely packed arrays of particles that interact elastically, is a vibrant area of research that combines ideas from disciplines such as materials science, nonlinear dynamics, and condensed-matter physics. Granular crystals exploit geometrical nonlinearities in their constitutive microstructure to produce properties (such as tunability and energy localization) that are not conventional to engineering materials and linear devices. In this topical review, we focus on recent experimental, computational, and theoretical results on nonlinear coherent structures in granular crystals. Such structures—which include traveling solitary waves, dispersive shock waves, and discrete breathers—have fascinating dynamics, including a diversity of both transient features and robust, long-lived patterns that emerge from broad classes of initial data. In our review, we primarily discuss phenomena in one-dimensional crystals, as most research to date has focused on such scenarios, but we also present some extensions to two-dimensional settings. Throughout the review, we highlight open problems and discuss a variety of potential engineering applications that arise from the rich dynamic response of granular crystals.

PRODUCTION OF SHEET FROM PARTICULATE MATERIAL

DOEpatents

Blainey, A.

1959-05-12

A process is presented for forming coherent sheet material from particulate material such as granular or powdered metal, granular or powdered oxide, slurries, pastes, and plastic mixes which cohere under pressure. The primary object is to avoid the use of expensive and/ or short lived pressing tools, that is, dies and specially profiled rolls, and so to reduce the cost of the product and to prcvide in a simple manner for the making of the product in a variety of shapes or sizes. The sheet material is formed when the particulate material is laterally confined in a boundary material deformable in all lateral directions under axial pressure and then axially compressing the layer of particulate material together with the boundary material.

A dilation-driven vortex flow in sheared granular materials explains a rheometric anomaly.

PubMed

Krishnaraj, K P; Nott, Prabhu R

2016-02-11

Granular flows occur widely in nature and industry, yet a continuum description that captures their important features is yet not at hand. Recent experiments on granular materials sheared in a cylindrical Couette device revealed a puzzling anomaly, wherein all components of the stress rise nearly exponentially with depth. Here we show, using particle dynamics simulations and imaging experiments, that the stress anomaly arises from a remarkable vortex flow. For the entire range of fill heights explored, we observe a single toroidal vortex that spans the entire Couette cell and whose sense is opposite to the uppermost Taylor vortex in a fluid. We show that the vortex is driven by a combination of shear-induced dilation, a phenomenon that has no analogue in fluids, and gravity flow. Dilatancy is an important feature of granular mechanics, but not adequately incorporated in existing models.

Multiscale Phenomena in the Solid-Liquid Transition State of a Granular Material: Analysis, Modeling and Experimentation

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-11-21

The number of undergraduates funded by your agreement who graduated during this period and will receive scholarships or fellowships for further... geology and engineering – to understand and predict the multiscale behaviour of granular materials. Several pioneering achievements have led to...breakage. Purpose of the Research We have recently established, in close collaboration with experimentalists (from geology , physics

VGLUT2 mRNA and protein expression in the visual thalamus and midbrain of prosimian galagos (Otolemur garnetti).

PubMed

Balaram, Pooja; Takahata, Toru; Kaas, Jon H

2011-03-01

Vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) control the storage and presynaptic release of glutamate in the central nervous system, and are involved in the majority of glutamatergic transmission in the brain. Two VGLUT isoforms, VGLUT1 and VGLUT2, are known to characterize complementary distributions of glutamatergic neurons in the rodent brain, which suggests that they are each responsible for unique circuits of excitatory transmission. In rodents, VGLUT2 is primarily utilized in thalamocortical circuits, and is strongly expressed in the primary sensory nuclei, including all areas of the visual thalamus. The distribution of VGLUT2 in the visual thalamus and midbrain has yet to be characterized in primate species. Thus, the present study describes the expression of VGLUT2 mRNA and protein across the visual thalamus and superior colliculus of prosimian galagos to provide a better understanding of glutamatergic transmission in the primate brain. VGLUT2 is strongly expressed in all six layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, and much less so in the intralaminar zones, which correspond to retinal and superior collicular inputs, respectively. The parvocellular and magnocellular layers expressed VGLUT2 mRNA more densely than the koniocellular layers. A patchy distribution of VGLUT2 positive terminals in the pulvinar complex possibly reflects inputs from the superior colliculus. The upper superficial granular layers of the superior colliculus, with inputs from the retina, most densely expressed VGLUT2 protein, while the lower superficial granular layers, with projections to the pulvinar, most densely expressed VGLUT2 mRNA. The results are consistent with the conclusion that retinal and superior colliculus projections to the thalamus depend highly on the VGLUT2 transporter, as do cortical projections from the magnocellular and parvocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus and neurons of the pulvinar complex.

Note: "Lock-in accelerometry" to follow sink dynamics in shaken granular matter.

PubMed

Sánchez-Colina, G; Alonso-Llanes, L; Martínez, E; Batista-Leyva, A J; Clement, C; Fliedner, C; Toussaint, R; Altshuler, E

2014-12-01

Understanding the penetration dynamics of intruders in granular beds is relevant not only for fundamental physics, but also for geophysical processes and construction on sediments or granular soils in areas potentially affected by earthquakes. While the penetration of intruders in two dimensional (2D) laboratory granular beds can be followed using video recording, this is useless in three dimensional (3D) beds of non-transparent materials such as common sand. Here, we propose a method to quantify the sink dynamics of an intruder into laterally shaken granular beds based on the temporal correlations between the signals from a reference accelerometer fixed to the shaken granular bed, and a probe accelerometer deployed inside the intruder. Due to its analogy with the working principle of a lock-in amplifier, we call this technique lock-in accelerometry.

A characterization of the coupled evolution of grain fabric and pore space using complex networks: Pore connectivity and optimized flows in the presence of shear bands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, Scott; Walker, David M.; Tordesillas, Antoinette

2016-03-01

A framework for the multiscale characterization of the coupled evolution of the solid grain fabric and its associated pore space in dense granular media is developed. In this framework, a pseudo-dual graph transformation of the grain contact network produces a graph of pores which can be readily interpreted as a pore space network. Survivability, a new metric succinctly summarizing the connectivity of the solid grain and pore space networks, measures material robustness. The size distribution and the connectivity of pores can be characterized quantitatively through various network properties. Assortativity characterizes the pore space with respect to the parity of the number of particles enclosing the pore. Multiscale clusters of odd parity versus even parity contact cycles alternate spatially along the shear band: these represent, respectively, local jamming and unjamming regions that continually switch positions in time throughout the failure regime. Optimal paths, established using network shortest paths in favor of large pores, provide clues on preferential paths for interstitial matter transport. In systems with higher rolling resistance at contacts, less tortuous shortest paths thread through larger pores in shear bands. Notably the structural patterns uncovered in the pore space suggest that more robust models of interstitial pore flow through deforming granular systems require a proper consideration of the evolution of in situ shear band and fracture patterns - not just globally, but also inside these localized failure zones.

Challenges in Predicting Planetary Granular Mechanics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Metzger, Philip T.

2005-01-01

Through the course of human history, our needs in agriculture, habitat construction, and resource extraction have driven us to gain more experience working with the granular materials of planet Earth than with any other type of substance in nature, with the possible exception being water. Furthermore, throughout the past two centuries we have seen a dramatic and ever growing interest among scientists and engineers to understand and predict both its static and rheological properties. Ironically, however, despite this wealth of experience we still do not have a fundamental understanding of the complex physical phenomena that emerge even as just ordinary sand is shaken, squeezed or poured. As humanity is now reaching outward through the solar system, not only robotic ally but also with our immediate human presence, the need to understand and predict granular mechanics has taken on a new dimension. We must learn to farm, build and mine the regoliths of other planets where the environmental conditions are different than on Earth, and we are rapidly discovering that the effects of these environmental conditions are not trivial. Some of the relevant environmental features include the regolith formation processes throughout a planet's geologic and hydrologic history, the unknown mixtures of volatiles residing within the soil, the relative strength of gravitation, d the atm9spheric pressure and its seasonal variations. The need to work with soils outside our terrestrial experience base provides us with both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to learn how to extrapolate our experience into these new planetary conditions, enabling the engineering decisions that are needed right now as we take the next few steps in solar system exploration. The opportunity is to use these new planetary environments as laboratories that will help us to see granular mechanics in new ways, to challenge our assumptions, and to help us finally unravel the elusive physics that lie behind complex granular phenomena. Toward these goals, a workshop was held recently at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, attracting over a hundred scientists and engineers from around the world and from a broad crosssection of scientific and engineering disciplines. This talk will provide an out-briefing from that workshop, communicating some of its early findings in regard to lunar and Martian exploration: (1) the requirements for working with granular materials, (2) the challenges that granular materials will pose, (3) the environmental conditions that affect granular mechanics, (4) instruments and measurements that are needed on the Moon and Mars to support granular material research, and (5) some of the possible research avenues that should be pursued.

Effect of mechanical cleaning with granular material on the permeability of submerged membranes in the MBR process.

PubMed

Siembida, B; Cornel, P; Krause, S; Zimmermann, B

2010-07-01

The research on fouling reduction and permeability loss in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) was carried out at two MBR pilot plants with synthetic and real wastewater. On the one hand, the effect of mechanical cleaning with an abrasive granular material on the performance of a submerged MBR process was tested. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements and integrity tests were conducted to check whether the membrane material was damaged by the granulate.The results indicate that the fouling layer formation was significantly reduced by abrasion using the granular material. This technique allowed a long-term operation of more than 600 days at a flux up to 40 L/(m2 h) without chemical cleaning of the membranes. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the membrane bioreactor (MBR) with granulate could be operated with more than 20% higher flux compared to a conventional MBR operation. SEM images and integrity tests showed that in consequence of abrasive cleaning, the granular material left brush marks on the membrane surface, however, the membrane function was not affected.In a parallel experimental set up, the impact of the operationally defined "truly soluble fraction" <0.04 microm from wastewater and activated sludge on the ultrafiltration membrane fouling characteristics was investigated. It was shown that the permeability loss was caused predominantly by the colloidal fraction >0.04 microm rather than by the dissolved fraction of wastewater and activated sludge.

Fabric and connectivity as field descriptors for deformations in granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Richard; Pouragha, Mehdi

2015-01-01

Granular materials involve microphysics across the various scales giving rise to distinct behaviours of geomaterials, such as steady states, plastic limit states, non-associativity of plastic and yield flow, as well as instability of homogeneous deformations through strain localization. Incorporating such micro-scale characteristics is one of the biggest challenges in the constitutive modelling of granular materials, especially when micro-variables may be interdependent. With this motivation, we use two micro-variables such as coordination number and fabric anisotropy computed from tessellation of the granular material to describe its state at the macroscopic level. In order to capture functional dependencies between micro-variables, the correlation between coordination number and fabric anisotropy limits is herein formulated at the particle level rather than on an average sense. This is the essence of the proposed work which investigates the evolutions of coordination number distribution (connectivity) and anisotropy (contact normal) distribution curves with deformation history and their inter-dependencies through discrete element modelling in two dimensions. These results enter as probability distribution functions into homogenization expressions during upscaling to a continuum constitutive model using tessellation as an abstract representation of the granular system. The end product is a micro-mechanically inspired continuum model with both coordination number and fabric anisotropy as underlying micro-variables incorporated into a plasticity flow rule. The derived plastic potential bears striking resemblance to cam-clay or stress-dilatancy-type yield surfaces used in soil mechanics.

Preliminary Results of a Microgravity Investigation to Measure Net Charge on Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, Robert D.; Myers, Jerry G.; Hansen, Bonnie L.

2003-01-01

Accurate characterization of the electrostatic charge on granular materials has typically been limited to materials with diameters on the order of 10 microns and below due to high settling velocities of larger particles. High settling velocities limit both the time and the acceptable uncertainty with which a measurement can be made. A prototype device has been developed at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to measure coulombic charge on individual particles of granular materials that are 50 to 500 microns in diameter. This device, a novel extension of Millikan's classic oil drop experiment, utilizes the NASA GRC 2.2 second drop tower to extend the range of electrostatic charge measurements to accommodate moderate size granular materials. A dielectric material with a nominal grain diameter between 1.06 and 250 microns was tribocharged using a dry gas jet, suspended in a 5x10x10 cm enclosure during a 2.2 second period of microgravity and exposed to a known electric field. The response was recorded on video and post processed to allow tracking of individual particles. By determining the particle trajectory and velocity, estimates of the coulombic charge were made. Over 30 drops were performed using this technique and the analysis showed that first order approximations of coulombic charge could successfully be obtained, with the mean charge of 3.4E-14 coulombs measured for F-75 Ottawa quartz sand. Additionally, the measured charge showed a near-Gaussian distribution, with a standard deviation of 2.14E -14 coulombs.

Computer-aided analysis for the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parker, Joey K.

1986-01-01

The Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) program is planned to provide experimental determinations of the mechanics of granular materials under very low gravity conditions. The initial experiments will use small glass beads as the granular material, and a precise tracking of individual beads during the test is desired. Real-time video images of the experimental specimen were taken with a television camera, and subsequently digitized by a frame grabber installed in a microcomputer. Easily identified red tracer beads were randomly scattered throughout the test specimen. A set of Pascal programs was written for processing and analyzing the digitized images. Filtering the image with Laplacian, dilation, and blurring filters when using a threshold function produced a binary (black on white) image which clearly identified the red beads. The centroids and areas for each bead were then determined. Analyzing a series of the images determined individual red bead displacements throughout the experiment. The system can provide displacement accuracies on the order of 0.5 to 1 pixel is the image is taken directly from the video camera. Digitizing an image from a video cassette recorder introduces an additional repeatability error of 0.5 to 1 pixel. Other programs were written to provide hardcopy prints of the digitized images on a dot-matrix printer.

Granular impact cratering by liquid drops: Understanding raindrop imprints through an analogy to asteroid strikes

PubMed Central

Zhao, Runchen; Zhang, Qianyun; Tjugito, Hendro; Cheng, Xiang

2015-01-01

When a granular material is impacted by a sphere, its surface deforms like a liquid yet it preserves a circular crater like a solid. Although the mechanism of granular impact cratering by solid spheres is well explored, our knowledge on granular impact cratering by liquid drops is still very limited. Here, by combining high-speed photography with high-precision laser profilometry, we investigate liquid-drop impact dynamics on granular surface and monitor the morphology of resulting impact craters. Surprisingly, we find that despite the enormous energy and length difference, granular impact cratering by liquid drops follows the same energy scaling and reproduces the same crater morphology as that of asteroid impact craters. Inspired by this similarity, we integrate the physical insight from planetary sciences, the liquid marble model from fluid mechanics, and the concept of jamming transition from granular physics into a simple theoretical framework that quantitatively describes all of the main features of liquid-drop imprints in granular media. Our study sheds light on the mechanisms governing raindrop impacts on granular surfaces and reveals a remarkable analogy between familiar phenomena of raining and catastrophic asteroid strikes. PMID:25548187

A Nonribosomal Landscape in the Nucleolus Revealed by the Stem Cell Protein Nucleostemin

PubMed Central

Politz, Joan C. Ritland; Polena, Ilvin; Trask, Ian; Bazett-Jones, David P.; Pederson, Thoru

2005-01-01

Nucleostemin is a p53-interactive cell cycle progression factor that shuttles between the nucleolus and nucleoplasm, but it has no known involvement in ribosome synthesis. We found the dynamic properties of nucleostemin differed strikingly from fibrillarin (a protein directly involved in rRNA processing) both in response to rRNA transcription inhibition and in the schedule of reentry into daughter nuclei and the nucleolus during late telophase/early G1. Furthermore, nucleostemin was excluded from the nucleolar domains in which ribosomes are born—the fibrillar centers and dense fibrillar component. Instead it was concentrated in rRNA-deficient sites within the nucleolar granular component. This finding suggests that the nucleolus may be more subcompartmentalized than previously thought. In support of this concept, electron spectroscopic imaging studies of the nitrogen and phosphorus distribution in the nucleolar granular component revealed regions that are very rich in protein and yet devoid of nucleic acid. Together, these results suggest that the ultrastructural texture of the nucleolar granular component represents not only ribosomal particles but also RNA-free zones populated by proteins or protein complexes that likely serve other functions. PMID:15857956

Electronics and triggering challenges for the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lobanov, A.

2018-02-01

The High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL), presently being designed by the CMS collaboration to replace the CMS endcap calorimeters for the High Luminosity phase of LHC, will feature six million channels distributed over 52 longitudinal layers. The requirements for the front-end electronics are extremely challenging, including high dynamic range (0.2 fC-10 pC), low noise (~2000 e- to be able to calibrate on single minimum ionising particles throughout the detector lifetime) and low power consumption (~20 mW/channel), as well as the need to select and transmit trigger information with a high granularity. Exploiting the intrinsic precision-timing capabilities of silicon sensors also requires careful design of the front-end electronics as well as the whole system, particularly clock distribution. The harsh radiation environment and requirement to keep the whole detector as dense as possible will require novel solutions to the on-detector electronics layout. Processing the data from the HGCAL imposes equally large challenges on the off-detector electronics, both for the hardware and incorporated algorithms. We present an overview of the complete electronics architecture, as well as the performance of prototype components and algorithms.

Dynamic Deformation and Collapse of Granular Columns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uenishi, K.; Tsuji, K.; Doi, S.

2009-12-01

Large dynamic deformation of granular materials may be found in nature not only in the failure of slopes and cliffs — due to earthquakes, rock avalanches, debris flows and landslides — but also in earthquake faulting itself. Granular surface flows often consist of solid grains and intergranular fluid, but the effect of the fluid may be usually negligible because the volumetric concentration of grains is in many cases high enough for interparticle forces to dominate momentum transport. Therefore, the investigation of dry granular flow of a mass might assist in further understanding of the above mentioned geophysical events. Here, utilizing a high-speed digital video camera system, we perform a simple yet fully-controlled series of laboratory experiments related to the collapse of granular columns. We record, at an interval of some microseconds, the dynamic transient granular mass flow initiated by abrupt release of a tube that contains dry granular materials. The acrylic tube is partially filled with glass beads and has a cross-section of either a fully- or semi-cylindrical shape. Upon sudden removal of the tube, the granular solid may fragment under the action of its own weight and the particles spread on a rigid horizontal plane. This study is essentially the extension of the previous ones by Lajeunesse et al. (Phys. Fluids 2004) and Uenishi and Tsuji (JPGU 2008), but the striped layers of particles in a semi-cylindrical tube, newly introduced in this contribution, allow us to observe the precise particle movement inside the granular column: The development of slip lines inside the column and the movement of particles against each other can be clearly identified. The major controlling parameters of the spreading dynamics are the initial aspect ratio of the granular (semi-)cylindrical column, the frictional properties of the horizontal plane (substrate) and the size of beads. We show the influence of each parameter on the average flow velocity and final radius and height of the deposit, i.e., the fraction of granular mass mobilized by the flow, and the final shape of the deposit.

Attachment reaction of rat uterine luminal epithelium. II. The effect of progesterone on the morphology of the uterine glands and the luminal epithelium of the spayed, virgin rat.

PubMed

Ljungkvist, I

1971-01-01

Ovariosalpingectomized rat uterine glands and luminal epithelium were examined by electron microscopy and in serial cross sections under light microscopy after up to 8 days of treatment with 5 mg progesterone daily. Under light microscopy, the gland lumen was narrow or absent in many epon sections, but wide in many paraffin sections, filled with toluidine blue stained secretion, and serial sections showed that the openings were closed, allowing no connection between the gland lumen and the uterus. In electron micrographs, only those glands without an opening appeared altered by progesterone. The most notable differences in the glandular epithelium were microvilli, condensed ribosome-free cytoplasm next to the lumen, numerous vesicles, sacs and dilated Golgi cisternae in the apical cytoplasm, and more giant mitrochondria in the basal cytoplasm than usually seen in controls. In the luminal epithelium, there were 3 distinct regions: the apical region had condensed cytoplasm often extruded into the lumen, with close-packed, smooth, empty vesicles; the middle region had granular endoplasmic reticulum, mitrochondria, dense bodies, multivesicular bodies, and lipid granules; the basal region contained the nucleus, granular endoplasmic reticulum, mitrochondria and dense abodies. These observations were interpreted as indicative of a transitional state from secretion to absorption, especially since without an opening, secretion would be of little significance.

Alternating anoxic feast/aerobic famine condition for improving granular sludge formation in sequencing batch airlift reactor at reduced aeration rate.

PubMed

Wan, Junfeng; Bessière, Yolaine; Spérandio, Mathieu

2009-12-01

In this study the influence of a pre-anoxic feast period on granular sludge formation in a sequencing batch airlift reactor is evaluated. Whereas a purely aerobic SBR was operated as a reference (reactor R2), another reactor (R1) was run with a reduced aeration rate and an alternating anoxic-aerobic cycle reinforced by nitrate feeding. The presence of pre-anoxic phase clearly improved the densification of aggregates and allowed granular sludge formation at reduced air flow rate (superficial air velocity (SAV)=0.63cms(-1)). A low sludge volume index (SVI(30)=45mLg(-1)) and a high MLSS concentration (9-10gL(-1)) were obtained in the anoxic/aerobic system compared to more conventional results for the aerobic reactor. A granular sludge was observed in the anoxic/aerobic system whilst only flocs were observed in the aerobic reference even when operated at a high aeration rate (SAV=2.83cms(-1)). Nitrification was maintained efficiently in the anoxic/aerobic system even when organic loading rate (OLR) was increased up to 2.8kgCODm(-3)d(-1). In the contrary nitrification was unstable in the aerobic system and dropped at high OLR due to competition between autotrophic and heterotrophic growth. The presence of a pre-anoxic period positively affected granulation process via different mechanisms: enhancing heterotrophic growth/storage deeper in the internal anoxic layer of granule, reducing the competition between autotrophic and heterotrophic growth. These processes help to develop dense granular sludge at a moderate aeration rate. This tends to confirm that oxygen transfer is the most limiting factor for granulation at reduced aeration. Hence the use of an alternative electron acceptor (nitrate or nitrite) should be encouraged during feast period for reducing energy demand of the granular sludge process.

Method and apparatus for biological material separation

DOEpatents

Robinson, Donna L.

2005-05-10

There has been invented an apparatus comprising a separation barrier for excluding denser cell materials from less dense cell materials after centrifuging of the cells so that selected materials can be withdrawn from the less dense cell materials without inclusion of the denser cell materials or clogging of sampling equipment with denser cell materials. Cells from which selected material is to be withdrawn are centrifuged, either as cells or cells in media. Once the denser cell materials are isolated in a layer by centrifugal force, an invention screen or seive is submerged in the less dense cell material to a level above the layer of denser cell materials to isolate the denser cell materials from the less dense cell materials, preventing mixing of the denser cell materials back into the less dense cell materials when the cells or the cells in media are no longer being centrifuged and to prevent clogging of sampling equipment with denser cell materials. In a particularly useful application of the invention method and apparatus, plasmid DNA can be withdrawn from less dense cell materials without contamination or interference with denser cell materials.

Slow dynamics and strength recovery in unconsolidated granular earth materials: a mechanistic theory

DOE PAGES

Lieou, Charles Ka Cheong; Daub, Eric G.; Ecke, Robert E.; ...

2017-09-08

Rock materials often display long-time relaxation, commonly termed aging or “slow dynamics”, after the cessation of acoustic perturbations. In this paper, we focus on unconsolidated rock materials and propose to explain such nonlinear relaxation through the Shear-Transformation-Zone (STZ) theory of granular media, adapted for small stresses and strains. The theory attributes the observed relaxation to the slow, irreversible change of positions of constituent grains, and posits that the aging process can be described in three stages: fast recovery before some characteristic time associated with the subset of local plastic events or grain rearrangements with a short time scale, log-linear recoverymore » of the elastic modulus at intermediate times, and gradual turnover to equilibrium steady-state behavior at long times. Here we demonstrate good agreement with experiments on aging in granular materials such as simulated fault gouge after an external disturbance. These results may provide insights into observed modulus recovery after strong shaking in the near surface region of earthquake zones.« less

Slow Dynamics and Strength Recovery in Unconsolidated Granular Earth Materials: A Mechanistic Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lieou, Charles K. C.; Daub, Eric G.; Ecke, Robert E.; Johnson, Paul A.

2017-10-01

Rock materials often display long-time relaxation, commonly termed aging or "slow dynamics," after the cessation of acoustic perturbations. In this paper, we focus on unconsolidated rock materials and propose to explain such nonlinear relaxation through the shear-transformation-zone theory of granular media, adapted for small stresses and strains. The theory attributes the observed relaxation to the slow, irreversible change of positions of constituent grains and posits that the aging process can be described in three stages: fast recovery before some characteristic time associated with the subset of local plastic events or grain rearrangements with a short time scale, log linear recovery of the elastic modulus at intermediate times, and gradual turnover to equilibrium steady state behavior at long times. We demonstrate good agreement with experiments on aging in granular materials such as simulated fault gouge after an external disturbance. These results may provide insights into observed modulus recovery after strong shaking in the near surface region of earthquake zones.

Unusual thyroid carcinoma with excessive extracellular hyaline globules: a case of "hyalinizing papillary carcinoma".

PubMed

Kondo, Tetsuo; Nakazawa, Tadao; Terada, Nobuo; Nakazawa, Kumiko; Kawasaki, Tomonori; Mochizuki, Kunio; Yamane, Tetsu; Ohno, Shinichi; Katoh, Ryohei

2012-06-01

We present an unusual case of papillary thyroid carcinoma in a 47-year-old Japanese woman. The tumor, 0.8 cm in diameter, was located in the upper left lobe of the thyroid. Histologically, we observed a microfollicular-like and trabecular arrangement of the tumor cells with marked hyalinized stroma and hyaline globules. Immunohistochemically, tumor cells were positive for thyroglobulin and thyroid transcription factor 1. Hyaline stroma and globular bodies were immunopositive for laminin and type IV collagen. MIB-1 index was approximately 1% without membranous immunoreactivity. Under the electron microscope, hyaline stroma and globules showed electron-dense, complex meshwork structures composed of granular and fibrous elements similar to the structure of the lamina densa. Genetic analysis demonstrated a BRAF(V600E) mutation. Based on these findings, we diagnosed the present tumor as a rare morphological variation of papillary thyroid carcinoma with excessive hyaline globules consisting of basal membrane materials. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nucleolar changes after microinjection of antibodies to RNA polymerase I into the nucleus of mammalian cells.

PubMed

Benavente, R; Reimer, G; Rose, K M; Hügle-Dörr, B; Scheer, U

1988-01-01

After microinjection of antibodies against RNA polymerase I into the nuclei of cultured rat kangaroo (PtK2) and rat (RVF-SMC) cells alterations in nucleolar structure and composition were observed. These were detected by electron microscopy and double-label immunofluorescence microscopy using antibodies to proteins representative of the three major components of the nucleolus. The microinjected antibodies produced a progressive loss of the material of the dense fibrillar component (DFC) from the nucleoli which, at 4 h after injection, were transformed into bodies with purely granular component (GC) structure with attached fibrillar centers (FCs). Concomitantly, numerous extranucleolar aggregates appeared in the nucleoplasm which morphologically resembled fragments of the DFC and contained a protein (fibrillarin) diagnostic for this nucleolar structure. These observations indicate that the topological distribution of the material constituting the DFC can be experimentally influenced in interphase cells, apparently by modulating the transcriptional activity of the rRNA genes. These effects are different from nucleolar lesions induced by inhibitory drugs such as actinomycin D-dependent "nucleolar segregation". The structural alterations induced by antibodies to RNA polymerase I resemble, however, the initial events of nucleolar disintegration during mitotic prophase.

High capacitance of coarse-grained carbide derived carbon electrodes

DOE PAGES

Dyatkin, Boris; Gogotsi, Oleksiy; Malinovskiy, Bohdan; ...

2016-01-01

Here, we report exceptional electrochemical properties of supercapacitor electrodes composed of large, granular carbide-derived carbon (CDC) particles. We synthesized 70–250 μm sized particles with high surface area and a narrow pore size distribution, using a titanium carbide (TiC) precursor. Electrochemical cycling of these coarse-grained powders defied conventional wisdom that a small particle size is strictly required for supercapacitor electrodes and allowed high charge storage densities, rapid transport, and good rate handling ability. Moreover, the material showcased capacitance above 100 F g -1 at sweep rates as high as 250 mV s -1 in organic electrolyte. 250–1000 micron thick dense CDCmore » films with up to 80 mg cm -2 loading showed superior areal capacitances. The material significantly outperformed its activated carbon counterpart in organic electrolytes and ionic liquids. Furthermore, large internal/external surface ratio of coarse-grained carbons allowed the resulting electrodes to maintain high electrochemical stability up to 3.1 V in ionic liquid electrolyte. In addition to presenting novel insights into the electrosorption process, these coarse-grained carbons offer a pathway to low-cost, high-performance implementation of supercapacitors in automotive and grid-storage applications.« less

High capacitance of coarse-grained carbide derived carbon electrodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dyatkin, Boris; Gogotsi, Oleksiy; Malinovskiy, Bohdan; Zozulya, Yuliya; Simon, Patrice; Gogotsi, Yury

2016-02-01

We report exceptional electrochemical properties of supercapacitor electrodes composed of large, granular carbide-derived carbon (CDC) particles. Using a titanium carbide (TiC) precursor, we synthesized 70-250 μm sized particles with high surface area and a narrow pore size distribution. Electrochemical cycling of these coarse-grained powders defied conventional wisdom that a small particle size is strictly required for supercapacitor electrodes and allowed high charge storage densities, rapid transport, and good rate handling ability. The material showcased capacitance above 100 F g-1 at sweep rates as high as 250 mV s-1 in organic electrolyte. 250-1000 micron thick dense CDC films with up to 80 mg cm-2 loading showed superior areal capacitances. The material significantly outperformed its activated carbon counterpart in organic electrolytes and ionic liquids. Furthermore, large internal/external surface ratio of coarse-grained carbons allowed the resulting electrodes to maintain high electrochemical stability up to 3.1 V in ionic liquid electrolyte. In addition to presenting novel insights into the electrosorption process, these coarse-grained carbons offer a pathway to low-cost, high-performance implementation of supercapacitors in automotive and grid-storage applications.

Glass-ceramic coated Mg-Ca alloys for biomedical implant applications.

PubMed

Rau, J V; Antoniac, I; Fosca, M; De Bonis, A; Blajan, A I; Cotrut, C; Graziani, V; Curcio, M; Cricenti, A; Niculescu, M; Ortenzi, M; Teghil, R

2016-07-01

Biodegradable metals and alloys are promising candidates for biomedical bone implant applications. However, due to the high rate of their biodegradation in human body environment, they should be coated with less reactive materials, such, for example, as bioactive glasses or glass-ceramics. Fort this scope, RKKP composition glass-ceramic coatings have been deposited on Mg-Ca(1.4wt%) alloy substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition method, and their properties have been characterized by a number of techniques. The prepared coatings consist of hydroxyapatite and wollastonite phases, having composition close to that of the bulk target material used for depositions. The 100μm thick films are characterized by dense, compact and rough morphology. They are composed of a glassy matrix with various size (from micro- to nano-) granular inclusions. The average surface roughness is about 295±30nm due to the contribution of micrometric aggregates, while the roughness of the fine-texture particulates is approximately 47±4nm. The results of the electrochemical corrosion evaluation tests evidence that the RKKP coating improves the corrosion resistance of the Mg-Ca (1.4wt%) alloy in Simulated Body Fluid. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Size invariance of the granular Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

PubMed

Vinningland, Jan Ludvig; Johnsen, Øistein; Flekkøy, Eirik G; Toussaint, Renaud; Måløy, Knut Jørgen

2010-04-01

The size scaling behavior of the granular Rayleigh-Taylor instability [J. L. Vinningland, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 048001 (2007)] is investigated experimentally, numerically, and theoretically. An upper layer of grains displaces a lower gap of air by organizing into dense fingers of falling grains separated by rising bubbles of air. The dependence of these structures on the system and grain sizes is investigated. A spatial measurement of the finger structures is obtained by the Fourier power spectrum of the wave number k. As the size of the grains increases the wave number decreases accordingly which leaves the dimensionless product of wave number and grain diameter, dk, invariant. A theoretical interpretation of the invariance, based on the scaling properties of the model equations, suggests a gradual breakdown of the invariance for grains smaller than approximately 70 microm or greater than approximately 570 microm in diameter.

Unified theory of inertial granular flows and non-Brownian suspensions.

PubMed

DeGiuli, E; Düring, G; Lerner, E; Wyart, M

2015-06-01

Rheological properties of dense flows of hard particles are singular as one approaches the jamming threshold where flow ceases both for aerial granular flows dominated by inertia and for over-damped suspensions. Concomitantly, the length scale characterizing velocity correlations appears to diverge at jamming. Here we introduce a theoretical framework that proposes a tentative, but potentially complete, scaling description of stationary flows. Our analysis, which focuses on frictionless particles, applies both to suspensions and inertial flows of hard particles. We compare our predictions with the empirical literature, as well as with novel numerical data. Overall, we find a very good agreement between theory and observations, except for frictional inertial flows whose scaling properties clearly differ from frictionless systems. For overdamped flows, more observations are needed to decide if friction is a relevant perturbation. Our analysis makes several new predictions on microscopic dynamical quantities that should be accessible experimentally.

Development of fully dense and high performance powder metallurgy HSLA steel using HIP method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wensheng; Pang, Xinkuan; Ma, Yunzhu; Cai, Qingshan; Zhu, Wentan; Liang, Chaoping

2018-05-01

In order to solve the problem that the mechanical properties of powder metallurgy (P/M) steels are much lower than those of traditional cast steels with the same composition due to their porosity, a high–strength–low–alloy (HSLA) steel with fully dense and excellent mechanical properties was fabricated through hot isostatic pressing (HIP) using gas–atomized powders. The granular structure in the P/M HIPed steel composed of bainitic ferrite and martensite–austenite (M–A) islands is obtained without the need of any rapid cooling. The P/M HIPed steel exhibit a combination of tensile strength and ductility that surpasses that of conventional cast steel and P/M sintered steel, confirming the feasibility of fabricating high performance P/M steel through appropriate microstructural control and manufacture process.

Heavy metal removal mechanisms of sorptive filter materials for road runoff treatment and remobilization under de-icing salt applications.

PubMed

Huber, Maximilian; Hilbig, Harald; Badenberg, Sophia C; Fassnacht, Julius; Drewes, Jörg E; Helmreich, Brigitte

2016-10-01

The objective of this research study was to elucidate the removal and remobilization behaviors of five heavy metals (i.e., Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) that had been fixed onto sorptive filter materials used in decentralized stormwater treatment systems receiving traffic area runoff. Six filter materials (i.e., granular activated carbon, a mixture of granular activated alumina and porous concrete, granular activated lignite, half-burnt dolomite, and two granular ferric hydroxides) were evaluated in column experiments. First, a simultaneous preloading with the heavy metals was performed for each filter material. Subsequently, the remobilization effect was tested by three de-icing salt experiments in duplicate using pure NaCl, a mixture of NaCl and CaCl2, and a mixture of NaCl and MgCl2. Three layers of each column were separated to specify the attenuation of heavy metals as a function of depth. Cu and Pb were retained best by most of the selected filter materials, and Cu was often released the least of all metals by the three de-icing salts. The mixture of NaCl and CaCl2 resulted in a stronger effect upon remobilization than the other two de-icing salts. For the material with the highest retention, the effect of the preloading level upon remobilization was measured. The removal mechanisms of all filter materials were determined by advanced laboratory methods. For example, the different intrusions of heavy metals into the particles were determined. Findings of this study can result in improved filter materials used in decentralized stormwater treatment systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nonlinear softening of unconsolidated granular earth materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lieou, Charles K. C.; Daub, Eric G.; Guyer, Robert A.; Johnson, Paul A.

2017-09-01

Unconsolidated granular earth materials exhibit softening behavior due to external perturbations such as seismic waves, namely, the wave speed and elastic modulus decrease upon increasing the strain amplitude above dynamics strains of about 10-6 under near-surface conditions. In this letter, we describe a theoretical model for such behavior. The model is based on the idea that shear transformation zones—clusters of grains that are loose and susceptible to contact changes, particle displacement, and rearrangement—are responsible for plastic deformation and softening of the material. We apply the theory to experiments on simulated fault gouge composed of glass beads and demonstrate that the theory predicts nonlinear resonance shifts, reduction of the P wave modulus, and attenuation, in agreement with experiments. The theory thus offers insights on the nature of nonlinear elastic properties of a granular medium and potentially into phenomena such as triggering on earthquake faults.

A two-phase micromorphic model for compressible granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paolucci, Samuel; Li, Weiming; Powers, Joseph

2009-11-01

We introduce a new two-phase continuum model for compressible granular material based on micromorphic theory and treat it as a two-phase mixture with inner structure. By taking an appropriate number of moments of the local micro scale balance equations, the average phase balance equations result from a systematic averaging procedure. In addition to equations for mass, momentum and energy, the balance equations also include evolution equations for microinertia and microspin tensors. The latter equations combine to yield a general form of a compaction equation when the material is assumed to be isotropic. When non-linear and inertial effects are neglected, the generalized compaction equation reduces to that originally proposed by Bear and Nunziato. We use the generalized compaction equation to numerically model a mixture of granular high explosive and interstitial gas. One-dimensional shock tube and piston-driven solutions are presented and compared with experimental results and other known solutions.

Meso-scale framework for modeling granular material using computed tomography

DOE PAGES

Turner, Anne K.; Kim, Felix H.; Penumadu, Dayakar; ...

2016-03-17

Numerical modeling of unconsolidated granular materials is comprised of multiple nonlinear phenomena. Accurately capturing these phenomena, including grain deformation and intergranular forces depends on resolving contact regions several orders of magnitude smaller than the grain size. Here, we investigate a method for capturing the morphology of the individual particles using computed X-ray and neutron tomography, which allows for accurate characterization of the interaction between grains. The ability of these numerical approaches to determine stress concentrations at grain contacts is important in order to capture catastrophic splitting of individual grains, which has been shown to play a key role in themore » plastic behavior of the granular material on the continuum level. Discretization approaches, including mesh refinement and finite element type selection are presented to capture high stress concentrations at contact points between grains. The effect of a grain’s coordination number on the stress concentrations is also investigated.« less

Spreading granular material with a blade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dressaire, Emilie; Singh, Vachitar; Grimaldi, Emma; Sauret, Alban

2015-11-01

The spreading of a complex fluid with a blade is encountered in applications that range from the bulldozing of granular material in construction projects to the coating of substrates with fluids in industrial applications. This spreading process is also present in everyday life, when we use a knife to turn a lump of peanut butter into a thin layer over our morning toast. In this study, we rely on granular media in a model experiment to describe the three-dimensional spreading of the material. Our experimental set-up allows tracking the spreading of a sandpile on a translating flat surface as the blade remains fixed. We characterize the spreading dynamics and the shape of the spread fluid layer when varying the tilt of the blade, its spacing with the surface and its speed. Our findings suggest that it is possible to tune the spreading parameters to optimize the coating.

Breakage mechanics for granular materials in surface-reactive environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yida; Buscarnera, Giuseppe

2018-03-01

It is known that the crushing behaviour of granular materials is sensitive to the state of the fluids occupying the pore space. Here, a thermomechanical theory is developed to link such macroscopic observations with the physico-chemical processes operating at the microcracks of individual grains. The theory relies on the hypothesis that subcritical fracture propagation at intra-particle scale is the controlling mechanism for the rate-dependent, water-sensitive compression of granular specimens. First, the fracture of uniaxially compressed particles in surface-reactive environments is studied in light of irreversible thermodynamics. Such analysis recovers the Gibbs adsorption isotherm as a central component linking the reduction of the fracture toughness of a solid to the increase of vapour concentration. The same methodology is then extended to assemblies immersed in wet air, for which solid-fluid interfaces have been treated as a separate phase. It is shown that this choice brings the solid surface energy into the dissipation equations of the granular matrix, thus providing a pathway to (i) integrate the Gibbs isotherm with the continuum description of particle assemblies and (ii) reproduce the reduction of their yield strength in presence of high relative humidity. The rate-effects involved in the propagation of cracks and the evolution of breakage have been recovered by considering non-homogenous dissipation potentials associated with the creation of surface area at both scales. It is shown that the proposed model captures satisfactorily the compression response of different types of granular materials subjected to varying relative humidity. This result was achieved simply by using parameters based on the actual adsorption characteristics of the constituting minerals. The theory therefore provides a physically sound and thermodynamically consistent framework to study the behaviour of granular solids in surface-reactive environments.

Self-organized magnetic particles to tune the mechanical behavior of a granular system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cox, Meredith; Wang, Dong; Barés, Jonathan; Behringer, Robert P.

2016-09-01

Above a certain density a granular material jams. This property can be controlled by either tuning a global property, such as the packing fraction or by applying shear strain, or at the micro-scale by tuning grain shape, inter-particle friction or externally controlled organization. Here, we introduce a novel way to change a local granular property by adding a weak anisotropic magnetic interaction between particles. We measure the evolution of the pressure, P, and coordination number, Z, for a packing of 2D photo-elastic disks, subject to uniaxial compression. A fraction R m of the particles have embedded cuboidal magnets. The strength of the magnetic interactions between particles is too weak to have a strong direct effect on P or Z when the system is jammed. However, the magnetic interactions play an important role in the evolution of latent force networks when systems containing a large enough fraction of the particles with magnets are driven through unjammed to jammed states. In this case, a statistically stable network of magnetic chains self-organizes before jamming and overlaps with force chains once jamming occurs, strengthening the granular medium. This property opens a novel way to control mechanical properties of granular materials.

Stationary bubble formation and cavity collapse in wedge-shaped hoppers

PubMed Central

Yagisawa, Yui; Then, Hui Zee; Okumura, Ko

2016-01-01

The hourglass is one of the apparatuses familiar to everyone, but reveals intriguing behaviors peculiar to granular materials, and many issues are remained to be explored. In this study, we examined the dynamics of falling sand in a special form of hourglass, i.e., a wedge-shaped hopper, when a suspended granular layer is stabilized to a certain degree. As a result, we found remarkably different dynamic regimes of bubbling and cavity. In the bubbling regime, bubbles of nearly equal size are created in the sand at a regular time interval. In the cavity regime, a cavity grows as sand beads fall before a sudden collapse of the cavity. Bubbling found here is quite visible to a level never discussed in the physics literature and the cavity regime is a novel phase, which is neither continuous, intermittent nor completely blocked phase. We elucidate the physical conditions necessary for the bubbling and cavity regimes and develop simple theories for the regimes to successfully explain the observed phenomena by considering the stability of a suspended granular layer and clogging of granular flow at the outlet of the hopper. The bubbling and cavity regimes could be useful for mixing a fluid with granular materials. PMID:27138747

Modelling polymeric deformable granular materials - from experimental data to numerical models at the grain scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teil, Maxime; Harthong, Barthélémy; Imbault, Didier; Peyroux, Robert

2017-06-01

Polymeric deformable granular materials are widely used in industry and the understanding and the modelling of their shaping process is a point of interest. This kind of materials often presents a viscoelasticplastic behaviour and the present study promotes a joint approach between numerical simulations and experiments in order to derive the behaviour law of such granular material. The experiment is conducted on a polystyrene powder on which a confining pressure of 7MPa and an axial pressure reaching 30MPa are applied. Between different steps of the in-situ test, the sample is scanned in an X-rays microtomograph in order to know the structure of the material depending on the density. From the tomographic images and by using specific algorithms to improve the images quality, grains are automatically identified, separated and a finite element mesh is generated. The long-term objective of this study is to derive a representative sample directly from the experiments in order to run numerical simulations using a viscoelactic or viscoelastic-plastic constitutive law and compare numerical and experimental results at the particle scale.

Granular compaction and the topology of pore deformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saadatfar, Mohammad; Takeuchi, Hiroshi; Hanifpour, Maryam; Robins, Vanessa; Francois, Nicolas; Hiraoka, Yasuaki

2017-06-01

The mechanism of crystallisation in highly dissipative materials such as foams or granular materials is still widely unknown. In macroscopic granular materials high levels of energy need to be injected to overcome the natural propensity of these dissipative materials to form amorphous structures [1, 2]. The transition from disordered to ordered packings in such systems triggers a wide range of geometrical, topological and mechanical changes at multi length scales [3]. Formation of cavities and patterns by aggregates of grains and their evolution during this transition requires a complete topological description of the system. Here, crystallisation of three-dimensional packings of frictional spheres is studied at the grain scale with x-ray tomography. Using a novel and powerful topological tool, Persistent Homology, we describe the complete formation process of perfect tetrahedral and octahedral patterns: the two building blocks of FCC and HCP crystalline arrangements. Additionally we present possible and allowable deformations of these components that accurately reproduce the main topological features of the system. These results give new insights into the crystallisation of these highly dissipative materials.

Shear flow of angular grains: acoustic effects and nonmonotonic rate dependence of volume.

PubMed

Lieou, Charles K C; Elbanna, Ahmed E; Langer, J S; Carlson, J M

2014-09-01

Naturally occurring granular materials often consist of angular particles whose shape and frictional characteristics may have important implications on macroscopic flow rheology. In this paper, we provide a theoretical account for the peculiar phenomenon of autoacoustic compaction-nonmonotonic variation of shear band volume with shear rate in angular particles-recently observed in experiments. Our approach is based on the notion that the volume of a granular material is determined by an effective-disorder temperature known as the compactivity. Noise sources in a driven granular material couple its various degrees of freedom and the environment, causing the flow of entropy between them. The grain-scale dynamics is described by the shear-transformation-zone theory of granular flow, which accounts for irreversible plastic deformation in terms of localized flow defects whose density is governed by the state of configurational disorder. To model the effects of grain shape and frictional characteristics, we propose an Ising-like internal variable to account for nearest-neighbor grain interlocking and geometric frustration and interpret the effect of friction as an acoustic noise strength. We show quantitative agreement between experimental measurements and theoretical predictions and propose additional experiments that provide stringent tests on the new theoretical elements.

Visualization of particle interactions in granular media.

PubMed

Meier, Holger A; Schlemmer, Michael; Wagner, Christian; Kerren, Andreas; Hagen, Hans; Kuhl, Ellen; Steinmann, Paul

2008-01-01

Interaction between particles in so-called granular media, such as soil and sand, plays an important role in the context of geomechanical phenomena and numerous industrial applications. A two scale homogenization approach based on a micro and a macro scale level is briefly introduced in this paper. Computation of granular material in such a way gives a deeper insight into the context of discontinuous materials and at the same time reduces the computational costs. However, the description and the understanding of the phenomena in granular materials are not yet satisfactory. A sophisticated problem-specific visualization technique would significantly help to illustrate failure phenomena on the microscopic level. As main contribution, we present a novel 2D approach for the visualization of simulation data, based on the above outlined homogenization technique. Our visualization tool supports visualization on micro scale level as well as on macro scale level. The tool shows both aspects closely arranged in form of multiple coordinated views to give users the possibility to analyze the particle behavior effectively. A novel type of interactive rose diagrams was developed to represent the dynamic contact networks on the micro scale level in a condensed and efficient way.

Low-resistive vibratory penetration in granular media.

PubMed

Darbois Texier, Baptiste; Ibarra, Alejandro; Melo, Francisco

2017-01-01

Non-cohesive materials such as sand, dry snow or cereals are encountered in various common circumstances, from everyday situations to industry. The process of digging into these materials remains a challenge to most animals and machines. Within the animal kingdom, different strategies are employed to overcome this issue, including excavation methods used by ants, the two-anchor strategy employed by soft burrowers such as razor-clams, and undulatory motions exhibited by sandfish lizards. Despite the development of technology to mimic these techniques in diggers and robots, the limitations of animals and machines may differ, and mimicry of natural processes is not necessarily the most efficient technological strategy. This study presents evidence that the resisting force for the penetration of an intruder into a dry granular media can be reduced by one order of magnitude with small amplitude (A ≃ 10 μm) and low frequency (f = 50 - 200 Hz) mechanical vibrations. This observed result is attributed to the local fluidization of the granular bed which induces the rupture of force chains. The drop in resistive force on entering dry granular materials may be relevant in technological development in order to increase the efficiency of diggers and robots.

Granular material flow in two-dimensional hoppers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brennen, C.; Pearce, J.C.

To aid in improving the transport of granular media for industrial purposes, the California Institute of Technology presents a comparison of experimental data with analytical results for the flow of dry granular media (such as coal) through a two-dimensional or wedge-shaped hopper. The analytical solution, which is based on the constitutive postulates (suggested by A.W. Jenike and R.T. Shield) of intergrain Coulomb friction and isotropy, produces results that are in good agreement with the experimental measurements.

In situ grain fracture mechanics during uniaxial compaction of granular solids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurley, R. C.; Lind, J.; Pagan, D. C.; Akin, M. C.; Herbold, E. B.

2018-03-01

Grain fracture and crushing are known to influence the macroscopic mechanical behavior of granular materials and be influenced by factors such as grain composition, morphology, and microstructure. In this paper, we investigate grain fracture and crushing by combining synchrotron x-ray computed tomography and three-dimensional x-ray diffraction to study two granular samples undergoing uniaxial compaction. Our measurements provide details of grain kinematics, contacts, average intra-granular stresses, inter-particle forces, and intra-grain crystal and fracture plane orientations. Our analyses elucidate the complex nature of fracture and crushing, showing that: (1) the average stress states of grains prior to fracture vary widely in their relation to global and local trends; (2) fractured grains experience inter-particle forces and stored energies that are statistically higher than intact grains prior to fracture; (3) fracture plane orientations are primarily controlled by average intra-granular stress and contact fabric rather than the orientation of the crystal lattice; (4) the creation of new surfaces during fracture accounts for a very small portion of the energy dissipated during compaction; (5) mixing brittle and ductile grain materials alters the grain-scale fracture response. The results highlight an application of combined x-ray measurements for non-destructive in situ analysis of granular solids and provide details about grain fracture that have important implications for theory and modeling.

The self-propulsion of a helix in granular matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valdes, Rogelio; Angeles, Veronica; de La Calleja, Elsa; Zenit, Roberto

2017-11-01

The effect of the shape of helicoidal on the displacement of magnetic robots in granular media is studied experimentally. We quantify the influences of three main parameters of the shape of the helicoidal swimmers: body diameter, step, and the angle. We compare the experimental measurements with an empirically modified resistive force theory prediction that accounts for the static friction coefficient of the particles of the granular material, leading to good agreement. Comparisons are also made with the granular resistive force theory proposed by Goldman and collaborators. We found an optimal helix angle to produce movement and determined a relationship between the swimmer size and speed.

Drag force scaling for penetration into granular media.

PubMed

Katsuragi, Hiroaki; Durian, Douglas J

2013-05-01

Impact dynamics is measured for spherical and cylindrical projectiles of many different densities dropped onto a variety non-cohesive granular media. The results are analyzed in terms of the material-dependent scaling of the inertial and frictional drag contributions to the total stopping force. The inertial drag force scales similar to that in fluids, except that it depends on the internal friction coefficient. The frictional drag force scales as the square-root of the density of granular medium and projectile, and hence cannot be explained by the combination of granular hydrostatic pressure and Coulomb friction law. The combined results provide an explanation for the previously observed penetration depth scaling.

Numerical insight into the micromechanics of jet erosion of a cohesive granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuéllar, Pablo; Benseghier, Zeyd; Luu, Li-Hua; Bonelli, Stéphane; Delenne, Jean-Yves; Radjaï, Farhang; Philippe, Pierre

2017-06-01

Here we investigate the physical mechanisms behind the surface erosion of a cohesive granular soil induced by an impinging jet by means of numerical simulations coupling fluid and grains at the microscale. The 2D numerical model combines the Discrete Element and Lattice Boltzmann methods (DEM-LBM) and accounts for the granular cohesion with a contact model featuring a paraboloidal yield surface. Here we review first the hydrodynamical conditions imposed by the fluid jet on a solid granular packing, turning then the attention to the impact of cohesion on the erosion kinetics. Finally, the use of an additional subcritical debonding damage model based on the work of Silvani and co-workers provides a novel insight into the internal solicitation of the cohesive granular sample by the impinging jet.

The cerebellar Golgi cell and spatiotemporal organization of granular layer activity

PubMed Central

D'Angelo, Egidio; Solinas, Sergio; Mapelli, Jonathan; Gandolfi, Daniela; Mapelli, Lisa; Prestori, Francesca

2013-01-01

The cerebellar granular layer has been suggested to perform a complex spatiotemporal reconfiguration of incoming mossy fiber signals. Central to this role is the inhibitory action exerted by Golgi cells over granule cells: Golgi cells inhibit granule cells through both feedforward and feedback inhibitory loops and generate a broad lateral inhibition that extends beyond the afferent synaptic field. This characteristic connectivity has recently been investigated in great detail and been correlated with specific functional properties of these neurons. These include theta-frequency pacemaking, network entrainment into coherent oscillations and phase resetting. Important advances have also been made in terms of determining the membrane and synaptic properties of the neuron, and clarifying the mechanisms of activation by input bursts. Moreover, voltage sensitive dye imaging and multi-electrode array (MEA) recordings, combined with mathematical simulations based on realistic computational models, have improved our understanding of the impact of Golgi cell activity on granular layer circuit computations. These investigations have highlighted the critical role of Golgi cells in: generating dense clusters of granule cell activity organized in center-surround structures, implementing combinatorial operations on multiple mossy fiber inputs, regulating transmission gain, and cut-off frequency, controlling spike timing and burst transmission, and determining the sign, intensity and duration of long-term synaptic plasticity at the mossy fiber-granule cell relay. This review considers recent advances in the field, highlighting the functional implications of Golgi cells for granular layer network computation and indicating new challenges for cerebellar research. PMID:23730271

Adsorption of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether on Granular Zeolites: Batch and Column Studies

PubMed Central

Abu-Lail, Laila; Bergendahl, John A.; Thompson, Robert W.

2010-01-01

Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has been shown to be readily removed from water with powdered zeolites, but the passage of water through fixed beds of very small powdered zeolites produces high friction losses not encountered in flow through larger sized granular materials. In this study, equilibrium and kinetic adsorption of MTBE onto granular zeolites, a coconut shell granular activated carbon (CS-1240), and a commercial carbon adsorbent (CCA) sample was evaluated. In addition, the effect of natural organic matter (NOM) on MTBE adsorption was evaluated. Batch adsorption experiments determined that ZSM-5 was the most effective granular zeolite for MTBE adsorption. Further equilibrium and kinetic experiments verified that granular ZSM-5 is superior to CS-1240 and CCA in removing MTBE from water. No competitive-adsorption effects between NOM and MTBE were observed for adsorption to granular ZSM-5 or CS-1240, however there was competition between NOM and MTBE for adsorption onto the CCA granules. Fixed-bed adsorption experiments for longer run times were performed using granular ZSM-5. The bed depth service time model (BDST) was used to analyze the breakthrough data. PMID:20153106

The Microstructural Response of Granular Soil Under Uniaxial Strain

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-10-01

under uniaxial strains of up to 10 percent. The material tested was a poorly graded ottowa sand with specimens consisting of either 0.5- or 0.75-mm...microstructural effects in granular material under uniaxial strain of up to 10.0 percent. The relative influence of several microstructural effects (such as...uniaxial strain. The confinement vessel consisted of a base plate, four walls, and a loading cap. The sidewalls extended up beyond the specimen and served

Solvent extraction of diatomite

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Williams, W.

1984-07-24

There is provided a method of extracting hydrocarbons from a diatomite ore. The particle size of the ore is first reduced to form a processed ore. The processed ore is then mixed with a substantially irregular granular material to form an unstratified ore mixture having increased permeability to an extracting solvent. The unstratified ore mixture is then permeated with an extracting solvent to obtain a hydrocarbon-solvent stream from which hydrocarbons are subsequently separated. The irregular granular material may be sand.

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Flight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

A test cell for the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is shown in its on-orbit configuration in Spacehab during preparations for STS-89. The twin locker to the left contains the hydraulic system to operate the experiment. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Note: Because the image on the screen was muted in the original image, its brightness and contrast are boosted in this rendering to make the test cell more visible. Credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Scaling behavior of immersed granular flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amarsid, L.; Delenne, J.-Y.; Mutabaruka, P.; Monerie, Y.; Perales, F.; Radjai, F.

2017-06-01

The shear behavior of granular materials immersed in a viscous fluid depends on fluid properties (viscosity, density), particle properties (size, density) and boundary conditions (shear rate, confining pressure). Using computational fluid dynamics simulations coupled with molecular dynamics for granular flow, and exploring a broad range of the values of parameters, we show that the parameter space can be reduced to a single parameter that controls the packing fraction and effective friction coefficient. This control parameter is a modified inertial number that incorporates viscous effects.

Probing Dynamics in Granular Media of Contrasting Geometries via X-Ray Phase Contrast Imaging and PDV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crum, Ryan; Pagan, Darren; Lind, Jon; Homel, Michael; Hurley, Ryan; Herbold, Eric; Akin, Minta

Granular systems are ubiquitous in our everyday world and play a central role in many dynamic scientific problems including mine blasting, projectile penetration, astrophysical collisions, explosions, and dynamic compaction. An understanding of granular media's behavior under various loading conditions is an ongoing scientific grand challenge. This is partly due to the intricate interplay between material properties, loading conditions, grain geometry, and grain connectivity. Previous dynamic studies in granular media predominantly utilize the macro-scale analyses VISAR or PDV, diagnostics that are not sensitive to the many degrees of freedom and their interactions, focusing instead on their aggregate effect. Results of a macro-scale analysis leave the principal interactions of these degrees of freedom too entangled to elucidate. To isolate the significance of grain geometry, this study probes various geometries of granular media subjected to gas gun generated waves via in-situ X-ray analysis. Analyses include evaluating displacement fields, grain fracture, inter- and intra-granular densification, and wave front motion. Phase Contrast Imaging (PCI) and PDV analyses feed directly into our concurrent meso-scale granular media modeling efforts to enhance our predictive capabilities.

Dense, gravity-driven granular-liquid flows down steep channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Armanini, A.; Larcher, M.; Nucci, E.

2011-12-01

Debris flows are complex natural phenomena, characterized by a mixture of poorly sorted sediments and water driven by gravity. Depending on the size distribution, on the volume concentration of sediments and on the geometry and topography of the channel, flow conditions may be very different, ranging from very fast flows, dominated by granular collisions and by the turbulence on the liquid phase, to very slow and dense flows, dominated by the frictional contacts among the grains. To investigate the basic physics of debris flows, it is very useful to analyze the flow of a mixture of identical spherical particles saturated by water and driven by gravity down a steep channel in steady flow condition (Armanini et al. 2005). The flow presents three regions: an external one, near to the free surface, dominated by nearly instantaneous contacts among the particles (collisional regime), an internal region dominated by prolonged contacts among the particles (frictional regime) and a static bed in which the particles are immobile. The detailed vertical structure of this kind of flows was obtained by means of experiments carried out by Armanini et al. (2005) and Larcher et al. (2007). Armanini et al. (2009) analysed the stratification of rheological mechanisms inside the flow, focusing on the coexistence of frictional and collisional regimes, on the stress transmission inside the flow and on particles kinematics. In particular, it was observed that debris flows may show locally a typical intermittence of the flow regime, switching alternatively from frictional to collisional. While the rheology of the collisional layers is well described by the dense gas analogy (kinetic theory), a persuasive theoretical description of the frictional regime does not yet exist. A Coulombian scheme is often assumed, but this hypothesis is rather limitative because it requires a constant concentration or a distribution of particles concentration known a priori. An interesting scheme of this kind was recently proposed by GDR-Midi (2004), but this model does not contain a suitable formulation for the granular pressure (equation of state of the mixture). Following Armanini (2010), we propose a reinterpretation of the model, as weighted average of a pure Coulombian stress (dependent on the static friction angle at the static bed level) and of a dynamic stress, represented by a dynamic friction angle. Besides, a state relation is introduced for the granular pressure and the dynamic friction angle is derived from the kinetic theory. The proposed relations are finally successfully compared with the experimental data introduced above. REFERENCES A. Armanini, H. Capart, L. Fraccarollo, M. Larcher, 2005, J.F.M., 532, 269-319. A. Armanini, M. Larcher, L. Fraccarollo, Ph. Rev. E, 2009, 79, 051306. A. Armanini, 2010, Palermo, Proc. XXXII Conv. Naz. di Idr. e C.I. (in Italian) GDR MiDi, 2004. Eur. Phys. J. E, 14, 341-365 M. Larcher, L. Fraccarollo, A. Armanini, H. Capart, 2007, Journal Hydr. Res., 45, 59-71.

Instabilities and the Development of Density Waves in Gas-Particle and Granular Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glasser, Benjamin J.; Liss, Elizabeth D.; Conway, Stephen L.; Johri, Jayati

2002-11-01

The dynamics of gas-particle and granular flows impact numerous technologies related to the local utilization of Lunar and Martian soils and the Martian atmosphere. On earth, such flows occur in a large number of industries including the chemical, pharmaceutical, materials, mining and food industries.

Plastic deformation in a metallic granular chain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Musson, Ryan W.; Carlson, William

2016-03-01

Solitary wave response was investigated in a metallic granular chain-piston system using LS-DYNA. A power law hardening material model was used to show that localized plastic deformation is present in a metallic granular chain for an impact velocity of 0.5 m/s. This loss due to plastic deformation was quantified via impulse, and it was shown that the loss scales nearly linearly with impact velocity. Therefore, metallic grains may not be suitable for devices that require high-amplitude solitary waves. There would be too much energy lost to plastic deformation. One can assume that ceramics will behave elastically; therefore, the response of an aluminum oxide granular chain was compared to that of a steel chain.

Impact of projectiles of different geometries on dry granular media using DEM simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vajrala, Spandana; Bagheri, Hosain; Emady, Heather; Marvi, Hamid; Particulate Process; Product Design Group Team; Birth Lab Collaboration

Recently, several studies involving numerical and experimental methods have focused on the study of impact dynamics in both dry and wet granular media. Most of these studies considered the impact of spherical projectiles under different conditions, while representative models could involve more complex shapes. Examples include such things as an animal's foot impacting sand or an asteroid hitting the ground. Dropping different shaped geometries with conserved density, volume and velocity on a granular bed may experience contrasting drag forces upon penetration. This is the result of the difference in the surface areas coming in contact with the granular media. Therefore, this work will utilize three-dimensional Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) simulations to observe and compare the impact of different geometries like cylinder and cuboid of same material properties and volume. These geometries will be impacted on a loosely packed non-cohesive dry granular bed with the same impact velocities where the effect of surface area in contact with the granular media will be analyzed upon impact and penetration.

An experimental study of ultrasonic vibration and the penetration of granular material

PubMed Central

Firstbrook, David; Worrall, Kevin; Timoney, Ryan; Suñol, Francesc; Gao, Yang

2017-01-01

This work investigates the potential use of direct ultrasonic vibration as an aid to penetration of granular material. Compared with non-ultrasonic penetration, required forces have been observed to reduce by an order of magnitude. Similarly, total consumed power can be reduced by up to 27%, depending on the substrate and ultrasonic amplitude used. Tests were also carried out in high-gravity conditions, displaying a trend that suggests these benefits could be leveraged in lower gravity regimes. PMID:28293134

Deformation profiles of elastic cylindrical tubes filled with granular media under an overload

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Álvarez Salazar, V. Salomón; Medina, Abraham; Klapp, Jaime

2017-06-01

The deformation of a thin-walled vertical tube, filled with a liquid or a cohesionless granular material is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Experiments with an overload and without it were made with latex tubes filled with water or spherical glass beads and the results were compared with the theoretical profile derived from the Janssen model. The results suggest that the soft elastic tubes could provide a simple and convenient means to investigate the forces that arise in different materials.

Powder keg divisions in the critical state regime: transition from continuous to explosive percolation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Zongzheng; Tordesillas, Antoinette

2017-06-01

The underlying microstructure and dynamics of a dense granular material as it evolves towards the "critical state", a limit state in which the system deforms with an essentially constant volume and stress ratio, remains widely debated in the micromechanics of granular media community. Strain localization, a common mechanism in the large strain regime, further complicates the characterization of this limit state. Here we revisit the evolution to this limit state within the framework of modern percolation theory. Attention is paid to motion transfer: in this context, percolation translates to the emergence of a large-scale connectivity in graphs that embody information on individual grain displacements. We construct each graph G(r) by connecting nodes, representing the grains, within a distance r in the displacement-state-space. As r increases, we observe a percolation transition on G(r). The size of the jump discontinuity increases in the lead up to failure, indicating that the nature of percolation transition changes from continuous to explosive. We attribute this to the emergence of collective motion, which manifests in increasingly isolated communities in G(r). At the limit state, where the jump discontinuity is highest and invariant across the different unjamming cycles (drops in stress ratio), G(r) encapsulates multiple kinematically distinct communities that are mediated by nodes corresponding to those grains in the shear band. This finding casts light on the dual and opposing roles of the shear band: a mechanism that creates powder keg divisions in the sample, while simultaneously acting as a mechanical link that transfers motion through such subdivisions moving in relative rigid-body motion.

Canine mammary minute oncocytomas with neuroendocrine differentiation associated with multifocal acinar cell oncocytic metaplasia.

PubMed

Nagahara, Rei; Kimura, Masayuki; Itahashi, Megu; Sugahara, Go; Kawashima, Masashi; Murayama, Hirotada; Yoshida, Toshinori; Shibutani, Makoto

2016-11-01

Two solitary and minute tumors of 1 and 1.5 mm diameter were identified by microscopy in the left fourth mammary gland of a 13-year-old female Labrador Retriever dog, in addition to multiple mammary gland tumors. The former tumors were well circumscribed and were composed of small-to-large polyhedral neoplastic oncocytes with finely granular eosinophilic cytoplasm, and were arranged in solid nests separated by fine fibrovascular septa. Scattered lumina of variable sizes containing eosinophilic secretory material were evident. Cellular atypia was minimal, and no mitotic figures were visible. One tumor had several oncocytic cellular foci revealing cellular transition, with perivascular pseudorosettes consisting of columnar epithelial cells surrounding the fine vasculature. Scattered foci of mammary acinar cell hyperplasia showing oncocytic metaplasia were also observed. Immunohistochemically, the cytoplasm of neoplastic cells of the 2 microtumors showed diffuse immunoreactivity to anti-cytokeratin antibody AE1/AE3, and finely granular immunoreactivity for 60-kDa heat shock protein, mitochondrial membrane ATP synthase complex V beta subunit, and chromogranin A. One tumor also had oncocytic cellular foci forming perivascular pseudorosettes showing cellular membrane immunoreactivity for neural cell adhesion molecule. The tumors were negative for smooth muscle actin, neuron-specific enolase, vimentin, desmin, S100, and synaptophysin. Ultrastructural observation confirmed the abundant mitochondria in the cytoplasm of both neoplastic and hyperplastic cells, the former cells also having neuroendocrine granule-like electron-dense bodies. From these results, our case was diagnosed with mammary oncocytomas accompanied by neuroendocrine differentiation. Scattered foci of mammary oncocytosis might be related to the multicentric occurrence of these oncocytomas. © 2016 The Author(s).

Radiative Transfer of Solar Light in Dense Complex Media : Theoretical and Experimental Achievements by the Planetary Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doute, S.; Schmitt, B.

2004-05-01

Visible and near infrared imaging spectroscopy is one of the key techniques to detect, map and characterize mineral and volatile species existing at the surface of the planets. Indeed the chemical composition, granularity, texture, physical state, etc, of the materials determine the existence and morphology of the absorption bands. However the development of quantitative methods to analyze reflectance spectra requires mastering of a very challenging physics: the reflection of solar light by densely packed, absorbent and highly scattering materials that usually present a fantastic structural complexity at different spatial scales. Volume scattering of photons depends on many parameters like the intrinsic optical properties, the shapes, sizes and the packing density of the mineral or icy grains forming the natural media. Their discontinuous and stochastic nature plays a great role especially for reflection and shading by the top few grains of the surface. Over several decades, the planetary community has developed increasingly sophisticated tools to handle this problem of radiative transfer in dense complex media in order to fulfill its needs. Analytical functions with a small number of non physical adjusting parameters were first proposed to reproduce the photometry of the planets and satellites. Then reflectance models were built by implementing methods of radiative transfer in continuously absorbent and scattering medium. A number of very restricting hypothesis forms the basis of these methods, e.g. low particles density, scattering treated in the far field approximation. A majority of these assumptions does not stand when treating planetary regoliths or volatile deposits. In addition, the classical methods completely bypass effects due to the constructive interference of scattered waves for backscattering or specular geometries (e.g. the opposition effect). Different, sometimes competing, approaches have been proposed to overcome some of these limitations. In particular Monte Carlo ray tracing simulations have been recently carried out to investigate properties of particulate media that are traditionally ignored or crudely treated: packing density, micro-roughness, etc. The efforts of the community to address the later problems are not only theoretical but also experimental with the development of several dedicated goniometers.

Contact force structure and force chains in 3D sheared granular systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mair, Karen; Jettestuen, Espen; Abe, Steffen

2010-05-01

Faults often exhibit accumulations of granular debris, ground up to create a layer of rock flour or fault gouge separating the rigid fault walls. Numerical simulations and laboratory experiments of sheared granular materials, suggest that applied loads are preferentially transmitted across such systems by transient force networks that carry enhanced forces. The characterisation of such features is important since their nature and persistence almost certainly influence the macroscopic mechanical stability of these systems and potentially that of natural faults. 3D numerical simulations of granular shear are a valuable investigation tool since they allow us to track individual particle motions, contact forces and their evolution during applied shear, that are difficult to view directly in laboratory experiments or natural fault zones. In characterising contact force distributions, it is important to use global structure measures that allow meaningful comparisons of granular systems having e.g. different grain size distributions, as may be expected at different stages of a fault's evolution. We therefore use a series of simple measures to characterise the structure, such as distributions and correlations of contact forces that can be mapped onto a force network percolation problem as recently proposed by Ostojic and coworkers for 2D granular systems. This allows the use of measures from percolation theory to both define and characterise the force networks. We demonstrate the application of this method to 3D simulations of a sheared granular material. Importantly, we then compare our measure of the contact force structure with macroscopic frictional behaviour measured at the boundaries of our model to determine the influence of the force networks on macroscopic mechanical stability.

Method and apparatus for filtering gas with a moving granular filter bed

DOEpatents

Brown, Robert C.; Wistrom, Corey; Smeenk, Jerod L.

2007-12-18

A method and apparatus for filtering gas (58) with a moving granular filter bed (48) involves moving a mass of particulate filter material (48) downwardly through a filter compartment (35); tangentially introducing gas into the compartment (54) to move in a cyclonic path downwardly around the moving filter material (48); diverting the cyclonic path (58) to a vertical path (62) to cause the gas to directly interface with the particulate filter material (48); thence causing the gas to move upwardly through the filter material (48) through a screened partition (24, 32) into a static upper compartment (22) of a filter compartment for exodus (56) of the gas which has passed through the particulate filter material (48).

Granular Crater Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Abe; Behringer, Robert; Brandenburg, John

2009-11-01

This project characterizes crater formation in a granular material by a jet of gas impinging on a granular material, such as a retro-rocket landing on the moon. We have constructed a 2D model of a planetary surface, which consists of a thin, clear box partially filled with granular materials (sand, lunar and Mars simulants...). A metal pipe connected to a tank of nitrogen gas via a solenoid valve is inserted into the top of the box to model the rocket. The results are recorded using high-speed video. We process these images and videos in order to test existing models and develop new ones for describing crater formation. A similar set-up has been used by Metzger et al.footnotetextP. T. Metzger et al. Journal of Aerospace Engineering (2009) We find that the long-time shape of the crater is consistent with a predicted catenary shape (Brandenburg). The depth and width of the crater both evolve logarithmically in time, suggesting an analogy to a description in terms of an activated process: dD/dt = A (-aD) (D is the crater depth, a and A constants). This model provides a useful context to understand the role of the jet speed, as characterized by the pressure used to drive the flow. The box width also plays an important role in setting the width of the crater.

Avalanches, and evolution of stress and fabric for a cyclically sheared granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Dengming; Bares, Jonathan; Wang, Dong; Behringer, Bob

2015-03-01

Granular materials yield for large enough shear stress, leading to avalanches. We seek to understand the relation between macroscopic avalanches and the the microscopic granular structure. We present an experimental study of a 2D granular material subjected to cyclic pure shear, which we visualized by a photo-elastic technique. We start from a stress-free sample of frictional particles in the shear-jamming regime (ϕS <= ϕ <=ϕJ). We apply multiple cycles of pure shear: shear in one direction, followed by a reversal to the original boundary configuration. The strain is made in small quasi-static steps: after each small step, we obtain polarized and unpolarized images yielding particle-scale forces and locations. Statistical measures of the avalanches are in reasonable agreement with recent mean-field avalanche models by Dahmen et al. (Nature Physics 7, 554 (2011)) The system structure evolves slowly to reduce the stress at the extrema of strain, similar to the relaxation observed by Ren et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 018302 (2013)) in a simple shear experiment. To understand how this relaxation occurs, we track the stress and fabric tensors and measures of the strain field over many cycles of shear. Supported by NASA Grant NNX10AU01G, and NSF Grants DMR1206351 and DMS1248071.

Adsorptive removal of heavy metals from water using sodium titanate nanofibres loaded onto GAC in fixed-bed columns.

PubMed

Sounthararajah, D P; Loganathan, P; Kandasamy, J; Vigneswaran, S

2015-04-28

Heavy metals are serious pollutants in aquatic environments. A study was undertaken to remove Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn individually (single metal system) and together (mixed metals system) from water by adsorption onto a sodium titanate nanofibrous material. Langmuir adsorption capacities (mg/g) at 10(-3)M NaNO3 ionic strength in the single metal system were 60, 83, 115 and 149 for Ni, Zn, Cu, and Cd, respectively, at pH 6.5 and 250 for Pb at pH 4.0. In the mixed metals system they decreased at high metals concentrations. In column experiments with 4% titanate material and 96% granular activated carbon (w/w) mixture at pH 5.0, the metals breakthrough times and adsorption capacities (for both single and mixed metals systems) decreased in the order Pb>Cd, Cu>Zn>Ni within 266 bed volumes. The amounts adsorbed were up to 82 times higher depending on the metal in the granular activated carbon+titanate column than in the granular activated carbon column. The study showed that the titanate material has high potential for removing heavy metals from polluted water when used with granular activated carbon at a very low proportion in fixed-bed columns. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stochastic clustering of material surface under high-heat plasma load

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budaev, Viacheslav P.

2017-11-01

The results of a study of a surface formed by high-temperature plasma loads on various materials such as tungsten, carbon and stainless steel are presented. High-temperature plasma irradiation leads to an inhomogeneous stochastic clustering of the surface with self-similar granularity - fractality on the scale from nanoscale to macroscales. Cauliflower-like structure of tungsten and carbon materials are formed under high heat plasma load in fusion devices. The statistical characteristics of hierarchical granularity and scale invariance are estimated. They differ qualitatively from the roughness of the ordinary Brownian surface, which is possibly due to the universal mechanisms of stochastic clustering of material surface under the influence of high-temperature plasma.

A theoretical and numerical study of the flow of granular materials down an inclined plane. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rajagopal, K.R.

The mechanics of the flowing granular materials such as coal, agricultural products, at deal of attention as it has fertilizers, dry chemicals, metal ores, etc. have received a great deal of attention as it has relevance to several important technological problems. Despite wide interest and more than five decades of experimental and theoretical investigations, most aspects of the behavior of flowing granular materials are still not well understood. So Experiments have to be devised which quantify and describe the non-linear behavior of the modular materials, and theories developed which can explain the experimentally observed facts. As many models have beenmore » suggested for describing the behavior of granular materials, from both continuum and kinetic theory viewpoints, we proposed to investigate the validity and usefulness of representative models from both the continuum and kinetic theory points of view, by determining the prediction of such a theory, in a representative flow, with respect to existence, non-existence, multiplicity and stability of solutions. The continuum model to be investigated is an outgrowth of a model due to Goodman and Cowin (1971, 1972) and the kinetic theory models being those due to Jenkins and Richman (1985) and Boyle and Massoudi (1989). In this report we present detailed results regarding the same. Interestingly, we find that the predictions of all the theories, in certain parameter space associated with these models, are qualitatively similar. This ofcourse depends on the values assumed for various material parameters in the models, which as yet are unknown, as reliable experiments have not been carried out as yet for their determination.« less

The distribution of saturated clusters in wetted granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Shuoqi; Hanaor, Dorian; Gan, Yixiang

2017-06-01

The hydro-mechanical behaviour of partially saturated granular materials is greatly influenced by the spatial and temporal distribution of liquid within the media. The aim of this paper is to characterise the distribution of saturated clusters in granular materials using an optical imaging method under different water drainage conditions. A saturated cluster is formed when a liquid phase fully occupies the pore space between solid grains in a localized region. The samples considered here were prepared by vibrating mono-sized glass beads to form closely packed assemblies in a rectangular container. A range of drainage conditions were applied to the specimen by tilting the container and employing different flow rates, and the liquid pressure was recorded at different positions in the experimental cell. The formation of saturated clusters during the liquid withdrawal processes is governed by three competing mechanisms arising from viscous, capillary, and gravitational forces. When the flow rate is sufficiently large and the gravity component is sufficiently small, the viscous force tends to destabilize the liquid front leading to the formation of narrow fingers of saturated material. As the water channels along these liquid fingers break, saturated clusters are formed inside the specimen. Subsequently, a spatial and temporal distribution of saturated clusters can be observed. We investigated the resulting saturated cluster distribution as a function of flow rate and gravity to achieve a fundamental understanding of the formation and evolution of such clusters in partially saturated granular materials. This study serves as a bridge between pore-scale behavior and the overall hydro-mechanical characteristics in partially saturated soils.

Pneumatic fractures in Confined Granular Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eriksen, Fredrik K.; Toussaint, Renaud; Jørgen Måløy, Knut; Grude Flekkøy, Eirik; Turkaya, Semih

2016-04-01

We will present our ongoing study of the patterns formed when air flows into a dry, non-cohesive porous medium confined in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell. This is an optically transparent system consisting of two glass plates separated by 0.5 to 1 mm, containing a packing of dry 80 micron beads in between. The cell is rectangular and has an air-permeable boundary (blocking beads) at one short edge, while the other three edges are completely sealed. The granular medium is loosely packed against the semi-permeable boundary and fills about 80 % of the cell volume. This leaves an empty region at the sealed side, where an inlet allows us to set and maintain the air at a constant overpressure (0.1 - 2 bar). For the air trapped inside the cell to relax its overpressure it has to move through the deformable granular medium. Depending on the applied overpressure and initial density of the medium, we observe a range of different behaviors such as seepage through the pore-network with or without an initial compaction of the solid, formation of low density bubbles with rearrangement of particles, granular fingering/fracturing, and erosion inside formed channels/fractures. The experiments are recorded with a high-speed camera at a framerate of 1000 images/s and a resolution of 1024x1024 pixels. We use various image processing techniques to characterize the evolution of the air invasion patterns and the deformations in the surrounding material. The experiments are similar to deformation processes in porous media which are driven by pore fluid overpressure, such as mud volcanoes and hydraulic or pneumatic (gas-induced) fracturing, and the motivation is to increase the understanding of such processes by optical observations. In addition, this setup is an experimental version of the numerical models analyzed by Niebling et al. [1,2], and is useful for comparison with their results. In a directly related project [3], acoustic emissions from the cell plate are recorded during experiments, where we aim to localize acoustic events and correlate them with the optical observations. [1] Niebling M.J., Toussaint R., Flekkøy E.G. and Måløy K.J. (2012) Dynamic aerofracture of dense granular packings. Phys. Rev. E86, 061315. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.86.061315 [2] Niebling M.J., Toussaint R., Flekkøy E.G. and Måløy K.J. (2012) Numerical studies of aerofractures in porous media. Rev. Cub. Fis. 29, 1E66 [3] Turkaya S., Toussaint R., Eriksen F.K., Zecevic M., Daniel G., Flekkøy E.G. and Måløy K.J. (2015)Bridging aero-fracture evolution with the characteristics of the acoustic emissions in a porous medium. Front. Phys. 3:70. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2015.00070

Microgravity Experiments to Evaluate Electrostatic Forces in Controlling Cohesion and Adhesion of Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marshall, J.; Weislogel, M.; Jacobson, T.

1999-01-01

The bulk behavior of dispersed, fluidized, or undispersed stationary granular systems cannot be fully understood in terms of adhesive/cohesive properties without understanding the role of electrostatic forces acting at the level of the grains themselves. When grains adhere to a surface, or come in contact with one another in a stationary bulk mass, it is difficult to measure the forces acting on the grains, and the forces themselves that induced the cohesion and adhesion are changed. Even if a single grain were to be scrutinized in the laboratory, it might be difficult, perhaps impossible, to define the distribution and character of surface charging and the three-dimensional relationship that charges (electrons, holes) have to one another. The hypothesis that we propose to test in microgravity (for dielectric materials) is that adhesion and cohesion of granular matter are mediated primarily by dipole forces that do not require the presence of a net charge; in fact, nominally electrically neutral materials should express adhesive and cohesive behavior when the neutrality results from a balance of positive and negative charge carriers. Moreover, the use of net charge alone as a measure of the electrical nature of grain-to-grain relationships within a granular mass may be misleading. We believe that the dipole forces arise from the presence of randomly-distributed positive and negative fixed charge carriers on grains that give rise to a resultant dipole moment. These dipole forces have long-range attraction. Random charges are created whenever there is triboelectrical activity of a granular mass, that is, whenever the grains experience contact/separation sequences or friction.

Finite Element Studies of Solitary Waves in Granular Chains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Musson, Ryan W.

Solitary wave propagation in a monodisperse metallic granular chain was simulated using the finite element method. The model was built to address a discrepancy between numerical and experimental results from Lazaridi and Nesterenko (J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys., 26 [3] 405-408 1985). In their work, solitary waves were generated in a chain of particles through impact of a piston, and results were quantified by comparing the chains' reactions to a rigid wall. Their numerical calculations resulted in a solitary wave with a force amplitude of 83 N, while it was measured experimentally to be 71 N. In the present work, the configuration of the granular chain and piston was duplicated from Lazaridi and Nesterenko (J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys., 26 [3] 405-408 1985). Qualitatively similar solitary waves were produced, and von Mises stress values indicated that localized plastic deformation is possible, even at low piston impact velocities. These results show that localized plastic deformation was a likely source of dissipation in experiments performed by Lazaridi and Nesterenko. Solitary wave response was investigated in the same metallic granular chain-piston system using LS-DYNA. A power-law hardening material model was used to show that localized plastic deformation is present in the metallic granular chain, even for an impact velocity of 0.5 m/s. This loss due to plastic deformation was quantified via impulse, and it was shown that the loss scales nearly linearly with impact velocity. Therefore, metallic grains may not be suitable for devices that require high amplitude solitary waves. There would be too much energy lost to plastic deformation. The response of an aluminum oxide granular chain was subsequently compared to that of a steel chain because ceramics are inherently elastic. It was shown that solitary waves travel faster and the initial peak is slightly lower when compared to a steel chain. The response of granular chains to impulse loading was investigated as a function of material properties. COMSOL Multiphysics was used to study the effect of density and elastic modulus on a granular chain with fixed Poisson's ratio. Solitary wave velocity and amplitude increased with elastic modulus. Increasing density caused a decrease in wave velocity and an increase in amplitude. In addition, higher density granular chains exhibited a decrease in the number of solitary waves in their respective solitary wave trains. LS-DYNA was then used to explore the response of a variety of ceramic and metallic granular chains. Density, elastic modulus, and Poisson's ratio were all set to representative values for the respective material. It was shown that solitary wave development and decay occur at different rates for different materials. In addition, the kinetic energy decay of the impactor was slower for glass compared with tungsten. Finally, it was shown that a single solitary wave with no train could be produced by impacting a high density, high modulus chain such as tungsten with a glass piston, which has relatively low density and elastic modulus. Increasing impact velocity for this case resulted in a single high-amplitude solitary wave with no train.

Pattern palette for complex fluid flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandnes, B.

2012-04-01

From landslides to oil and gas recovery to the squeeze of a toothpaste tube, flowing complex fluids are everywhere around us in nature and engineering. That is not to say, though, that they are always well understood. The dissipative interactions, through friction and inelastic collisions, often give rise to nonlinear dynamics and complexity manifested in pattern formation on large scales. The images displayed on this poster illustrate the diverse morphologies found in multiphase flows involving wet granular material: Air is injected into a generic mixture of granular material and fluid contained in a 500 µm gap between two parallel glass plates. At low injection rates, friction between the grains - glass beads averaging 100 µm in diameter - dominates the rheology, producing "stick-slip bubbles" and labyrinthine frictional fingering. A transition to various other morphologies, including "corals" and viscous fingers, emerges for increasing injection rate. At sufficiently high granular packing fractions, the material behaves like a deformable, porous solid, and the air rips through in sudden fractures.

Machanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Investigator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Key persornel in the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment include Khalid Alshibli, project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: MSFC).

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-01-25

Astronaut James Reilly uses a laptop computer monitor the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment during STS-89. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

1996-09-18

Astronaut Carl Walz installs Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) test cell on STS-79. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: NASA/John Space Center

Numerical modeling of the tensile strength of a biological granular aggregate: Effect of the particle size distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinze, Karsta; Frank, Xavier; Lullien-Pellerin, Valérie; George, Matthieu; Radjai, Farhang; Delenne, Jean-Yves

2017-06-01

Wheat grains can be considered as a natural cemented granular material. They are milled under high forces to produce food products such as flour. The major part of the grain is the so-called starchy endosperm. It contains stiff starch granules, which show a multi-modal size distribution, and a softer protein matrix that surrounds the granules. Experimental milling studies and numerical simulations are going hand in hand to better understand the fragmentation behavior of this biological material and to improve milling performance. We present a numerical study of the effect of granule size distribution on the strength of such a cemented granular material. Samples of bi-modal starch granule size distribution were created and submitted to uniaxial tension, using a peridynamics method. We show that, when compared to the effects of starch-protein interface adhesion and voids, the granule size distribution has a limited effect on the samples' yield stress.

Moving Bed Granular Bed Filter Development Program. Topical report, September 1994

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Haas, J.C.; Prudhomme, J.W.; Wilson, K.W.

1994-09-01

Five test arrangements have been designed to support the Granular Bed Filter Development Program as defined in the Test Plan. The first arrangement is a 3.6 ft. diameter half filter, with a glass covering along the cross section to allow visual examination of the granular alumina material passing through the filter. The second test arrangement is a 3.6 ft diameter full size filter having refractory lining to simulate actual surface roughness conditions. The third test arrangement will examine filter geometry scale up by testing a 6.0 ft. diameter full size filter. The fourth Test Arrangement consists of a small 12more » inch diameter fluidizer to measure the minimum fluidization velocity of the 7 m (approx. size) alumina material to be used in the filter assemblies. The last Test Unit is used to evaluation relative abrasion characteristics of potential refractory and ceramic materials to be installed in high abrasion areas in the pneumatic transport piping.« less

Installing Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment Test Cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Astronaut Jay Apt installs Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM0 test cell on STS-79. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: NASA/John Space Center).

Mechanics of Granular Materials labeled hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) flight hardware takes two twin double locker assemblies in the Space Shuttle middeck or the Spacehab module. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: NASA/MSFC).

The glass and jamming transitions in dense granular matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coulais, Corentin; Candelier, Raphaël; Dauchot, Olivier

2013-06-01

Everyday life tells us that matter acquires rigidity either when it cools down, like lava flows which turn into solid rocks, or when it is compacted, like tablets simply formed by powder compression. As suggested by these examples, solidification is not the sole privilege of crystals but also happens for disordered media such as glass formers, granular media, foams, emulsions and colloidal suspensions. Fifteen years ago the "Jamming paradigm" emerged to encompass in a unique framework the glass transition and the emergence of yield stress, two challenging issues in modern condensed matter physics. One must realize how bold this proposal was, given that the glass transition is a finite temperature transition governing the dynamical properties of supercooled liquids, while Jamming is essentially a zero temperature, zero external stress and purely geometric transition which occurs when a given packing of particles reaches the maximum compression state above which particles start to overlap. More recently, the observation of remarkable scaling properties on the approach to jamming led to the conjecture that this zero temperature "critical point" could determine the properties of dense particle systems within a region of the parameter space to be determined, which in principle could include thermal and stressed systems. Fifteen years of intense theoretical and experimental work later, what have we learned about Jamming and glassy dynamics? In this paper, we discuss these issues in the light of the experiments we have been conducting with vibrated grains.

Dense crystalline packings of ellipsoids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Weiwei; Jiao, Yang; Liu, Lufeng; Yuan, Ye; Li, Shuixiang

2017-03-01

An ellipsoid, the simplest nonspherical shape, has been extensively used as a model for elongated building blocks for a wide spectrum of molecular, colloidal, and granular systems. Yet the densest packing of congruent hard ellipsoids, which is intimately related to the high-density phase of many condensed matter systems, is still an open problem. We discover an unusual family of dense crystalline packings of self-dual ellipsoids (ratios of the semiaxes α : √{α }:1 ), containing 24 particles with a quasi-square-triangular (SQ-TR) tiling arrangement in the fundamental cell. The associated packing density ϕ exceeds that of the densest known SM2 crystal [ A. Donev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 255506 (2004), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.255506] for aspect ratios α in (1.365, 1.5625), attaining a maximal ϕ ≈0.758 06 ... at α = 93 /64 . We show that the SQ-TR phase derived from these dense packings is thermodynamically stable at high densities over the aforementioned α range and report a phase diagram for self-dual ellipsoids. The discovery of the SQ-TR crystal suggests organizing principles for nonspherical particles and self-assembly of colloidal systems.

Development and utilization of new diagnostics for dense-phase pneumatic transport. Quarterly technical progress report, October 1-December 31, 1989

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Louge, M. Y.; Jenkins, J. T.

The main objective of this work is to develop probes for local measurements of solid velocity and holdup in dense gas-solid flows. In particular, capacitance probes are designed to measure local, time-dependent particle concentrations. In addition, a new optical fiber probe based on laser-induced-phosphorescence is developed to measure particle velocities. The principles for the capacitance and optical diagnostics were given in our first and second quarterly reports. In this reporting period, we have demonstrated with success the feasibility of the optical fiber probe. Another objective of this work is to develop a model of dense-phase conveying and to test thismore » model in a setup that incorporates our diagnostics. In this period, as a prelude to these modeling efforts scheduled for the third year of the contract, we have carried out additional computer simulations of rapid granular flows to verify the theories of Jenkins and Richman (1988) on the anisotropy of the second moment in simple shear. 2 refs., 5 figs.« less

Development and utilization of new diagnostics for dense-phase pneumatic transport

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Louge, M.Y.; Jenkins, J.T.

Dense-phase pneumatic transport is an attractive means of conveying solids. Unfortunately, because of the high solid concentrations, this transport method is a difficult regime in which to carry out detailed measurements. Hence most details of the flow are unknown. In this context, the main objective of this work is to develop probes for local measurements of solid velocity and holdup in dense gas-solid flows. In particular, the authors have designed capacitance probes to measure local, time-dependent particle concentrations, and a new optical fiber probe based on laser-induced-phosphorescence to measure particle velocities. The principles for the capacitance and optical diagnostics weremore » given in the first and second quarterly reports. A final version of the optical fiber probe was designed in the previous reporting period. Because granular flows depends strongly on the nature of their interaction with a boundary, the authors have sought in the present reporting period to verify the boundary conditions recently calculated by Jenkins (J. Appl. Mech., in press (1991)) using computer simulations. 2 refs., 2 figs.« less

Multi-scale mechanics of granular solids from grain-resolved X-ray measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurley, R. C.; Hall, S. A.; Wright, J. P.

2017-11-01

This work discusses an experimental technique for studying the mechanics of three-dimensional (3D) granular solids. The approach combines 3D X-ray diffraction and X-ray computed tomography to measure grain-resolved strains, kinematics and contact fabric in the bulk of a granular solid, from which continuum strains, grain stresses, interparticle forces and coarse-grained elasto-plastic moduli can be determined. We demonstrate the experimental approach and analysis of selected results on a sample of 1099 stiff, frictional grains undergoing multiple uniaxial compression cycles. We investigate the inter-particle force network, elasto-plastic moduli and associated length scales, reversibility of mechanical responses during cyclic loading, the statistics of microscopic responses and microstructure-property relationships. This work serves to highlight both the fundamental insight into granular mechanics that is furnished by combined X-ray measurements and describes future directions in the field of granular materials that can be pursued with such approaches.

76 FR 47147 - Pure Magnesium in Granular Form From the People's Republic of China: Rescission of Antidumping...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-04

.... SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background On November 1, 2010, the Department published a notice of opportunity to... granular materials of which the Department is aware used to make such excluded reagents are: lime, calcium metal, calcium silicon, calcium carbide, calcium carbonate, carbon, slag coagulants, fluorspar...

Is Sulfur Limiting Maize Grown on Eroded Midwestern U.S. Soils?

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The importance of adequate sulfur (S) for maize (Zea mays L.) production has been recognized for many years and recently confirmed by positive yield responses. We compared a granular S-enhanced fertilizer material [SEF (13-33-0-15S)], granular ammonium sulfate [AMS (21-0-0-24S)], and liquid ammonium...

Granular Gas in a Periodic Lattice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dorbolo, S.; Brandenbourger, M.; Damanet, F.; Dister, H.; Ludewig, F.; Terwagne, D.; Lumay, G.; Vandewalle, N.

2011-01-01

Glass beads are placed in the compartments of a horizontal square grid. This grid is then vertically shaken. According to the reduced acceleration [image omitted] of the system, the granular material exhibits various behaviours. By counting the number of beads in each compartment after shaking, it is possible to define three regimes. At low…

Electromagnetic phenomena in granular flows in the laboratory and dusty plasmas in geophysics and astrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lathrop, Daniel; Eiskowitz, Skylar; Rojas, Ruben

2017-11-01

In clouds of suspended particles, collisions electrify particles and the clouds produce electric potential differences over large scales. This is seen in the atmosphere as lightning in thunderstorms, thundersnow, dust storms, and volcanic ash plumes, but it is a general phenomena in granular systems. The electrification process is not well understood. To investigate the relative importance of particle material properties and collective phenomena in granular and atmospheric electrification, we used several tabletop experiments that excite particle-laden flows. Various electromagnetic phenomena ensue. Measured electric fields result from capacitive and direct charge transfer to electrodes. These results suggest that while particle properties do matter (as previous investigations have shown), macroscopic electrification of granular flows is somewhat material independent and large-scale collective phenomena play a major role. As well, our results on charge separation and Hall effects suggest a very different view of the dynamics of clouds, planetary rings, and cold accretion disks in proto-planetary systems. We gratefully acknowledge past funding from the Julian Schwinger Foundation as well as the Ph.D. work of Freja Nordsiek.

Intermittent Granular Dynamics at a Seismogenic Plate Boundary.

PubMed

Meroz, Yasmine; Meade, Brendan J

2017-09-29

Earthquakes at seismogenic plate boundaries are a response to the differential motions of tectonic blocks embedded within a geometrically complex network of branching and coalescing faults. Elastic strain is accumulated at a slow strain rate on the order of 10^{-15}  s^{-1}, and released intermittently at intervals >100  yr, in the form of rapid (seconds to minutes) coseismic ruptures. The development of macroscopic models of quasistatic planar tectonic dynamics at these plate boundaries has remained challenging due to uncertainty with regard to the spatial and kinematic complexity of fault system behaviors. The characteristic length scale of kinematically distinct tectonic structures is particularly poorly constrained. Here, we analyze fluctuations in Global Positioning System observations of interseismic motion from the southern California plate boundary, identifying heavy-tailed scaling behavior. Namely, we show that, consistent with findings for slowly sheared granular media, the distribution of velocity fluctuations deviates from a Gaussian, exhibiting broad tails, and the correlation function decays as a stretched exponential. This suggests that the plate boundary can be understood as a densely packed granular medium, predicting a characteristic tectonic length scale of 91±20  km, here representing the characteristic size of tectonic blocks in the southern California fault network, and relating the characteristic duration and recurrence interval of earthquakes, with the observed sheared strain rate, and the nanosecond value for the crack tip evolution time scale. Within a granular description, fault and blocks systems may rapidly rearrange the distribution of forces within them, driving a mixture of transient and intermittent fault slip behaviors over tectonic time scales.

Intermittent Granular Dynamics at a Seismogenic Plate Boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meroz, Yasmine; Meade, Brendan J.

2017-09-01

Earthquakes at seismogenic plate boundaries are a response to the differential motions of tectonic blocks embedded within a geometrically complex network of branching and coalescing faults. Elastic strain is accumulated at a slow strain rate on the order of 10-15 s-1 , and released intermittently at intervals >100 yr , in the form of rapid (seconds to minutes) coseismic ruptures. The development of macroscopic models of quasistatic planar tectonic dynamics at these plate boundaries has remained challenging due to uncertainty with regard to the spatial and kinematic complexity of fault system behaviors. The characteristic length scale of kinematically distinct tectonic structures is particularly poorly constrained. Here, we analyze fluctuations in Global Positioning System observations of interseismic motion from the southern California plate boundary, identifying heavy-tailed scaling behavior. Namely, we show that, consistent with findings for slowly sheared granular media, the distribution of velocity fluctuations deviates from a Gaussian, exhibiting broad tails, and the correlation function decays as a stretched exponential. This suggests that the plate boundary can be understood as a densely packed granular medium, predicting a characteristic tectonic length scale of 91 ±20 km , here representing the characteristic size of tectonic blocks in the southern California fault network, and relating the characteristic duration and recurrence interval of earthquakes, with the observed sheared strain rate, and the nanosecond value for the crack tip evolution time scale. Within a granular description, fault and blocks systems may rapidly rearrange the distribution of forces within them, driving a mixture of transient and intermittent fault slip behaviors over tectonic time scales.

Characterization of Uterine Granular Cell Tumors in B6C3F1 Mice: A Histomorphologic, Immunohistochemical, and Ultrastructural Study

PubMed Central

Veit, A. C.; Painter, J. T.; Miller, R. A.; Hardisty, J. F.; Dixon, D.

2009-01-01

The granular cell tumor is most often a benign neoplasm of uncertain origin. Four uterine granular cell tumors in control and treated female B6C3F1 mice were identified in chronic studies at the National Toxicology Program. Two tumors occurred in untreated control animals and 2 in treated animals receiving different compounds. Tissue sections were evaluated histologically and stained with hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid–Schiff with diastase resistance, Masson’s trichrome, toluidine blue, phosphotungstic acid–hematoxylin, and stained immunohistochemically with a panel of antibodies to muscle (desmin, alpha smooth muscle actin), neural (S-100, neuron specific enolase), epithelial (wide-spectrum cytokeratin), and macrophage (F4/80) markers. The main histomorphologic feature of tumor cells was the presence of abundant cytoplasmic eosinophilic granules that stained positive for periodic acid–Schiff with diastase resistance. Tumors varied in appearance and were comprised of sheets and nests of round to polygonal cells with distinct borders. Nuclei were hyperchromatic, pleomorphic, and centrally to eccentrically located and often contained single nucleoli. Occasional multinucleated giant cells were observed. Tumors were pale pink and homogeneous with trichrome stain and negative with toluidine blue. Three tumors had positive to weakly positive immunoreactivity for desmin, and 1 was positive for alpha smooth muscle actin. Expression of S-100, wide-spectrum cytokeratin, and neuron-specific enolase was negative for all tumors. Ultrastructurally, prominent electron-dense cytoplasmic granules were abundant and contained secondary lysosomes with heterogeneous lysosomal contents. The characteristics of these uterine granular cell tumors were suggestive of a myogenic origin. PMID:18725470

Advances in the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted granular material: 1. Simulation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Daniel Buscombe,; Rubin, David M.

2012-01-01

1. In this, the first of a pair of papers which address the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted natural granular material, a method is presented for simulation of two-phase (solid, void) assemblages of discrete non-cohesive particles. The purpose is to have a flexible, yet computationally and theoretically simple, suite of tools with well constrained and well known statistical properties, in order to simulate realistic granular material as a discrete element model with realistic size and shape distributions, for a variety of purposes. The stochastic modeling framework is based on three-dimensional tessellations with variable degrees of order in particle-packing arrangement. Examples of sediments with a variety of particle size distributions and spatial variability in grain size are presented. The relationship between particle shape and porosity conforms to published data. The immediate application is testing new algorithms for automated measurements of particle properties (mean and standard deviation of particle sizes, and apparent porosity) from images of natural sediment, as detailed in the second of this pair of papers. The model could also prove useful for simulating specific depositional structures found in natural sediments, the result of physical alterations to packing and grain fabric, using discrete particle flow models. While the principal focus here is on naturally occurring sediment and sedimentary rock, the methods presented might also be useful for simulations of similar granular or cellular material encountered in engineering, industrial and life sciences.

Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material

PubMed Central

Brown, Eric; Rodenberg, Nicholas; Amend, John; Mozeika, Annan; Steltz, Erik; Zakin, Mitchell R.; Lipson, Hod; Jaeger, Heinrich M.

2010-01-01

Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties remains, however, challenging. Most current designs are based on the multifingered hand, but this approach introduces hardware and software complexities. These include large numbers of controllable joints, the need for force sensing if objects are to be handled securely without crushing them, and the computational overhead to decide how much stress each finger should apply and where. Here we demonstrate a completely different approach to a universal gripper. Individual fingers are replaced by a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape. Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. We find that volume changes of less than 0.5% suffice to grip objects reliably and hold them with forces exceeding many times their weight. We show that the operating principle is the ability of granular materials to transition between an unjammed, deformable state and a jammed state with solid-like rigidity. We delineate three separate mechanisms, friction, suction, and interlocking, that contribute to the gripping force. Using a simple model we relate each of them to the mechanical strength of the jammed state. This advance opens up new possibilities for the design of simple, yet highly adaptive systems that excel at fast gripping of complex objects.

Active earth pressure model tests versus finite element analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pietrzak, Magdalena

2017-06-01

The purpose of the paper is to compare failure mechanisms observed in small scale model tests on granular sample in active state, and simulated by finite element method (FEM) using Plaxis 2D software. Small scale model tests were performed on rectangular granular sample retained by a rigid wall. Deformation of the sample resulted from simple wall translation in the direction `from the soil" (active earth pressure state. Simple Coulomb-Mohr model for soil can be helpful in interpreting experimental findings in case of granular materials. It was found that the general alignment of strain localization pattern (failure mechanism) may belong to macro scale features and be dominated by a test boundary conditions rather than the nature of the granular sample.

VGLUT2 mRNA and protein expression in the visual thalamus and midbrain of prosimian galagos (Otolemur garnetti)

PubMed Central

Balaram, Pooja; Takahata, Toru; Kaas, Jon H

2011-01-01

Vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) control the storage and presynaptic release of glutamate in the central nervous system, and are involved in the majority of glutamatergic transmission in the brain. Two VGLUT isoforms, VGLUT1 and VGLUT2, are known to characterize complementary distributions of glutamatergic neurons in the rodent brain, which suggests that they are each responsible for unique circuits of excitatory transmission. In rodents, VGLUT2 is primarily utilized in thalamocortical circuits, and is strongly expressed in the primary sensory nuclei, including all areas of the visual thalamus. The distribution of VGLUT2 in the visual thalamus and midbrain has yet to be characterized in primate species. Thus, the present study describes the expression of VGLUT2 mRNA and protein across the visual thalamus and superior colliculus of prosimian galagos to provide a better understanding of glutamatergic transmission in the primate brain. VGLUT2 is strongly expressed in all six layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, and much less so in the intralaminar zones, which correspond to retinal and superior collicular inputs, respectively. The parvocellular and magnocellular layers expressed VGLUT2 mRNA more densely than the koniocellular layers. A patchy distribution of VGLUT2 positive terminals in the pulvinar complex possibly reflects inputs from the superior colliculus. The upper superficial granular layers of the superior colliculus, with inputs from the retina, most densely expressed VGLUT2 protein, while the lower superficial granular layers, with projections to the pulvinar, most densely expressed VGLUT2 mRNA. The results are consistent with the conclusion that retinal and superior colliculus projections to the thalamus depend highly on the VGLUT2 transporter, as do cortical projections from the magnocellular and parvocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus and neurons of the pulvinar complex. PMID:22984342

Perspective: Evolutionary design of granular media and block copolymer patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaeger, Heinrich M.; de Pablo, Juan J.

2016-05-01

The creation of new materials "by design" is a process that starts from desired materials properties and proceeds to identify requirements for the constituent components. Such process is challenging because it inverts the typical modeling approach, which starts from given micro-level components to predict macro-level properties. We describe how to tackle this inverse problem using concepts from evolutionary computation. These concepts have widespread applicability and open up new opportunities for design as well as discovery. Here we apply them to design tasks involving two very different classes of soft materials, shape-optimized granular media and nanopatterned block copolymer thin films.

Breaking of rod-shaped model material during compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lukas, Kulaviak; Vera, Penkavova; Marek, Ruzicka; Miroslav, Puncochar; Petr, Zamostny; Zdenek, Grof; Frantisek, Stepanek; Marek, Schongut; Jaromir, Havlica

2017-06-01

The breakage of a model anisometric dry granular material caused by uniaxial compression was studied. The bed of uniform rod-like pasta particles (8 mm long, aspect ratio 1:8) was compressed (Gamlen Tablet Press) and their size distribution was measured after each run (Dynamic Image Analysing). The compression dynamics was recorded and the effect of several parameters was tested (rate of compression, volume of granular bed, pressure magnitude and mode of application). Besides the experiments, numerical modelling of the compressed breakable material was performed as well, employing the DEM approach (Discrete Element Method). The comparison between the data and the model looks promising.

Role of hydraulic retention time and granular medium in microbial removal in tertiary treatment reed beds.

PubMed

García, Joan; Vivar, Joan; Aromir, Maria; Mujeriego, Rafael

2003-06-01

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the role of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and granular medium in faecal coliform (FC) and somatic coliphage (SC) removal in tertiary reed beds. Experiments were carried out in a pilot plant with four parallel reed beds (horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands), each one containing a different type of granular medium. This pilot plant is located in a wastewater treatment plant in Montcada i Reixac, near Barcelona, in northeastern Spain. The microbial inactivation ratios obtained in the different beds are compared as a function of three selected HRTs. Secondary effluent from the wastewater treatment plant was used as the influent of the pilot system. The microbial inactivation ratio ranged between 0.1 and 2.7 log-units for FC and from 0.5 to 1.7 log-units for SC in beds with coarser granular material (5-25mm), while it ranged between 0.7 and 3.4 log-units for FC and from 0.9 to 2.6 log-units for SC in the bed with finer material (2-13mm). HRT and granular medium are both key factors in microbial removal in the tertiary reed beds. The microbial inactivation ratio rises as the HRT increases until it reaches a saturation value (in general at an HRT of 3 days). The value of the microbial inactivation ratio at the saturation level depends on the granular medium contained in the bed. The specific surface area necessary to reach 2-3 log-units of FC and SC is approximately 3m(2)/person-equivalent.

Micromechanical processes in consolidated granular salt

DOE PAGES

Mills, Melissa Marie; Stormont, John C.; Bauer, Stephen J.

2018-03-27

Here, granular salt is likely to be used as backfill material and a seal system component within geologic salt formations serving as a repository for long-term isolation of nuclear waste. Pressure from closure of the surrounding salt formation will promote consolidation of granular salt, eventually resulting in properties comparable to native salt. Understanding dependence of consolidation processes on stress state, moisture availability, temperature, and time is important for demonstrating sealing functions and long-term repository performance. This study characterizes laboratory-consolidated granular salt by means of microstructural observations. Granular salt material from mining operations was obtained from the bedded Salado Formation hostingmore » the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the Avery Island salt dome. Laboratory test conditions included hydrostatic consolidation of jacketed granular salt with varying conditions of confining isochoric stress to 38 MPa, temperature to 250 °C, moisture additions of 1% by weight, time duration, and vented and non-vented states. Resultant porosities ranged between 1% and 22%. Optical and scanning electron microscopic techniques were used to ascertain consolidation mechanisms. From these investigations, samples with 1% added moisture or unvented during consolidation, exhibit clear pressure solution processes with tightly cohered grain boundaries and occluded fluid pores. Samples with only natural moisture content consolidated by a combination of brittle, cataclastic, and crystal plastic deformation. Recrystallization at 250 °C irrespective of moisture conditions was also observed. The range and variability of conditions applied in this study, combined with the techniques used to display microstructural features, are unique, and provide insight into an important area of governing deformation mechanism(s) occurring within salt repository applications.« less

Micromechanical processes in consolidated granular salt

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mills, Melissa Marie; Stormont, John C.; Bauer, Stephen J.

Here, granular salt is likely to be used as backfill material and a seal system component within geologic salt formations serving as a repository for long-term isolation of nuclear waste. Pressure from closure of the surrounding salt formation will promote consolidation of granular salt, eventually resulting in properties comparable to native salt. Understanding dependence of consolidation processes on stress state, moisture availability, temperature, and time is important for demonstrating sealing functions and long-term repository performance. This study characterizes laboratory-consolidated granular salt by means of microstructural observations. Granular salt material from mining operations was obtained from the bedded Salado Formation hostingmore » the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the Avery Island salt dome. Laboratory test conditions included hydrostatic consolidation of jacketed granular salt with varying conditions of confining isochoric stress to 38 MPa, temperature to 250 °C, moisture additions of 1% by weight, time duration, and vented and non-vented states. Resultant porosities ranged between 1% and 22%. Optical and scanning electron microscopic techniques were used to ascertain consolidation mechanisms. From these investigations, samples with 1% added moisture or unvented during consolidation, exhibit clear pressure solution processes with tightly cohered grain boundaries and occluded fluid pores. Samples with only natural moisture content consolidated by a combination of brittle, cataclastic, and crystal plastic deformation. Recrystallization at 250 °C irrespective of moisture conditions was also observed. The range and variability of conditions applied in this study, combined with the techniques used to display microstructural features, are unique, and provide insight into an important area of governing deformation mechanism(s) occurring within salt repository applications.« less

Rheological transition in simple shear of moderately dense assemblies of dry cohesive granules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Eric; Sundararajan, Sriram; Subramaniam, Shankar

2018-06-01

The rheology of homogeneous cohesive granular assemblies under shear at moderate volume fractions is investigated using the discrete element method for both frictionless and frictional granules. A transition in rheology from inertial to quasistatic scaling is observed at volume fractions below the jamming point of noncohesive systems, which is a function of the granular temperature, energy dissipation, and cohesive potential. The transition is found to be the result of growing clusters, which eventually percolate the domain, and change the mode of momentum transport in the system. Differences in the behavior of the shear stress normalized by the pressure are observed when frictionless and frictional cases are compared. These differences are explained through contact anisotropy after percolation occurs. Both frictionless and frictional systems are found to be vulnerable to instabilities after full system percolation has occurred, where the former becomes thermodynamically unstable and the latter may form shear bands. Finally, implications for constitutive modeling are discussed.

Particles climbing along a vertically vibrating tube: numerical simulation using the Discrete Element Method (DEM)

DOE PAGES

Xu, Yupeng; Musser, Jordan; Li, Tingwen; ...

2017-07-22

It has been reported experimentally that granular particles can climb along a vertically vibrating tube partially inserted inside a granular silo. Here, we use the Discrete Element Method (DEM) available in the Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFIX) code to investigate this phenomenon. By tracking the movement of individual particles, the climbing mechanism was illustrated and analyzed. The numerical results show that a sufficiently high vibration strength is needed to form a low solids volume fraction region inside the lower end of the vibrating tube, a dense region in the middle of the tube, and to bring the particles outsidemore » from the top layers down to fill in the void. The results also show that particle compaction in the middle section of the tube is the main cause of the climbing. Consequently, varying parameters which influence the compacted region, such as the restitution coefficient, change the climbing height.« less

Particles climbing along a vertically vibrating tube: numerical simulation using the Discrete Element Method (DEM)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Yupeng; Musser, Jordan; Li, Tingwen

It has been reported experimentally that granular particles can climb along a vertically vibrating tube partially inserted inside a granular silo. Here, we use the Discrete Element Method (DEM) available in the Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFIX) code to investigate this phenomenon. By tracking the movement of individual particles, the climbing mechanism was illustrated and analyzed. The numerical results show that a sufficiently high vibration strength is needed to form a low solids volume fraction region inside the lower end of the vibrating tube, a dense region in the middle of the tube, and to bring the particles outsidemore » from the top layers down to fill in the void. The results also show that particle compaction in the middle section of the tube is the main cause of the climbing. Consequently, varying parameters which influence the compacted region, such as the restitution coefficient, change the climbing height.« less

A continuum theory for two-phase flows of particulate solids: application to Poiseuille flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monsorno, Davide; Varsakelis, Christos; Papalexandris, Miltiadis V.

2015-11-01

In the first part of this talk, we present a novel two-phase continuum model for incompressible fluid-saturated granular flows. The model accounts for both compaction and shear-induced dilatancy and accommodates correlations for the granular rheology in a thermodynamically consistent way. In the second part of this talk, we exercise this two-phase model in the numerical simulation of a fully-developed Poiseuille flow of a dense suspension. The numerical predictions are shown to compare favorably against experimental measurements and confirm that the model can capture the important characteristics of the flow field, such as segregation and formation of plug zones. Finally, results from parametric studies with respect to the initial concentration, the magnitude of the external forcing and the width of the channel are presented and the role of these physical parameters is quantified. Financial Support has been provided by SEDITRANS, an Initial Training Network of the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme

Energy Content & Spectral Energy Representation of Wave Propagation in a Granular Chain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrivastava, Rohit; Luding, Stefan

2017-04-01

A mechanical wave is propagation of vibration with transfer of energy and momentum. Studying the energy as well as spectral energy characteristics of a propagating wave through disordered granular media can assist in understanding the overall properties of wave propagation through materials like soil. The study of these properties is aimed at modeling wave propagation for oil, mineral or gas exploration (seismic prospecting) or non-destructive testing for the study of internal structure of solids. Wave propagation through granular materials is often accompanied by energy attenuation which is quantified by Quality factor and this parameter has often been used to characterize material properties, hence, determining the Quality factor (energy attenuation parameter) can also help in determining the properties of the material [3], studied experimentally in [2]. The study of Energy content (Kinetic, Potential and Total Energy) of a pulse propagating through an idealized one-dimensional discrete particle system like a mass disordered granular chain can assist in understanding the energy attenuation due to disorder as a function of propagation distance. The spectral analysis of the energy signal can assist in understanding dispersion as well as attenuation due to scattering in different frequencies (scattering attenuation). The selection of one-dimensional granular chain also helps in studying only the P-wave attributes of the wave and removing the influence of shear or rotational waves. Granular chains with different mass distributions have been studied, by randomly selecting masses from normal, binary and uniform distributions and the standard deviation of the distribution is considered as the disorder parameter, higher standard deviation means higher disorder and lower standard deviation means lower disorder [1]. For obtaining macroscopic/continuum properties, ensemble averaging has been invoked. Instead of analyzing deformation-, velocity- or stress-signals, interpreting information from a Total Energy signal turned out to be much easier in comparison to displacement, velocity or acceleration signals of the wave, hence, indicating a better analysis method for wave propagation through granular materials. Increasing disorder decreases the Energy of higher frequency signals transmitted, but at the same time the energy of spatially localized high frequencies increases. Brian P. Lawney and Stefan Luding. Mass-disorder effects on the frequency filtering in one-dimensional discrete particle systems. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1542(1), 2013. Ibrahim Guven. Hydraulical and acoustical properties of porous sintered glass bead systems: experiments, theory and simulations (Doctoral dissertation). Rainer Tonn. Comparison of seven methods for the computation of Q. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 55(3):259 - 268, 1989. Rohit Kumar Shrivastava and Stefan Luding.: Effect of Disorder on Bulk Sound Wave Speed : A Multiscale Spectral Analysis, Nonlin. Processes Geophys. Discuss., doi:10.5194/npg-2016-83, in review, 2017.

Two-Piece Screens for Decontaminating Granular Material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Backes, Douglas; Poulter, Clay; Godfrey, Max; Dutton, Melinda; Tolman, Dennis

2009-01-01

Two-piece screens have been designed specifically for use in filtering a granular material to remove contaminant particles that are significantly wider or longer than are the desired granules. In the original application for which the twopiece screens were conceived, the granular material is ammonium perchlorate and the contaminant particles tend to be wires and other relatively long, rigid strands. The basic design of the twopiece screens can be adapted to other granular materials and contaminants by modifying critical dimensions to accommodate different grain and contaminant- particle sizes. A two-piece screen of this type consists mainly of (1) a top flat plate perforated with circular holes arranged in a hexagonal pattern and (2) a bottom plate that is also perforated with circular holes (but not in a pure hexagonal pattern) and is folded into an accordion structure. Fabrication of the bottom plate begins with drilling circular holes into a flat plate in a hexagonal pattern that is interrupted, at regular intervals, by parallel gaps. The plate is then folded into the accordion structure along the gaps. Because the folds are along the gaps, there are no holes at the peaks and valleys of the accordion screen. The top flat plate and the bottom accordion plate are secured within a metal frame. The resulting two-piece screen is placed at the bottom opening of a feed hopper containing the granular material to be filtered. Tests have shown that such long, rigid contaminant strands as wires readily can pass through a filter consisting of the flat screen alone and that the addition of the accordion screen below the flat screen greatly increases the effectiveness of removal of wires and other contaminant strands. Part of the reason for increased effectiveness is in the presentation of the contaminant to the filter surface. Testing has shown that wire type contamination will readily align itself parallel to the material direction flow. Since this direction of flow is nearly always perpendicular to the filter surface holes, the contamination is automatically aligned to pass through. The two-filter configuration reduces the likelihood that a given contaminant strand will be aligned with the flow of material by eliminating the perpendicular presentation angle. Thus, for wires of a certain diameter, a two-piece screen is 20 percent more effective than is the corresponding flat perforated plate alone, even if the holes in the flat plate are narrower. An accordion screen alone is similarly effective in catching contaminants, but lumps of agglomerated granules of the desired material often collect in the valleys and clog the screen. The addition of a flat screen above the accordion screen prevents clogging of the accordion screen. Flat wire screens have often been used to remove contaminants from granular materials, and are about as effective as are the corresponding perforated flat plates used alone.

Numerical simulation of granular flows : comparison with experimental results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirulli, M.; Mangeney-Castelnau, A.; Lajeunesse, E.; Vilotte, J.-P.; Bouchut, F.; Bristeau, M. O.; Perthame, B.

2003-04-01

Granular avalanches such as rock or debris flows regularly cause large amounts of human and material damages. Numerical simulation of granular avalanches should provide a useful tool for investigating, within realistic geological contexts, the dynamics of these flows and of their arrest phase and for improving the risk assessment of such natural hazards. Validation of debris avalanche numerical model on granular experiments over inclined plane is performed here. The comparison is performed by simulating granular flow of glass beads from a reservoir through a gate down an inclined plane. This unsteady situation evolves toward the steady state observed in the laboratory. Furthermore simulation exactly reproduces the arrest phase obtained by suddenly closing the gate of the reservoir once a thick flow has developped. The spreading of a granular mass released from rest at the top of a rough inclined plane is also investigated. The evolution of the avalanche shape, the velocity and the characteristics of the arrest phase are compared with experimental results and analysis of the involved forces are studied for various flow laws.

Taming the complexity of granular materials with vector calculus

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-07-29

by 13 c c jk k ke l l or 1 3ˆ c cl l x , where eijk is the Levi - Civita symbol, defi ned by: 0 for , or 1 for , , 1, 2, 3 , 2, 3,1 , 3,1, 2 1...the assumption that the body is continuous and comprises material points that bear only translational degrees of freedom. By contrast, a granular...a continuous body gives rise to a combination of rigid body motion and a change in shape of the body . The change in shape is called deformation

Influence of particle shape on the microstructure evolution and the mechanical properties of granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Jianqiu; Liu, Enlong; Jiang, Lian; Jiang, Xiaoqiong; Sun, Yi; Xu, Ran

2018-06-01

In order to study the influence of particle shape on the microstructure evolution and the mechanical properties of granular materials, a two-dimensional DEM analysis of samples with three particle shapes, including circular particles, triangular particles, and elongated particles, is proposed here to simulate the direct shear tests of coarse-grained soils. For the numerical test results, analyses are conducted in terms of particle rotations, fabric evolution, and average path length evolution. A modified Rowe's stress-dilatancy equation is also proposed and successfully fitted onto simulation data.

A comprehensive study of MPI parallelism in three-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) simulation of complex-shaped granular particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Beichuan; Regueiro, Richard A.

2018-02-01

A three-dimensional (3D) DEM code for simulating complex-shaped granular particles is parallelized using message-passing interface (MPI). The concepts of link-block, ghost/border layer, and migration layer are put forward for design of the parallel algorithm, and theoretical scalability function of 3-D DEM scalability and memory usage is derived. Many performance-critical implementation details are managed optimally to achieve high performance and scalability, such as: minimizing communication overhead, maintaining dynamic load balance, handling particle migrations across block borders, transmitting C++ dynamic objects of particles between MPI processes efficiently, eliminating redundant contact information between adjacent MPI processes. The code executes on multiple US Department of Defense (DoD) supercomputers and tests up to 2048 compute nodes for simulating 10 million three-axis ellipsoidal particles. Performance analyses of the code including speedup, efficiency, scalability, and granularity across five orders of magnitude of simulation scale (number of particles) are provided, and they demonstrate high speedup and excellent scalability. It is also discovered that communication time is a decreasing function of the number of compute nodes in strong scaling measurements. The code's capability of simulating a large number of complex-shaped particles on modern supercomputers will be of value in both laboratory studies on micromechanical properties of granular materials and many realistic engineering applications involving granular materials.

Steel slag: a waste industrial by-product as an alternative sustainable green building material in construction applications--an attempt for solid waste management.

PubMed

Pofale, Arun D; Nadeem, Mohammed

2012-01-01

This investigation explores the possibility of utilizing granular slag as an alternative to fine aggregate (natural sand) in construction applications like masonry and plastering. Construction industry utilizes large volume of fine aggregate in all the applications which has resulted into shortage of good quality naturally available fine aggregate. Use of granular slag serves two fold purposes, i.e. waste utilisation as well as alternative eco-friendly green building material for construction. The investigation highlights comparative study of properties with partial and full replacement of fine aggregate (natural sand) by granular slag in cement mortar applications (masonry and plastering). For this purpose, cement mortar mix proportions from 1:3, 1:4, 1:5 & 1:6 by volume were selected for 0, 25, 50, 75 & 100% replacement levels with w/c ratios of 0.60, 0.65, 0.70 & 0.72 respectively. Based on the study results, it could be inferred that replacement of natural sand with granular slag from 25 to 75% increased the packing density of mortar which resulted into reduced w/c ratio, increased strength properties of all mortar mixes. Hence, it could be recommended that the granular slag could be effectively utilized as fine aggregate in masonry and plastering applications in place of conventional cement mortar mixes using natural sand.

Novel Discrete Element Method for 3D non-spherical granular particles.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seelen, Luuk; Padding, Johan; Kuipers, Hans

2015-11-01

Granular materials are common in many industries and nature. The different properties from solid behavior to fluid like behavior are well known but less well understood. The main aim of our work is to develop a discrete element method (DEM) to simulate non-spherical granular particles. The non-spherical shape of particles is important, as it controls the behavior of the granular materials in many situations, such as static systems of packed particles. In such systems the packing fraction is determined by the particle shape. We developed a novel 3D discrete element method that simulates the particle-particle interactions for a wide variety of shapes. The model can simulate quadratic shapes such as spheres, ellipsoids, cylinders. More importantly, any convex polyhedron can be used as a granular particle shape. These polyhedrons are very well suited to represent non-rounded sand particles. The main difficulty of any non-spherical DEM is the determination of particle-particle overlap. Our model uses two iterative geometric algorithms to determine the overlap. The algorithms are robust and can also determine multiple contact points which can occur for these shapes. With this method we are able to study different applications such as the discharging of a hopper or silo. Another application the creation of a random close packing, to determine the solid volume fraction as a function of the particle shape.

Advanced phosphorus recovery using a novel SBR system with granular sludge in simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal process.

PubMed

Lu, Yong-Ze; Wang, Hou-Feng; Kotsopoulos, Thomas A; Zeng, Raymond J

2016-05-01

In this study, a novel process for phosphorus (P) recovery without excess sludge production from granular sludge in simultaneous nitrification-denitrification and P removal (SNDPR) system is presented. Aerobic microbial granules were successfully cultivated in an alternating aerobic-anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for removing P and nitrogen (N). Dense and stable granular sludge was created, and the SBR system showed good performance in terms of P and N removal. The removal efficiency was approximately 65.22 % for N, and P was completely removed under stable operating conditions. Afterward, new operating conditions were applied in order to enhance P recovering without excess sludge production. The initial SBR system was equipped with a batch reactor and a non-woven cloth filter, and 1.37 g of CH3COONa·3H2O was added to the batch reactor after mixing it with 1 L of sludge derived from the SBR reactor to enhance P release in the liquid fraction, this comprises the new system configuration. Under the new operating conditions, 93.19 % of the P contained in wastewater was released in the liquid fraction as concentrated orthophosphate from part of granular sludge. This amount of P could be efficiently recovered in the form of struvite. Meanwhile, a deterioration of the denitrification efficiency was observed and the granules were disintegrated into smaller particles. The biomass concentration in the system increased firstly and then maintained at 4.0 ± 0.15 gVSS/L afterward. These results indicate that this P recovery operating (PRO) mode is a promising method to recover P in a SNDPR system with granular sludge. In addition, new insights into the granule transformation when confronted with high chemical oxygen demand (COD) load were provided.

Erosion of a wet/dry granular interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jop, Pierre; Lefebvre, Gautier

2013-04-01

To model the dynamic of landslides, the evolution of the interface between the erodible ground and the flowing material is still studied experimentally or numerically (ie. Mangeney et al. 2010, Iverson 2012). In some cases, the basal material is more cohesive than the flowing one. Such situation arises for example due to cementation or humidity. What are the exchange rates between these phases? What is the coupling between the evolution of the interface and the flow? We studied the erosion phenomenon and performed laboratory experiments to focus on the interaction between a cohesive unsaturated granular material and a dry granular flow. Both materials were spherical grains, the cohesion being induced by adding a given mass of liquid to the grains. Two configurations were explored: a circular aggregate submitted to a dry flow in a rotating drum, and a granular flow eroding a wet granular pile. First, we focused on the influence of the cohesion, controlled by the liquid properties, such as the surface tension and the viscosity. Then the flow characteristics were modified by varying the grain size and density. These results allowed us to present a model for the erosion mechanisms, based on the flow and fluid properties. The main results are the need to take into account the whole probability distribution the stress applied on the wet grains and that both the surface tension and the viscosity are important since they play a different roles. The latter is mainly responsible of the time scale of the dynamic of a wet grain, while the former acts as a threshold on the force distribution. In the second configuration, we could also control the inclination of the slope. This system supported the previous model and moreover revealed an interface instability, leading the formation of steep steps, which is a reminiscence of the cyclic-steps observed during river-channel incision (Parker and Izumi 2000). We will present the dynamics of such granular steps. [1] Mangeney, A., O. Roche, O. Hungr, N. Mangold, G. Faccanoni, and A. Lucas (2010), Erosion and mobility in granular collapse over sloping beds, J. Geophys. Res., 115, F03040, doi:10.1029/2009JF001462. [2] Iverson, R. M. (2012), Elementary theory of bed-sediment entrainment by debris flows and avalanches, J. Geophys. Res., 117, F03006, doi:10.1029/2011JF002189. [3] Parker G.and Izumi N., Purely erosional cyclic and solitary steps created by flow over a cohesive bed, J. Fluid Mech. (2000), vol. 419, pp. 203-238.

Computational Modeling of Interfacial Behaviors in Nanocomposite Materials

PubMed Central

Lin, Liqiang; Wang, Xiaodu; Zeng, Xiaowei

2017-01-01

Towards understanding the bulk material response in nanocomposites, an interfacial zone model was proposed to define a variety of material interface behaviors (e.g. brittle, ductile, rubber-like, elastic-perfectly plastic behavior etc.). It also has the capability to predict bulk material response though independently control of the interface properties (e.g. stiffness, strength, toughness). The mechanical response of granular nanocomposite (i.e. nacre) was investigated through modeling the “relatively soft” organic interface as an interfacial zone among “hard” mineral tablets and simulation results were compared with experimental measurements of stress-strain curves in tension and compression tests. Through modeling varies material interfaces, we found out that the bulk material response of granular nanocomposite was regulated by the interfacial behaviors. This interfacial zone model provides a possible numerical tool for qualitatively understanding of structure-property relationships through material interface design. PMID:28983123

Construction demolition wastes, Waelz slag and MSWI bottom ash: a comparative technical analysis as material for road construction.

PubMed

Vegas, I; Ibañez, J A; San José, J T; Urzelai, A

2008-01-01

The objective of the study is to analyze the technical suitability of using secondary materials from three waste flows (construction and demolition waste (CDW), Waelz slag and municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash), under the regulations and standards governing the use of materials for road construction. A detailed technical characterization of the materials was carried out according to Spanish General Technical Specifications for Road Construction (PG3). The results show that Waelz slag can be adequate for using in granular structural layers, while CDW fits better as granular material in roadbeds. Likewise, fresh MSWI bottom ash can be used as roadbed material as long as it does not contain a high concentration of soluble salts. This paper also discusses the adequacy of using certain traditional test methods for natural soils when characterizing secondary materials for use as aggregates in road construction.

Tuning ligament shape in dealloyed nanoporous tin and the impact of nanoscale morphology on its applications in Na-ion alloy battery anodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Detsi, Eric; Petrissans, Xavier; Yan, Yan; Cook, John B.; Deng, Ziling; Liang, Yu-Lun; Dunn, Bruce; Tolbert, Sarah H.

2018-05-01

Control over the morphology of nanostructured materials is of primary importance in structure-property relationship studies. Although the size of ligaments and pores in dealloyed nanoporous metals can be controlled by thermal and/or (electro)chemical treatments, tuning the shape of those ligaments is much harder. In the present work, we use corroding media with different reactivity to effectively tailor the ligament shape in nanoporous tin (NP-Sn) during dealloying by free corrosion. NP-Sn architectures with nanowire and granular ligament shapes were made by controlling the pH of the corroding solution, and thus the rate of Sn oxidation relative to the etching rate of the sacrificial component. The standard nanowire structure was formed under acidic conditions where oxidation was slow, but a hierarchical granular structure was formed when fusion of the Sn nanocrystals was inhibited by surface oxidation. To demonstrate the advantages of this architectural control, these two materials systems were investigated as electrodes for Na-ion battery anodes. Similar initial Na storage capacities of ˜500 and 550 mAh/g were achieved in the nanowire and granular materials, respectively, but the cycle life of the two materials was quite different. NP-Sn with a granular ligament shape showed enhanced stability with a capacity retention of ˜55 % over 95 cycles at a specific current of 40 mA/g. By contrast, NP-Sn with a nanowire ligament shape showed very fast capacity fading within the first 10 cycles. This work thus demonstrates the dramatic impact of the nanoscale morphology on the electrochemical performance of nanoporous materials and highlights the need for both shape and size control in dealloyed nanoporous metals.

Predicting Thermal Conductivity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Penn, B.; Ledbetter, F. E., III; Clemons, J.

1984-01-01

Empirical equation predicts thermal conductivity of composite insulators consisting of cellular, granular or fibrous material embedded in matrix of solid viscoelastic material. Application in designing custom insulators for particular environments.

The formation of granular fronts in debris flow - A combined experimental-numerical study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leonardi, Alessandro; Cabrera, Miguel; Wittel, Falk K.; Kaitna, Roland; Mendoza, Miller; Wu, Wei; Herrmann, Hans J.

2015-04-01

Granular fronts are amongst the most spectacular features of debris flows, and are also one of the reasons why such events are associated with a strong destructive power. They are usually believed to be the result of the convective mechanism of the debris flow, combined with internal size segregation of the grains. However, the knowledge about the conditions leading to the formation of a granular front is not up to date. We present a combined study with experimental and numerical features that aims at providing insight into the phenomenon. A stationary, long-lived avalanche is created within a rotating drum. In order to mimic the composition of an actual debris flow, the material is composed by a mixture of a plastic fluid, obtained with water and kaolin powder, and a collection of monodisperse spherical particles heavier than the fluid. Tuning the material properties and the drum settings, we are able to reproduce and control the formation of a granular front. To gain insight into the internal mechanism, the same scenario is replicated in a numerical environment, using a coupling technique between a discrete solver for the particles, the Discrete Element Method, and a continuum solver for the plastic fluid, the Lattice-Boltzmann Method. The simulations compare well with the experiments, and show the internal reorganization of the material transport. The formation of a granular front is shown to be favored by a higher drum rotational speed, which in turn forces a higher shear rate on the particles, breaks their internal organization, and contrasts their natural tendency to settle. Starting from dimensional analysis, we generalize the obtained results and are able to draw implications for debris flow research.

Optimization of the dynamic behavior of strongly nonlinear heterogeneous materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herbold, Eric B.

New aspects of strongly nonlinear wave and structural phenomena in granular media are developed numerically, theoretically and experimentally. One-dimensional chains of particles and compressed powder composites are the two main types of materials considered here. Typical granular assemblies consist of linearly elastic spheres or layers of masses and effective nonlinear springs in one-dimensional columns for dynamic testing. These materials are highly sensitive to initial and boundary conditions, making them useful for acoustic and shock-mitigating applications. One-dimensional assemblies of spherical particles are examples of strongly nonlinear systems with unique properties. For example, if initially uncompressed, these materials have a sound speed equal to zero (sonic vacuum), supporting strongly nonlinear compression solitary waves with a finite width. Different types of assembled metamaterials will be presented with a discussion of the material's response to static compression. The acoustic diode effect will be presented, which may be useful in shock mitigation applications. Systems with controlled dissipation will also be discussed from an experimental and theoretical standpoint emphasizing the critical viscosity that defines the transition from an oscillatory to monotonous shock profile. The dynamic compression of compressed powder composites may lead to self-organizing mesoscale structures in two and three dimensions. A reactive granular material composed of a compressed mixture of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), tungsten (W) and aluminum (Al) fine-grain powders exhibit this behavior. Quasistatic, Hopkinson bar, and drop-weight experiments show that composite materials with a high porosity and fine metallic particles exhibit a higher strength than less porous mixtures with larger particles, given the same mass fraction of constituents. A two-dimensional Eulerian hydrocode is implemented to investigate the mechanical deformation and failure of the compressed powder samples in simulated drop-weight tests. The calculations indicate that the dynamic formation of mesoscale force chains increase the strength of the sample. This is also apparent in three-dimensional finite element calculations of drop-weight test simulations using LS-Dyna despite a higher granular bulk coordination number, and an increased mobility of individual grains.

Torsional rheometer for granular materials slurries and gas-solid mixtures and related methods

DOEpatents

Rajagopal, C.; Rajagopal, K.R.; Yalamanchili, R.C.

1997-03-11

A torsional rheometer apparatus for determining rheological properties of a specimen is provided. A stationary plate and a rotatable plate are in generally coaxial position and structured to receive a specimen there between. In one embodiment, at least one of the plates and preferably both have roughened specimen engaging surfaces to serve to reduce undesired slippage between the plate and the specimen. A motor is provided to rotate the rotatable plate and a transducer for monitoring forces applied to the stationary plate and generating output signals to a computer which determines the desired rheological properties are provided. In one embodiment, the roughened surfaces consist of projections extending toward the specimen. Where granular material is being evaluated, it is preferred that the roughness of the plate is generally equal to the average size of the granular material being processed. In another embodiment, an air-solid mixture is processed and the roughened portions are pore openings in the plates. Air flows through the region between the two pore containing plates to maintain the solid materials in suspension. In yet another embodiment, the base of the stationary plate is provided with a deformable capacitance sensor and associated electronic means. 17 figs.

Torsional rheometer for granular materials slurries and gas-solid mixtures and related methods

DOEpatents

Rajagopal, Chandrika; Rajagopal, Kumbakonam R.; Yalamanchili, Rattaya C.

1997-01-01

A torsional rheometer apparatus for determining rheological properties of a specimen is provided. A stationary plate and a rotatable plate are in generally coaxial position and structured to receive a specimen therebetween. In one embodiment, at least one of the plates and preferably both have roughened specimen engaging surfaces to serve to reduce undesired slippage between the plate and the specimen. A motor is provided to rotate the rotatable plate and a transducer for monitoring forces applied to the stationary plate and generating output signals to a computer which determines the desired rheological properties are provided. In one embodiment, the roughened surfaces consist of projections extending toward the specimen. Where granular material is being evaluated, it is preferred that the roughness of the plate is generally equal to the average size of the granular material being processed. In another embodiment, an air-solid mixture is processed and the roughened portions are pore openings in the plates. Air flows through the region between the two pore containing plates to maintain the solid materials in suspension. In yet another embodiment, the base of the stationary plate is provided with a deformable capacitance sensor and associated electronic means.

A new data-processing approach to study particle motion using ultrafast X-ray tomography scanner: case study of gravitational mass flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waktola, Selam; Bieberle, Andre; Barthel, Frank; Bieberle, Martina; Hampel, Uwe; Grudzień, Krzysztof; Babout, Laurent

2018-04-01

In most industrial products, granular materials are often required to flow under gravity in various kinds of silo shapes and usually through an outlet in the bottom. There are several interrelated parameters which affect the flow, such as internal friction, bulk and packing density, hopper geometry, and material type. Due to the low-spatial resolution of electrical capacitance tomography or scanning speed limitation of standard X-ray CT systems, it is extremely challenging to measure the flow velocity and possible centrifugal effects of granular materials flow effectively. However, ROFEX (ROssendorf Fast Electron beam X-ray tomography) opens new avenues of granular flow investigation due to its very high temporal resolution. This paper aims to track particle movements and evaluate the local grain velocity during silo discharging process in the case of mass flow. The study has considered the use of the Seramis material, which can also serve as a type of tracer particles after impregnation, due to its porous nature. The presented novel image processing and analysis approach allows satisfyingly measuring individual particle velocities but also tracking their lateral movement and three-dimensional rotations.

Density waves in granular flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrmann, H. J.; Flekkøy, E.; Nagel, K.; Peng, G.; Ristow, G.

Ample experimental evidence has shown the existence of spontaneous density waves in granular material flowing through pipes or hoppers. Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations we show that several types of waves exist and find that these density fluctuations follow a 1/f spectrum. We compare this behaviour to deterministic one-dimensional traffic models. If positions and velocities are continuous variables the model shows self-organized criticality driven by the slowest car. We also present Lattice Gas and Boltzmann Lattice Models which reproduce the experimentally observed effects. Density waves are spontaneously generated when the viscosity has a nonlinear dependence on density which characterizes granular flow.

Scaled experiments to determine the role of density on granular flows behavior: preliminary results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez Sedano, L. A.; Sarocchi, D.; Borselli, L.; Segura, O.

2013-12-01

Geological granular flows are very complex, gravity driven phenomena which can show different behaviors depending on its origin and the characteristics of the constituent material. Due to their dangerous nature, and multiple scientific and technological applications, these phenomena has being studied deeply in order to have a better comprehension, however, after more than one century of scientific research it remains as an open topic with more questions than answers. One of the aspects that still need exhaustive research is the effect of clast density on the flowing granular material, as pointed out by previous laboratory and field studies. There are anyway few studies which have tried to explain the role of bulk density, as well the density of different phases, as it increasing or decreasing on the kinematic and the rheological characteristics of geological granular flows. The content of low density juvenile material seems to condition the processes of transformations of debris flows to more diluted phases, as well the transport and emplacing mechanisms. It is well known that the content of clay in debris flows has great influence on its behavior, physical processes and the deposits characteristics for this reason lahars has being subdivided in base of this parameter. Our hypothesis is that, in like manner, the presence of low density material inside the granular flows (dry and wet) could conditioning its physical characteristics and its behavior. In order to put this to the test, we made some laboratory experiments using a five meter long and 0.3 m wide experimental flume equipped with a wide range of sensors and laser barriers to precisely measure the rheological properties and kinematic of the sliding avalanches. A special effort was devoted to determine a threshold or critical level in the amount of low density material at which the avalanche behavior suffer appreciable changes. The obtained preliminary results confirm our hypothesis and encouraged to perform further experiments. Such studies are important because they could provide useful information for developing analog models that take into account this important physical property.

DEM simulation of flow of dumbbells on a rough inclined plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandal, Sandip; Khakhar, Devang

2015-11-01

The rheology of non-spherical granular materials such as food grains, sugar cubes, sand, pharmaceutical pills, among others, is not understood well. We study the flow of non-spherical dumbbells of different aspect ratios on a rough inclined plane by using soft sphere DEM simulations. The dumbbells are generated by fusing two spheres together and a linear spring dashpot model along with Coulombic friction is employed to calculate inter-particle forces. At steady state, a uni-directional shear flow is obtained which allows for a detailed study of the rheology. The effect of aspect ratio and inclination angle on mean velocity, volume fraction, shear rate, shear stress, pressure and viscosity profiles is examined. The effect of aspect ratio on probability distribution of angles, made by the major axes of the dumbbells with the flow direction, average angle and order parameter is analyzed. The dense flow rheology is well explained by Bagnold's law and the constitutive laws of JFP model. The dependencies of first and second normal stress differences on aspect ratio are studied. The probability distributions of translational and rotational velocity are analyzed.

Fibronectin non-amyloid glomerulopathy.

PubMed

Yong, Jim L; Killingsworth, Murray C; Spicer, S Timothy; Wu, Xiao-Juan

2009-11-20

A 41-year-old Burmese man presented with nephrotic syndrome, a creatinine level of 150 micromol/L and limited clinical history. His renal biopsy demonstrated glomerulopathy with large eosinophilic deposits in the mesangium and capillary loops that were negative for Congo red, slightly positive for periodic acid-Schiff and blue with Masson trichrome stain. Immunofluorescence microscopy with a routine antibody panel was unhelpful. Electron microscopy demonstrated extensive, moderately electron-dense deposits in the subendothelial space, subepithelial space and mesangium that could be differentiated from adjacent basement membrane by their increased electron density. The deposits contained finely granular material and occasional filaments with variable diameter ranging from 9-16 nm. Fibronectin glomerulopathy was suspected from anti-fibronectin immunohistochemistry that showed positive staining of thickened capillary loops. This staining was subsequently confirmed by immunoelectron microscopy demonstrating the presence of cellular fibronectin (cFN) in deposits. Significantly, deposition of fibronectin appeared to have occurred in the absence of thickening or folding of the adjacent basement membrane. The prominent mesangial location of deposits containing a cFN isotype may indicate that retention of local fibronectin produced in the mesangium has contributed to this pathology.

Fibronectin non-amyloid glomerulopathy

PubMed Central

Yong, Jim L; Killingsworth, Murray C; Spicer, S Timothy; Wu, Xiao-Juan

2010-01-01

A 41-year-old Burmese man presented with nephrotic syndrome, a creatinine level of 150 µmol/L and limited clinical history. His renal biopsy demonstrated glomerulopathy with large eosinophilic deposits in the mesangium and capillary loops that were negative for Congo red, slightly positive for periodic acid-Schiff and blue with Masson trichrome stain. Immunofluorescence microscopy with a routine antibody panel was unhelpful. Electron microscopy demonstrated extensive, moderately electron-dense deposits in the subendothelial space, subepithelial space and mesangium that could be differentiated from adjacent basement membrane by their increased electron density. The deposits contained finely granular material and occasional filaments with variable diameter ranging from 9-16 nm. Fibronectin glomerulopathy was suspected from anti-fibronectin immunohistochemistry that showed positive staining of thickened capillary loops. This staining was subsequently confirmed by immunoelectron microscopy demonstrating the presence of cellular fibronectin (cFN) in deposits. Significantly, deposition of fibronectin appeared to have occurred in the absence of thickening or folding of the adjacent basement membrane. The prominent mesangial location of deposits containing a cFN isotype may indicate that retention of local fibronectin produced in the mesangium has contributed to this pathology. PMID:20126589

"EGM" (Electrostatics of Granular Matter): A Space Station Experiment to Examine Natural Particulate Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marshall, J.; Sauke, T.; Buehler, M.; Farrell, W.; Green, R.; Birchenough, A.

1999-09-01

A granular-materials experiment is being developed for a 2002 launch for Space Station deployment. The experiment is funded by NASA HQ and managed through NASA Lewis Research Center. The experiment will examine electrostatic aggregation of coarse granular materials with the goals of (a) obtaining proof for an electrostatic dipole model of grain interactions, and (b) obtaining knowledge about the way aggregation affects the behavior of natural particulate masses: (1) in unconfined dispersions (clouds such as nebulae, aeolian dust palls, volcanic plumes), (2) in semi-confined, self-loaded masses as in fluidized flows (pyroclastic surges, avalanches) and compacted regolith, or (3) in semi-confined non-loaded masses as in dust layers adhering to solar cells or space suits on Mars. The experiment addresses both planetary/astrophysical issues as well as practical concerns for human exploration of Mars or other solar system bodies. Additional information is contained in the original.

Rheology of wet granular materials under continuous shear: experiments and simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Badetti, Michel; Fall, Abdoulaye; Roux, Jean-Noël

2017-06-01

The behaviour of wet granular media in shear flow is characterized by the dependence of apparent friction μ* and solid fraction Φs on the reduced pressure P* and the inertia number I. Reduced pressure, P* = σ22a2/F0, compares the applied normal stress σ22 on grains of diameter a to the tensile strength of contact F0 (proportional to the surface tension D of the liquid and the beads diameter). A specifically modified rotational rheometer is used to characterize the response of model wet granular material to applied shear rate \\dot γ under controlled normal stress σ22. Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations in 3D are carried out in parallel and numerical results are compared with experimental ones. Cohesive, inertia, saturation and viscous effects on macroscopic coefficient of friction μ* and solid fraction Φs are discussed.

Motion Imagery and Robotics Application (MIRA): Standards-Based Robotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martinez, Lindolfo; Rich, Thomas; Lucord, Steven; Diegelman, Thomas; Mireles, James; Gonzalez, Pete

2012-01-01

This technology development originated from the need to assess the debris threat resulting from soil material erosion induced by landing spacecraft rocket plume impingement on extraterrestrial planetary surfaces. The impact of soil debris was observed to be highly detrimental during NASA s Apollo lunar missions and will pose a threat for any future landings on the Moon, Mars, and other exploration targets. The innovation developed under this program provides a simulation tool that combines modeling of the diverse disciplines of rocket plume impingement gas dynamics, granular soil material liberation, and soil debris particle kinetics into one unified simulation system. The Unified Flow Solver (UFS) developed by CFDRC enabled the efficient, seamless simulation of mixed continuum and rarefied rocket plume flow utilizing a novel direct numerical simulation technique of the Boltzmann gas dynamics equation. The characteristics of the soil granular material response and modeling of the erosion and liberation processes were enabled through novel first principle-based granular mechanics models developed by the University of Florida specifically for the highly irregularly shaped and cohesive lunar regolith material. These tools were integrated into a unique simulation system that accounts for all relevant physics aspects: (1) Modeling of spacecraft rocket plume impingement flow under lunar vacuum environment resulting in a mixed continuum and rarefied flow; (2) Modeling of lunar soil characteristics to capture soil-specific effects of particle size and shape composition, soil layer cohesion and granular flow physics; and (3) Accurate tracking of soil-borne debris particles beginning with aerodynamically driven motion inside the plume to purely ballistic motion in lunar far field conditions.

A test of the double-shearing model of flow for granular materials

USGS Publications Warehouse

Savage, J.C.; Lockner, D.A.

1997-01-01

The double-shearing model of flow attributes plastic deformation in granular materials to cooperative slip on conjugate Coulomb shears (surfaces upon which the Coulomb yield condition is satisfied). The strict formulation of the double-shearing model then requires that the slip lines in the material coincide with the Coulomb shears. Three different experiments that approximate simple shear deformation in granular media appear to be inconsistent with this strict formulation. For example, the orientation of the principal stress axes in a layer of sand driven in steady, simple shear was measured subject to the assumption that the Coulomb failure criterion was satisfied on some surfaces (orientation unspecified) within the sand layer. The orientation of the inferred principal compressive axis was then compared with the orientations predicted by the double-shearing model. The strict formulation of the model [Spencer, 1982] predicts that the principal stress axes should rotate in a sense opposite to that inferred from the experiments. A less restrictive formulation of the double-shearing model by de Josselin de Jong [1971] does not completely specify the solution but does prescribe limits on the possible orientations of the principal stress axes. The orientations of the principal compression axis inferred from the experiments are probably within those limits. An elastoplastic formulation of the double-shearing model [de Josselin de Jong, 1988] is reasonably consistent with the experiments, although quantitative agreement was not attained. Thus we conclude that the double-shearing model may be a viable law to describe deformation of granular materials, but the macroscopic slip surfaces will not in general coincide with the Coulomb shears.

An experimental study of low velocity impacts into granular material in reduced gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murdoch, Naomi; Avila Martinez, Iris; Sunday, Cecily; Cherrier, Olivier; Zenou, Emanuel; Janin, Tristan; Cadu, Alexandre; Gourinat, Yves; Mimoun, David

2016-04-01

The granular nature of asteroid surfaces, in combination with the low surface gravity, makes it difficult to predict lander - surface interactions from existing theoretical models. Nonetheless, an understanding of such interactions is particularly important for the deployment of a lander package. This was demonstrated by the Philae lander, which bounced before coming to rest roughly 1 kilometer away from its intended landing site on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko before coming to rest (Biele et al., 2015). In addition to being important for planning the initial deployment, information about the acceleration profile upon impact is also important in the choice of scientific payloads that want to exploit the initial landing to study the asteroid surface mechanical properties (e.g., Murdoch et al., 2016). Using the ISAE-SUPAERO drop tower, we have performed a series of low-velocity collisions into granular material in low gravity. Reduced-gravity is simulated by releasing a free-falling projectile into a surface container with a downward acceleration less than that of Earth's gravity. The acceleration of the surface is controlled through the use an Atwood machine, or a system of pulleys and counterweights. In reducing the effective surface acceleration of the granular material, the confining pressure will be reduced, and the properties of the granular material will become more representative of those on an asteroid's surface. In addition, since both the surface and projectile are falling, the projectile requires a minimum amount of time to catch the surface before the collision begins. This extended free-fall increases the experiment duration, making it easier to use accelerometers and high-speed cameras for data collection. The experiment is built into an existing 5.5 m drop-tower frame and has required the custom design of all components, including the projectile, surface sample container, release mechanism and deceleration system (Sunday et al., 2016). Previous experiments using similar methods have demonstrated the important role of gravity in the peak accelerations and collision timescales during low velocity granular impacts (Goldman and Umbanhower, 2007; Alsthuler et al., 2013). The design of our experiment accommodates collision velocities and effective accelerations that are lower than in previous experiments (<20 cm/s and ˜0.1 - 1.0 m/s2, respectively), allowing us to come closer to the conditions that may be encountered by current and future small body missions. [1] Altshuler, E., et al., "Extraterrestrial sink dynamics in granular matter", arXiv 1305.6796, 2013. [2] Biele, J., et al., "The landing(s) of Philae and inferences about comet surface mechanical properties", Science, 349 (6247), 2015. [3] Goldman, D. I., Umbanhowar, P., Scaling and dynamics of sphere and disk impact into granular media, Physics Review E 77 (2), (2008) 021308. [4] Murdoch, N., et al. "Investigating the surface and subsurface properties of the Didymos binary asteroid with a landed CubeSat", EGU, 2016. [5] Sunday, C., et al., "An original facility for reduced-gravity testing: a set-up for studying low-velocity collisions into granular surfaces", Submitted to the Review of Scientific Instruments, 2016.

Nonlocal approach to the analysis of the stress distribution in granular systems. II. Application to experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, J. E.; Kenkre, V. M.; Hurd, A. J.

1998-05-01

A theory of stress propagation in granular materials developed recently [Kenkre, Scott, Pease, and Hurd, preceding paper, Phys. Rev. E 57, 5841 (1998)] is applied to the compaction of ceramic and metal powders in pipes with previously unexplained experimental features such as nonmonotonic density and stress variation along the axis of cylindrical compacts.

Increasing the formability of ferritic stainless steel tube by granular medium-based hot forming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, H.; Staupendahl, D.; Hiegemann, L.; Tekkaya, A. E.

2017-09-01

Ferritic stainless steel without the alloy constituent nickel is an economical substitution for austenitic stainless steel in the automotive industry. Its lower formability, however, oftentimes prevents the direct material substitution in forming processes such as hydroforming, necessitating new forming strategies. To extend the forming capacity of ferritic stainless steel tube, the approach of forming at elevated temperatures is proposed. Utilizing granular material as forming medium, high forming temperatures up to 900°C are realized. The forming process works by moving punches axially into the granular medium, thereby, compressing it and causing axial as well as radial pressure. In experimental and numerical investigations it is shown that interfacial friction between the granular medium and the tube inherently causes tube feed, resulting in stain states in the tension-compression region of the FLD. Formability data for this region are gained by notched tensile tests, which are performed at room temperature as well as at elevated temperatures. The measured data show that the formability is improved at forming temperatures higher than 700°C. This observed formability increase is experimentally validated using a demonstrator geometry, which reaches expansion ratios that show fracture in specimens formed at room temperature.

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-05-05

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is tested for long-term storage with water in the system as plarned for STS-107. This view shows the top of the sand column with the metal platten removed. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-05-05

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is tested for long-term storage with water in the system as plarned for STS-107. This view shows the compressed sand column with the protective water jacket removed. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

1998-01-25

A test cell for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is shown approximately 20 and 60 minutes after the start of an experiment on STS-89. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Evaluation of an up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor containing diatomite and maifanite for the improved treatment of petroleum wastewater.

PubMed

Chen, Chunmao; Liang, Jiahao; Yoza, Brandon A; Li, Qing X; Zhan, Yali; Wang, Qinghong

2017-11-01

Novel diatomite (R1) and maifanite (R2) were utilized as support materials in an up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor for the treatment of recalcitrant petroleum wastewater. At high organic loadings (11kg-COD/m 3 ·d), these materials were efficient at reducing COD (92.7% and 93.0%) in comparison with controls (R0) (88.4%). Higher percentages of large granular sludge (0.6mm or larger) were observed for R1 (30.3%) and R2 (24.6%) compared with controls (22.6%). The larger portion of granular sludge provided a favorable habitat that resulted in greater microorganism diversity. Increased filamentous bacterial communities are believed to have promoted granular sludge formation promoting a conductive environment for stimulation methanogenic Archaea. These communities had enhanced pH tolerance and produced more methane. This study illustrates a new potential use of diatomite and maifanite as support materials in UASB reactors for increased efficiency when treating refractory wastewaters. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Investigators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Key persornel in the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment at the University of Colorado at Boulder include Tawnya Ferbiak (software engineer), Susan Batiste (research assistant), and Christina Winkler (graduate research assistant). Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder).

Mechanic of Granular Materials (MGM) Investigator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Key persornel in the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment are Mark Lankton (Program Manager at University Colorado at Boulder), Susan Batiste (research assistance, UCB), and Stein Sture (principal investigator). Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that cannot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder).

Destabilization of confined granular packings due to fluid flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monloubou, Martin; Sandnes, Bjørnar

2016-04-01

Fluid flow through granular materials can cause fluidization when fluid drag exceeds the frictional stress within the packing. Fluid driven failure of granular packings is observed in both natural and engineered settings, e.g. soil liquefaction and flowback of proppants during hydraulic fracturing operations. We study experimentally the destabilization and flow of an unconsolidated granular packing subjected to a point source fluid withdrawal using a model system consisting of a vertical Hele-Shaw cell containing a water-grain mixture. The fluid is withdrawn from the cell at a constant rate, and the emerging flow patterns are imaged in time-lapse mode. Using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), we show that the granular flow gets localized in a narrow channel down the center of the cell, and adopts a Gaussian velocity profile similar to those observed in dry grain flows in silos. We investigate the effects of the experimental parameters (flow rate, grain size, grain shape, fluid viscosity) on the packing destabilization, and identify the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed complex flow behaviour.

Stopping dynamics of a steady uniform granular flow over a rough incline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deboeuf, Stéphanie; Saingier, Guillaume; Thiruvalluvar, Nitharshini; Lagrée, Pierre-Yves; Popinet, Stéphane; Staron, Lydie

2017-06-01

Granular material flowing on complex topographies are ubiquitous in industrial and geophysical situations. Even model granular flows are difficult to understand and predict. Recently, the frictional rheology μ(I) -describing the ratio of the shear stress to the normal stress as a function of the inertial number I, that compares inertial and confinement effects- allows unifying different configurations of granular flows. However it does not succeed in describing some phenomenologies, such as creep flow, deposit height, … Is it attributable to the rheology, to non-local effects, ...? Here, we consider a thin layer of grains flowing steadily and uniformly on a rough incline, when the input mass flow rate is suddenly stopped. We focus on the arrest dynamics by using both experimental and numerical approaches. We measure the height and surface velocities of the granular layer during the long-time stopping dynamics and we compare our experimental results with computations of depthaveraged equations for a fluid of rheology μ(I).

Scaling laws in granular flow and pedestrian flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shumiao; Alonso-Marroquin, Fernando; Busch, Jonathan; Hidalgo, Raúl Cruz; Sathianandan, Charmila; Ramírez-Gómez, Álvaro; Mora, Peter

2013-06-01

We use particle-based simulations to examine the flow of particles through an exit. Simulations involve both gravity-driven particles (representing granular material) and velocity-driven particles (mimicking pedestrian dynamics). Contact forces between particles include elastic, viscous, and frictional forces; and simulations use bunker geometry. Power laws are observed in the relation between flow rate and exit width. Simulations of granular flow showed that the power law has little dependence on the coefficient of friction. Polydisperse granular systems produced higher flow rates than those produced by monodisperse ones. We extend the particle model to include the main features of pedestrian dynamics: thoracic shape, shoulder rotation, and desired velocity oriented towards the exit. Higher desired velocity resulted in higher flow rate. Granular simulations always give higher flow rate than pedestrian simulations, despite the values of aspect ratio of the particles. In terms of force distribution, pedestrians and granulates share similar properties with the non-democratic distribution of forces that poses high risks of injuries in a bottleneck situation.

Simultaneous Cr(VI) bio-reduction and methane production by anaerobic granular sludge.

PubMed

Hu, Qian; Sun, Jiaji; Sun, Dezhi; Tian, Lan; Ji, Yanan; Qiu, Bin

2018-08-01

Wastewater containing toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) were treated with well-organized anaerobic granular sludge in this study. Results showed that the anaerobic granular sludge rapidly removed Cr(VI), and 2000 µg·L -1 Cr(VI) was completely eliminated within 6 min, which was much faster than the reported duration of removal by reported artificial materials. Sucrose added as a carbon source acted as an initial electron donor to reduce Cr(VI) to Cr(III). This process was considered as the main mechanism of Cr(VI) removal. Methane production by anaerobic granular sludge was improved by the addition of Cr(VI) at a concentration lower than 500 µg·L -1 . Anaerobic granular sludge had a well-organized structure, which presented good resistance against toxic Cr(VI). Trichoccus accelerated the degradation of organic substances to generate acetates with a low Cr(VI) concentration, thereby enhancing methane production by acetotrophic methanogens. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermodynamic limitations on the resolution obtainable with metal replicas.

PubMed

Woodward, J T; Zasadzinski, J A

1996-12-01

The major factor limiting resolution of metal-shadowed surfaces for electron and scanning tunnelling microscopy is the granularity of the metal film. This granularity had been believed to result from a recrystallization of the evaporated film, and hence could be limited by use of higher melting point materials for replication, or inhibited by adding carbon or other impurities to the film. However, evaporated and sputtered films of amorphous metal alloys that do not crystallize also show a granularity that decreases with increasing alloy melting point. A simple thermodynamic analysis shows that the granularity results from a dewetting of the typically low surface energy sample by the high surface energy metal film, similar to the beading up of drops of spilled mercury. The metal granularity and the resulting resolution of the metal-coated surface is proportional to the mobility of the metal on the surface after evaporation, which is related to the difference in temperature between the melting point of the metal and the sample surface temperature.

Role of 3D force networks in linking grain scale to macroscale processes in sheared granular debris

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mair, K.; Jettestuen, E.; Abe, S.

2013-12-01

Active faults, landslides and subglacial tills contain accumulations of granular debris that evolve during sliding. The macroscopic motion in these environments is at least to some extent determined by processes operating in this sheared granular material. A valid question is how the local behavior at the individual granular contacts actually sums up to influence macroscopic sliding. Laboratory experiments and numerical modeling can potentially help elucidate this. Observations of jamming (stick) and unjamming (flow) as well as concentrated shear bands on the scale of 5-10 grains suggest that a simple continuum description may be insufficient to capture important elements of the behavior. We therefore seek a measure of the organization of the granular fabric and the 3D structure of the load bearing skeleton that effectively demonstrates how the individual grain interactions are manifested in the macroscopic sliding behavior we observe. Contact force networks are an expression of this. Here we investigate the structure and variability of the most connected system spanning force networks produced in 3D discrete element models of granular layers under shear. We use percolation measures to identify, characterize, compare and track the evolution of these strongly connected contact force networks. We show that specific topological measures used in describing the networks, such as number of contacts and coordination number, are sensitive to grain size distribution (and likely the grain shape) of the material as well as loading conditions. Hence, faults of different maturity would be expected to accommodate shear in different ways. Distinct changes in the topological characteristics i.e. the geometry of strong force networks with accumulated strain are directly correlated to fluctuations in macroscopic shearing resistance. This suggests that 3D force networks play an important bridging role between individual grain scale processes and macroscopic sliding behavior.

Formation of aerobic granular sludge and the influence of the pH on sludge characteristics in a SBR fed with brewery/bottling plant wastewater.

PubMed

Stes, Hannah; Aerts, Sven; Caluwé, Michel; Dobbeleers, Thomas; Wuyts, Sander; Kiekens, Filip; D'aes, Jolien; De Langhe, Piet; Dries, Jan

2018-05-01

A laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated for 450 days to assess aerobic granule formation when treating brewery/bottling plant wastewater by consistent application of a feast/famine regime. The experiment was divided into three major periods according to the different operational conditions: (I) no pH control and strong fluctuations in organic loading rate (OLR) (1.18 ± 0.25 kgCOD·(m 3 ·day) -1 ), (II) pH control and aeration control strategy to reduce OLR fluctuations (1.45 ± 0.65 kgCOD·(m 3 ·day) -1 ) and (III) no pH control and stable OLR (1.42 ± 0.18 kgCOD·(m 3 ·day) -1 ). Aerobic granule formation was successful after 80 days and maintained during the subsequent 380 days. The aerobic granular sludge was characterized by SVI 5 and SVI 30 values below 60 mL.g -1 and dominated by granular, dense structures. An oxygen uptake rate based aeration control strategy insured endogenous respiration at the end of the aerobic phase, resulting in stable SBR operation when the influent composition fluctuated. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction results show no significant enrichment of Accumulibacter or Competibacter during the granulation process. The 16S rRNA sequencing results indicate enrichment of other, possibly important species during aerobic granule formation while treating brewery wastewaters.

Granular mechanics of normally consolidated fine soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yanqui, Calixtro

2017-06-01

In this paper, duality is demonstrated to be one of the inherent properties of granular packings, by mapping the stress-strain curve into the diagram that relates the pore ratio and the localization of the contact point. In this way, it is demonstrated that critical state is not related to the maximum void ratio, but to a unique value related to two different angles of packing, one limiting the domain of the dense state, and other limiting the domain of the loose state. As a consequence, packings can be dilative or contractive, as mutually exclusive states, except by the critical state point, where equations for both granular packings are equally valid. Further analysis shows that stresses, in a dilative packing, are transmitted by chains of contact forces, and, in a contractive packing, by shear forces. So that, stresses, for the first case, depend on the initial void ratio, and, for the second case, are independent. As it is known, normally consolidated and lightly overconsolidated fine soils are in loose state, and, hence, their strength is constant, because it does not depend on their initial void ratio; except at the critical state, for which, the consolidated-drained angle of friction is related to the plasticity index or the liquid limit. In this fashion, experimental results reported by several authors around the world are confronted with the theory, showing a good agreement.

Feasibility studies for the treatment and reuse of contaminated marine sediments.

PubMed

Bonomoa, L; Careghini, A; Dastoli, S; De Propris, L; Ferrari, G; Gabellini, M; Saponaro, S

2009-07-01

This paper presents preliminary results of laboratory tests aimed at evaluating the easibility of the remediation of marine sediments, which are polluted by mercury and petroleum hydrocarbons, dredged at the bay of Augusta (SR, Italy). The treatment is composed of two sequential steps: in the first, a cement-based granular material is produced (based on a high performance concrete approach); then, the volatile and the semi-volatile compounds in the granular material are removed by a thermal desorption step. Treated materials could be reused or put into caissons, according to their mechanical properties and environmental compatibility. The experiments were focused on evaluating the effect of the process parameter values on: (i) the evolution of cement hydration reactions, (ii) thermal desorption removal efficiencies, (iii) leaching behaviour of the treated material.

Energy deposition and neutron flux study in a gravity-driven dense granular target (DGT) with GEANT4 toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Qiang; Cui, Wenjuan; He, Zhiyong; Zhang, Xueying; Ma, Wenjing

2018-07-01

China initiative Accelerator Driven System (CiADS) has been approved as a strategic plan to build an ADS demonstration facility in the next few years. It proposed a new concept for a high-power spallation target: the gravity-driven dense granular target (DGT). As the same with a monolithic target (MT), both solid and liquid target, energy deposition and neutron flux are two critical issues. In this paper, we focus on these two issues and long for some valuable results for the project. Unlike a solid target, the internal geometry structure of a DGT is very complicated. To be as much as closer with the reality, we designed an algorithm and firstly packed the grains randomly in a cylindrical container in GEANT4 software. The packing result was in great agreement with the experimentally measured results. It shows that the algorithm is practicable. In the next step, all the simulations about energy deposition and neutron flux of a DGT were performed with the GEANT4 codes, and the results were compared with the data of a MT. Compared to a MT, a DGT has inarguable advantages in both terms of energy deposition and neutron flux. In addition, the simulations with different radius of grains were also performed. Finally, we found that both the energy deposition and neutron flux are nearly irrelevant to the radius of the grains in the range of 0.5 mm-5 mm when the packing density is same by analyzing the results meticulously.

Internal and surface waves in vibrofluidized granular materials: Role of cohesion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Kai

2018-05-01

Wave phenomena in vibrofluidized dry and partially wet granular materials confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry are investigated with numerical simulations considering individual particles as hard spheres. Short-ranged cohesive interactions arising from the formation of liquid bridges between adjacent particles are modeled by changing the velocity-dependent coefficient of restitution. Such a change effectively suppresses the formation of surface waves, in agreement with previous experimental observations. The difference in pattern creation arises from the suppressed momentum transfer due to wetting and it can be quantitatively understood from an analysis of binary impacts.

Experiments, Theory, and Simulation on the Evolution of Fabric in Granular Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-07-27

Evolution of Fabric in Granular- Materials "I S ELECTE AU 27 199Z A 60 0 1C cb t H" Thi f, : :,ent h,- beo:n approved t f,:,z p, L~i- an-. .,!,’c d ...Hall 6.1102F Ithaca, New York 14853-1503 SPONSORING/MOYITORI G AGENCY NAME( S ) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING LFOSR / / V . AGENCY REPORT...else loop j (1,jgp) xvel(l,j) = svel xvel(igp,j) = - s -vel end-loop end .if end ;--- analysis function --- def analyse d -vol = 0.0 loop i (1,izones

Experimental observations of root growth in a controlled photoelastic granular material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barés, Jonathan; Mora, Serge; Delenne, Jean-Yves; Fourcaud, Thierry

2017-06-01

We present a novel root observation apparatus capable of measuring the mechanical evolution of both the root network and the surrounding granular medium. The apparatus consists of 11 parallel growth frames, two of them being shearable, where the roots grow inside a photo-elastic or glass granular medium sandwiched between two pieces of glass. An automated system waters the plant and image each frame periodically in white light and between crossed polarisers. This makes it possible to follow (i) the root tips and (ii) the grain displacements as well as (iii) their inner pressure. We show how a root networks evolve in a granular medium and how it can mechanically stabilize it. This constitutes a model experiment to move forward in the understanding of the complex interaction between root growth and surrounding soil mechanical evolution.

Perspectives of flax processing wastes in building materials production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smirnova, Olga

2017-01-01

The paper discusses the possibility of using the flax boons for thermal insulation materials. The solution for systematization of materials based on flax boon is suggested. It based on the principle of building materials production using the flax waste with different types of binders. The purpose of the research is to obtain heat-insulating materials with different structure based on agricultural production waste - flax boon, mineral and organic binders. The composition and properties of organic filler - flax boons - are defined using infrared spectroscopy and standard techniques. Using the method of multivariate analysis the optimal ratio of flax boons and binders in production of pressed, porous and granular materials are determined. The effect of particles size distribution of flax boons on the strength of samples with the different composition is studied. As a result, the optimized compositions of pressed, porous and granular materials based on flax boons are obtained. Data on the physical and mechanical properties of these materials are given in the paper.

Cortical cell and neuron density estimates in one chimpanzee hemisphere.

PubMed

Collins, Christine E; Turner, Emily C; Sawyer, Eva Kille; Reed, Jamie L; Young, Nicole A; Flaherty, David K; Kaas, Jon H

2016-01-19

The density of cells and neurons in the neocortex of many mammals varies across cortical areas and regions. This variability is, perhaps, most pronounced in primates. Nonuniformity in the composition of cortex suggests regions of the cortex have different specializations. Specifically, regions with densely packed neurons contain smaller neurons that are activated by relatively few inputs, thereby preserving information, whereas regions that are less densely packed have larger neurons that have more integrative functions. Here we present the numbers of cells and neurons for 742 discrete locations across the neocortex in a chimpanzee. Using isotropic fractionation and flow fractionation methods for cell and neuron counts, we estimate that neocortex of one hemisphere contains 9.5 billion cells and 3.7 billion neurons. Primary visual cortex occupies 35 cm(2) of surface, 10% of the total, and contains 737 million densely packed neurons, 20% of the total neurons contained within the hemisphere. Other areas of high neuron packing include secondary visual areas, somatosensory cortex, and prefrontal granular cortex. Areas of low levels of neuron packing density include motor and premotor cortex. These values reflect those obtained from more limited samples of cortex in humans and other primates.

Magnetic testing for inter-granular crack defect of tubing coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Bo; Yu, Runqiao

2018-04-01

This study focused on the inter-granular crack defects of tubing coupling wherein a non-destructive magnetic testing technique was proposed to determine the magnetic flux leakage features on coupling surface in the geomagnetic field using a high-precision magnetic sensor. The abnormal magnetic signatures of defects were analysed, and the principle of the magnetic test was explained based on the differences in the relative permeability of defects and coupling materials. Abnormal fluctuations of the magnetic signal were observed at the locations of the inter-granular crack defects. Imaging showed the approximate position of defects. The test results were proven by metallographic phase.

Planar ceramic membrane assembly and oxidation reactor system

DOEpatents

Carolan, Michael Francis; Dyer, legal representative, Kathryn Beverly; Wilson, Merrill Anderson; Ohm, Ted R.; Kneidel, Kurt E.; Peterson, David; Chen, Christopher M.; Rackers, Keith Gerard; Dyer, deceased, Paul Nigel

2007-10-09

Planar ceramic membrane assembly comprising a dense layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material, wherein the dense layer has a first side and a second side, a porous layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material in contact with the first side of the dense layer, and a ceramic channeled support layer in contact with the second side of the dense layer. The planar ceramic membrane assembly can be used in a ceramic wafer assembly comprising a planar ceramic channeled support layer having a first side and a second side; a first dense layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the first side of the ceramic channeled support layer; a first outer support layer comprising porous mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material and having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the outer side of the first dense layer; a second dense layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the second side of the ceramic channeled layer; and a second outer support layer comprising porous mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material and having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the outer side of the second dense layer.

Planar ceramic membrane assembly and oxidation reactor system

DOEpatents

Carolan, Michael Francis; Dyer, legal representative, Kathryn Beverly; Wilson, Merrill Anderson; Ohrn, Ted R.; Kneidel, Kurt E.; Peterson, David; Chen, Christopher M.; Rackers, Keith Gerard; Dyer, Paul Nigel

2009-04-07

Planar ceramic membrane assembly comprising a dense layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material, wherein the dense layer has a first side and a second side, a porous layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material in contact with the first side of the dense layer, and a ceramic channeled support layer in contact with the second side of the dense layer. The planar ceramic membrane assembly can be used in a ceramic wafer assembly comprising a planar ceramic channeled support layer having a first side and a second side; a first dense layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the first side of the ceramic channeled support layer; a first outer support layer comprising porous mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material and having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the outer side of the first dense layer; a second dense layer of mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the second side of the ceramic channeled layer; and a second outer support layer comprising porous mixed-conducting multi-component metal oxide material and having an inner side and an outer side, wherein the inner side is in contact with the outer side of the second dense layer.

Effects of coarse aggregate on the physical properties of Florida concrete mixes.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-10-01

Portland cement concrete is a heterogeneous, composite material composed of coarse and fine granular material : embedded in a matrix of hardened paste. The coarse material is aggregate, which is primarily used as inexpensive filler : and comprises th...

Quantifying Void Ratio in Granular Materials Using Voronoi Tessellation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alshibli, Khalid A.; El-Saidany, Hany A.; Rose, M. Franklin (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Voronoi technique was used to calculate the local void ratio distribution of granular materials. It was implemented in an application-oriented image processing and analysis algorithm capable of extracting object edges, separating adjacent particles, obtaining the centroid of each particle, generating Voronoi polygons, and calculating the local void ratio. Details of the algorithm capabilities and features are presented. Verification calculations included performing manual digitization of synthetic images using Oda's method and Voronoi polygon system. The developed algorithm yielded very accurate measurements of the local void ratio distribution. Voronoi tessellation has the advantage, compared to Oda's method, of offering a well-defined polygon generation criterion that can be implemented in an algorithm to automatically calculate local void ratio of particulate materials.

Microgravity Experiments to Evaluate Electrostatic Forces in Controlling Cohesion and Adhesion of Granular Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marshall, J.; Weislogel, M.; Jacobson, T.

1999-01-01

The bulk behavior of dispersed, fluidized, or undispersed stationary granular systems cannot be fully understood in terms of adhesive/cohesive properties without understanding the role of electrostatic forces acting at the level of the grains themselves. When grains adhere to a surface, or come in contact with one another in a stationary bulk mass, it is difficult to measure the forces acting on the grains, and the forces themselves that induced the cohesion and adhesion are changed. Even if a single gain were to be scrutinized in the laboratory, it might be difficult, perhaps impossible, to define the distribution and character of surface charging and the three- dimensional relationship that charges (electrons, holes) have to one another. The hypothesis that we propose to test in microgravity (for dielectric materials) is that adhesion and cohesion of granular matter are mediated primarily by dipole forces that do not require the presence of a net charge; in fact, nominally electrically neutral materials should express adhesive and cohesive behavior when the neutrality results from a balance of positive and negative charge carriers. Moreover, the use of net charge alone as a measure of the electrical nature of grain-to-grain relationships within a granular mass may be misleading. We believe that the dipole forces arise from the presence of randomly-distributed positive and negative fixed charge carriers on grains that give rise to a resultant dipole moment. These dipole forces have long-range attraction. Random charges are created whenever there is triboelectrical activity of a granular mass, that is, whenever the grains experience contact/separation sequences or friction. Electrostatic forces are generally under-estimated for their role in causing agglomeration of dispersed grains in particulate clouds, or their role in affecting the internal frictional relationships in packed granular masses. We believe that electrostatic, in particular dipole-mediated processes, are pervasive and probably affect, at some level, everything from astrophysical-scale granular systems such as interstellar nebulae, protoplanetary dust and debris disks, planetary-scale systems such as debris palls from meteorite impact, volcanic eruptions, and aeolian dust storms, all the way to industrial-scale systems in mining, powder and grain processing, pharmaceuticals, and smoke-stack technologies. NASA must concern itself with the electrostatic behavior of dust and sand on Mars because of its potentially critical importance to human exploration. The motion and adhesion of martian surface materials will affect the design and performance of spacesuits, habitats, processing plants, solar panels, and any externally exposed equipment such as surface rovers or communication and weather stations. Additionally, the adhesion of dust and sand could greatly enhance contact with the potentially toxic components of the martian soil.

Dynamic and impact contact mechanics of geologic materials: Grain-scale experiments and modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cole, David M.; Hopkins, Mark A.; Ketcham, Stephen A.

2013-06-18

High fidelity treatments of the generation and propagation of seismic waves in naturally occurring granular materials is becoming more practical given recent advancements in our ability to model complex particle shapes and their mechanical interaction. Of particular interest are the grain-scale processes that are activated by impact events and the characteristics of force transmission through grain contacts. To address this issue, we have developed a physics based approach that involves laboratory experiments to quantify the dynamic contact and impact behavior of granular materials and incorporation of the observed behavior indiscrete element models. The dynamic experiments do not involve particle damagemore » and emphasis is placed on measured values of contact stiffness and frictional loss. The normal stiffness observed in dynamic contact experiments at low frequencies (e.g., 10 Hz) are shown to be in good agreement with quasistatic experiments on quartz sand. The results of impact experiments - which involve moderate to extensive levels of particle damage - are presented for several types of naturally occurring granular materials (several quartz sands, magnesite and calcium carbonate ooids). Implementation of the experimental findings in discrete element models is discussed and the results of impact simulations involving up to 5 Multiplication-Sign 105 grains are presented.« less

Ottawa Sand for Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

What appear to be boulders fresh from a tumble down a mountain are really grains of Ottawa sand, a standard material used in civil engineering tests and also used in the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment. The craggy surface shows how sand grans have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even causing sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM uses the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. These images are from an Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) study conducted by Dr. Binayak Panda of IITRI for Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). (Credit: NASA/MSFC)

Analysis of the Angle of Maximal Stability and Flow Regime Transitions in Different Proportions of Bi-phasic Granular Matter Mixtures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maquiling, Joel Tiu; Visaga, Shane Marie

This study investigates the dependence of the critical angle θc of stability on different mass ratios γ of layered bi-phasic granular matter mixtures and on the critical angle of its mono-disperse individual components. It also aims to investigate and explain regime transitions of granular matter flowing down a tilted rough inclined plane. Critical angles and flow regimes for a bi-phasic mixture of sago spheres and bi-phasic pepper mixture of fine powder and rough spheres were observed and measured using video analysis. The critical angles θc MD of mono-disperse granular matter and θc BP of biphasic granular matter mixtures were observed and compared. All types of flow regimes and a supramaximal critical angle of stability exist at mass ratio γ = 0.5 for all biphasic granular matter mixtures. The θc BP of sago spheres was higher than the θc MD of sago spheres. Moreover, the θc BP of the pepper mixture was in between the θc MD of fine pepper and θc MD of rough pepper spheres. Comparison of different granular material shows that θc MD is not simply a function of particle diameter but of particle roughness as well. Results point to a superposition mechanism of the critical angles of biphasic sphere mixtures.

The Stability Analysis Method of the Cohesive Granular Slope on the Basis of Graph Theory.

PubMed

Guan, Yanpeng; Liu, Xiaoli; Wang, Enzhi; Wang, Sijing

2017-02-27

This paper attempted to provide a method to calculate progressive failure of the cohesivefrictional granular geomaterial and the spatial distribution of the stability of the cohesive granular slope. The methodology can be divided into two parts: the characterization method of macro-contact and the analysis of the slope stability. Based on the graph theory, the vertexes, the edges and the edge sequences are abstracted out to characterize the voids, the particle contact and the macro-contact, respectively, bridging the gap between the mesoscopic and macro scales of granular materials. This paper adopts this characterization method to extract a graph from a granular slope and characterize the macro sliding surface, then the weighted graph is analyzed to calculate the slope safety factor. Each edge has three weights representing the sliding moment, the anti-sliding moment and the braking index of contact-bond, respectively, . The safety factor of the slope is calculated by presupposing a certain number of sliding routes and reducing Weight repeatedly and counting the mesoscopic failure of the edge. It is a kind of slope analysis method from mesoscopic perspective so it can present more detail of the mesoscopic property of the granular slope. In the respect of macro scale, the spatial distribution of the stability of the granular slope is in agreement with the theoretical solution.

The effectiveness of resistive force theory in granular locomotiona)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Tingnan; Goldman, Daniel I.

2014-10-01

Resistive force theory (RFT) is often used to analyze the movement of microscopic organisms swimming in fluids. In RFT, a body is partitioned into infinitesimal segments, each of which generates thrust and experiences drag. Linear superposition of forces from elements over the body allows prediction of swimming velocities and efficiencies. We show that RFT quantitatively describes the movement of animals and robots that move on and within dry granular media (GM), collections of particles that display solid, fluid, and gas-like features. RFT works well when the GM is slightly polydisperse, and in the "frictional fluid" regime such that frictional forces dominate material inertial forces, and when locomotion can be approximated as confined to a plane. Within a given plane (horizontal or vertical) relationships that govern the force versus orientation of an elemental intruder are functionally independent of the granular medium. We use the RFT to explain features of locomotion on and within granular media including kinematic and muscle activation patterns during sand-swimming by a sandfish lizard and a shovel-nosed snake, optimal movement patterns of a Purcell 3-link sand-swimming robot revealed by a geometric mechanics approach, and legged locomotion of small robots on the surface of GM. We close by discussing situations to which granular RFT has not yet been applied (such as inclined granular surfaces), and the advances in the physics of granular media needed to apply RFT in such situations.

Analytical and Computational Modeling of Mechanical Waves in Microscale Granular Crystals: Nonlinearity and Rotational Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallen, Samuel P.

Granular media are one of the most common, yet least understood forms of matter on earth. The difficulties in understanding the physics of granular media stem from the fact that they are typically heterogeneous and highly disordered, and the grains interact via nonlinear contact forces. Historically, one approach to reducing these complexities and gaining new insight has been the study of granular crystals, which are ordered arrays of similarly-shaped particles (typically spheres) in Hertzian contact. Using this setting, past works explored the rich nonlinear dynamics stemming from contact forces, and proposed avenues where such granular crystals could form designer, dynamically responsive materials, which yield beneficial functionality in dynamic regimes. In recent years, the combination of self-assembly fabrication methods and laser ultrasonic experimental characterization have enabled the study of granular crystals at microscale. While our intuition may suggest that these microscale granular crystals are simply scaled-down versions of their macroscale counterparts, in fact, the relevant physics change drastically; for example, short-range adhesive forces between particles, which are negligible at macroscale, are several orders of magnitude stronger than gravity at microscale. In this thesis, we present recent advances in analytical and computational modeling of microscale granular crystals, in particular concerning the interplay of nonlinearity, shear interactions, and particle rotations, which have previously been either absent, or included separately at macroscale. Drawing inspiration from past works on phononic crystals and nonlinear lattices, we explore problems involving locally-resonant metamaterials, nonlinear localized modes, amplitude-dependent energy partition, and other rich dynamical phenomena. This work enhances our understanding of microscale granular media, which may find applicability in fields such as ultrasonic wave tailoring, signal processing, shock and vibration mitigation, and powder processing.

A numerical study of granular dam-break flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pophet, N.; Rébillout, L.; Ozeren, Y.; Altinakar, M.

2017-12-01

Accurate prediction of granular flow behavior is essential to optimize mitigation measures for hazardous natural granular flows such as landslides, debris flows and tailings-dam break flows. So far, most successful models for these types of flows focus on either pure granular flows or flows of saturated grain-fluid mixtures by employing a constant friction model or more complex rheological models. These saturated models often produce non-physical result when they are applied to simulate flows of partially saturated mixtures. Therefore, more advanced models are needed. A numerical model was developed for granular flow employing a constant friction and μ(I) rheology (Jop et al., J. Fluid Mech. 2005) coupled with a groundwater flow model for seepage flow. The granular flow is simulated by solving a mixture model using Finite Volume Method (FVM). The Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) technique is used to capture the free surface motion. The constant friction and μ(I) rheological models are incorporated in the mixture model. The seepage flow is modeled by solving Richards equation. A framework is developed to couple these two solvers in OpenFOAM. The model was validated and tested by reproducing laboratory experiments of partially and fully channelized dam-break flows of dry and initially saturated granular material. To obtain appropriate parameters for rheological models, a series of simulations with different sets of rheological parameters is performed. The simulation results obtained from constant friction and μ(I) rheological models are compared with laboratory experiments for granular free surface interface, front position and velocity field during the flows. The numerical predictions indicate that the proposed model is promising in predicting dynamics of the flow and deposition process. The proposed model may provide more reliable insight than the previous assumed saturated mixture model, when saturated and partially saturated portions of granular mixture co-exist.

Height-dependent Velocity Structure of Photospheric Convection in Granules and Intergranular Lanes with Hinode /SOT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oba, T.; Iida, Y.; Shimizu, T., E-mail: oba.takayoshi@ac.jaxa.jp

The solar photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun, where many bright granules, surrounded by narrow dark intergranular lanes, are observed everywhere. The granular pattern is a manifestation of convective motion at the photospheric level, but its velocity structure in the height direction is poorly understood observationally. Applying bisector analysis to a photospheric spectral line recorded by the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope, we derived the velocity structure of the convective motion in granular regions and intergranular lanes separately. The amplitude of motion of the convective material decreases from 0.65 to 0.40 km s{sup −1} as the material rises inmore » granules, whereas the amplitude of motion increases from 0.30 to 0.50 km s{sup −1} as it descends in intergranular lanes. These values are significantly larger than those obtained in previous studies using bisector analysis. The acceleration of descending materials with depth is not predicted from the convectively stable condition in a stratified atmosphere. Such convective instability can be developed more efficiently by radiative cooling and/or a gas pressure gradient, which can control the dynamical behavior of convective material in intergranular lanes. Our analysis demonstrated that bisector analysis is a useful method for investigating the long-term dynamic behavior of convective material when a large number of pixels is available. In addition, one example is the temporal evolution of granular fragmentation, in which downflowing material develops gradually from a higher layer downward.« less

Simulating immersed particle collisions: the Devil's in the details

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biegert, Edward; Vowinckel, Bernhard; Meiburg, Eckart

2015-11-01

Simulating densely-packed particle-laden flows with any degree of confidence requires accurate modeling of particle-particle collisions. To this end, we investigate a few collision models from the fluids and granular flow communities using sphere-wall collisions, which have been studied by a number of experimental groups. These collisions involve enough complexities--gravity, particle-wall lubrication forces, particle-wall contact stresses, particle-wake interactions--to challenge any collision model. Evaluating the successes and shortcomings of the collision models, we seek improvements in order to obtain more consistent results. We will highlight several implementation details that are crucial for obtaining accurate results.

A Two-Phase Solid/Fluid Model for Dense Granular Flows Including Dilatancy Effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangeney, Anne; Bouchut, Francois; Fernandez-Nieto, Enrique; Narbona-Reina, Gladys

2015-04-01

We propose a thin layer depth-averaged two-phase model to describe solid-fluid mixtures such as debris flows. It describes the velocity of the two phases, the compression/dilatation of the granular media and its interaction with the pore fluid pressure, that itself modifies the friction within the granular phase (Iverson et al., 2010). The model is derived from a 3D two-phase model proposed by Jackson (2000) based on the 4 equations of mass and momentum conservation within the two phases. This system has 5 unknowns: the solid and fluid velocities, the solid and fluid pressures and the solid volume fraction. As a result, an additional equation inside the mixture is necessary to close the system. Surprisingly, this issue is inadequately accounted for in the models that have been developed on the basis of Jackson's work (Bouchut et al., 2014). In particular, Pitman and Le replaced this closure simply by imposing an extra boundary condition at the surface of the flow. When making a shallow expansion, this condition can be considered as a closure condition. However, the corresponding model cannot account for a dissipative energy balance. We propose here an approach to correctly deal with the thermodynamics of Jackson's equations. We close the mixture equations by a weak compressibility relation involving a critical density, or equivalently a critical pressure. Moreover, we relax one boundary condition, making it possible for the fluid to escape the granular media when compression of the granular mass occurs. Furthermore, we introduce second order terms in the equations making it possible to describe the evolution of the pore fluid pressure in response to the compression/dilatation of the granular mass without prescribing an extra ad-hoc equation for the pore pressure. We prove that the energy balance associated with this Jackson closure is dissipative, as well as its thin layer associated model. We present several numerical tests for the 1D case that are compared to the results of the model proposed by Pitman and Le. Bouchut, Fernandez-Nieto, Mangeney, Narbona-Reina, 2014, ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis, in press. Iverson et al., 2010, J. Geophys. Res. 115: F03005. Jackson, 2000, Cambridge Monographs on Mechanics. Pitman and Le, Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 363, 1573-1601, 2005.

A Two-Phase Solid/Fluid Model for Dense Granular Flows Including Dilatancy Effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mangeney, A.; Bouchut, F.; Fernández-Nieto, E. D.; Narbona-Reina, G.; Kone, E. H.

2014-12-01

We propose a thin layer depth-averaged two-phase model to describe solid-fluid mixtures such as debris flows. It describes the velocity of the two phases, the compression/dilatation of the granular media and its interaction with the pore fluid pressure, that itself modifies the friction within the granular phase (Iverson et al., 2010). The model is derived from a 3D two-phase model proposed by Jackson (2000) based on the 4 equations of mass and momentum conservation within the two phases. This system has 5 unknowns: the solid and fluid velocities, the solid and fluid pressures and the solid volume fraction. As a result, an additional equation inside the mixture is necessary to close the system. Surprisingly, this issue is inadequately accounted for in the models that have been developed on the basis of Jackson's work (Bouchut et al., 2014). In particular, Pitman and Le replaced this closure simply by imposing an extra boundary condition at the surface of the flow. When making a shallow expansion, this condition can be considered as a closure condition. However, the corresponding model cannot account for a dissipative energy balance. We propose here an approach to correctly deal with the thermodynamics of Jackson's equations. We close the mixture equations by a weak compressibility relation involving a critical density, or equivalently a critical pressure. Moreover, we relax one boundary condition, making it possible for the fluid to escape the granular media when compression of the granular mass occurs. Furthermore, we introduce second order terms in the equations making it possible to describe the evolution of the pore fluid pressure in response to the compression/dilatation of the granular mass without prescribing an extra ad-hoc equation for the pore pressure. We prove that the energy balance associated with this Jackson closure is dissipative, as well as its thin layer associated model. We present several numerical tests for the 1D case that are compared to the results of the model proposed by Pitman and Le. Bouchut, Fernandez-Nieto, Mangeney, Narbona-Reina, 2014, ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis, in press. Iverson, Logan, LaHusen, Berti, 2010, J. Geophys. Res. 115: F03005. Jackson, 2000, Cambridge Monographs on Mechanics. Pitman and Le, Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 363, 1573-1601, 2005.

Slip-localization within confined gouge powder sheared at moderate to high slip-velocity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reches, Zeev; Chen, Xiaofeng; Morgan, Chance; Madden, Andrew

2015-04-01

Slip along faults in the upper crust is always associated with comminution and formation of non-cohesive gouge powder that can be lithified to cataclasite. Typically, the fine-grained powders (grain-size < 1 micron) build a 1-10 cm thick inner-core of a fault-zone. The ubiquitous occurrence of gouge powder implies that gouge properties may control the dynamic weakening of faults. Testing these properties is the present objective. We built a Confined ROtary Cell, CROC, with a ring-shape, ~3 mm thick gouge chamber, with 62.5 and 81.2 mm of inner and outer diameters. The sheared powder is sealed by two sets of seals pressurized by nitrogen. In CROC, we can control the pore-pressure and to inject fluids, and to monitor CO2 and H2O concentration; in addition, we monitor the standard mechanical parameters (slip velocity, stresses, dilation, and temperature). We tested six types of granular materials (starting grain-size in microns): Talc (<250), Kasota dolomite (125-250), ooides grains (125-250), San Andreas fault zone powder (< 840), montmorillonite powder (1-2), kaolinite powder and gypsum. The experimental slip-velocity ranged 0.001-1 m/s, slip distances from a few tens of cm to tens of m, effective normal stress up to 6.1 MPa. The central ultra-microscopic (SEM) observation is that almost invariably the slip was localized along principal-slip-zone (PSZ) within the granular layer. Even though the starting material was loose, coarse granular material, the developed PSZ was cohesive, hard, smooth and shining. The PSZ is about 1 micron thick, and built of agglomerated, ultra-fine grains (20-50 nm) that were pulverized from the original granular material. We noted that PSZs of the different tested compositions display similar characteristics in terms of structure, grain size, and roughness. Further, we found striking similarities between PSZ in the granular samples and the PZS that developed along experimental faults made of solid rock that were sheared at similar conditions. The ultra-fine grains and extreme slip localization in these experiments are generally similar to ultra-cataclasites found in exhumed faults-zones, and the intensely pulverized gouge found in drilling across active faults.

Dilatancy and compaction effects on the submerged granular column collapse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chun; Wang, Yongqi; Peng, Chong; Meng, Xiannan

2017-10-01

The effects of dilatancy on the collapse dynamics of granular materials in air or in a liquid are studied experimentally and numerically. Experiments show that dilatancy has a critical effect on the collapse of granular columns in the presence of an ambient fluid. Two regimes of the collapse, one being quick and the other being slow, are observed from the experiments and the underlying reasons are analyzed. A two-fluid smoothed particle hydrodynamics model, based on the granular-fluid mixture theory and the critical state theory, is employed to investigate the complex interactions between the solid particles and the ambient water. It is found that dilatancy, resulting in large effective stress and large frictional coefficient between solid particles, helps form the slow regime. Small permeability, representing large inter-phase drag force, also retards the collapse significantly. The proposed numerical model is capable of reproducing these effects qualitatively.

Effect of periodic fluctuation of soil particle rotation resistance on interface shear behaviour

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebrahimian, Babak; Noorzad, Asadollah

2010-06-01

The interface behaviour between infinite extended narrow granular layer and bounding structure is numerically investigated using finite element method. The micro-polar (Cosserat) continuum approach within the framework of elasto-plasticity is employed to remove the numerical difficulties caused by strain-softening of materials in classical continuum mechanics. Mechanical properties of cohesionless granular soil are described with Lade's model enhanced with polar terms including Cosserat rotations, curvatures and couple stresses via mean grain diameter as the internal length. The main attention of paper is laid on the influence of spatial periodic fluctuation of rotation resistance of soil particles interlocked with the surface of bounding structure on evolution and location of shear band developed inside granular body. The finite element results demonstrate that the location and evolution of shear localization in granular body is strongly affected by prescribed non-uniform micro-polar kinematic boundary conditions along the interface.

Biotransformation of RDX and HMX by Anaerobic Granular Sludge with Enriched Sulfate and Nitrate.

PubMed

An, Chunjiang; Shi, Yarong; He, Yanling; Huang, Guohe; Liu, Yonghong; Yang, Shucheng

2017-05-01

  RDX and HMX are widely used energetic materials and they are recognized as environmental contaminants at numerous locations. The present study investigated the biotransformation of RDX and HMX by anaerobic granular sludge under sulfate- and nitrate-enriched conditions. The results showed that RDX and HMX could be transformed by anaerobic granular sludge when nitrate was present. However, the biotransformation of RDX and HMX was negatively influenced, especially with high nitrate concentrations. Sulfate-enriched conditions were more favorable for the removal of ammunition compounds by anaerobic granular sludge than nitrate-enriched conditions. The removal of RDX and HMX under both nitrate- and sulfate-enriched conditions was facilitated by the use of glucose as additional substrate. This knowledge may help identify factors required for rapid removal of RDX and HMX in high-rate bioreactors. These results can also be applied to devise an appropriate and practical biological treatment strategy for explosive contaminated wastewater.

Scaling laws for the mechanics of loose and cohesive granular materials based on Baxter's sticky hard spheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaume, Johan; Löwe, Henning; Tan, Shurun; Tsang, Leung

2017-09-01

We have conducted discrete element simulations (pfc3d) of very loose, cohesive, granular assemblies with initial configurations which are drawn from Baxter's sticky hard sphere (SHS) ensemble. The SHS model is employed as a promising auxiliary means to independently control the coordination number zc of cohesive contacts and particle volume fraction ϕ of the initial states. We focus on discerning the role of zc and ϕ for the elastic modulus, failure strength, and the plastic consolidation line under quasistatic, uniaxial compression. We find scaling behavior of the modulus and the strength, which both scale with the cohesive contact density νc=zcϕ of the initial state according to a power law. In contrast, the behavior of the plastic consolidation curve is shown to be independent of the initial conditions. Our results show the primary control of the initial contact density on the mechanics of cohesive granular materials for small deformations, which can be conveniently, but not exclusively explored within the SHS-based assembling procedure.

Comparison of a 3-D DEM simulation with MRI data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ng, Tang-Tat; Wang, Changming

2001-04-01

This paper presents a comparison of a granular material studied experimentally and numerically. Simple shear tests were performed inside the magnetic core of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment. Spherical pharmaceutical pills were used as the granular material, with each pill's centre location determined by MRI. These centre locations in the initial assembly were then used as the initial configuration in the numerical simulation using the discrete element method. The contact properties between pharmaceutical pills used in the numerical simulation were obtained experimentally. The numerical predication was compared with experimental data at both macroscopic and microscopic levels. Good agreement was found at both levels.

Structural stability of rubble-pile asteroids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Ishan

2013-03-01

Granular aggregates, like fluids, do not admit all manners of shapes and rotation rates. It is hoped that an analysis of a suspected granular asteroid’s equilibrium shape and its structural stability will help confirm its rubble-pile nature, and, perhaps, even constrain the asteroid’s material parameters. Equilibrium shapes have been analyzed in the past by several investigators (Holsapple, K.A. [2001]. Icarus 154, 432-448; Harris, A.W., Fahnestock, E.G., Pravec, P. [2009]. Icarus 199, 310-318; Sharma, I., Jenkins, J.T., Burns, J.A. [2009]. Icarus 200, 304-322). Here, we extend the classical Lagrange-Dirichlet stability theorem to the case of self-gravitating granular aggregates. This stability test is then applied to probe the stability of several near-Earth asteroids, and explore the influence of material parameters such as internal friction angle and plastic bulk modulus. Finally, we consider their structural stability to close planetary encounters. We find that it is possible for asteroids to be stable to small perturbations, but unstable to strong and/or extended perturbations as experienced during close flybys. Conversely, assuming stability in certain situations, it is possible to estimate material properties of some asteroids like, for example, 1943 Anteros.

Microgravity

NASA Image and Video Library

1996-09-18

One of three Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) test cells after flight on STS-79 and before impregnation with resin. Note that the sand column has bulged in the middle, and that the top of the column is several inches lower than the top of the plastic enclosure. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditons that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM0 Flight Hardware in Bench Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Engineering bench system hardware for the Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) experiment is tested on a lab bench at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This is done in a horizontal arrangement to reduce pressure differences so the tests more closely resemble behavior in the microgravity of space. Sand and soil grains have faces that can cause friction as they roll and slide against each other, or even cause sticking and form small voids between grains. This complex behavior can cause soil to behave like a liquid under certain conditions such as earthquakes or when powders are handled in industrial processes. MGM experiments aboard the Space Shuttle use the microgravity of space to simulate this behavior under conditions that carnot be achieved in laboratory tests on Earth. MGM is shedding light on the behavior of fine-grain materials under low effective stresses. Applications include earthquake engineering, granular flow technologies (such as powder feed systems for pharmaceuticals and fertilizers), and terrestrial and planetary geology. Nine MGM specimens have flown on two Space Shuttle flights. Another three are scheduled to fly on STS-107. The principal investigator is Stein Sture of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder).

Computational domain discretization in numerical analysis of flow within granular materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sosnowski, Marcin

2018-06-01

The discretization of computational domain is a crucial step in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) because it influences not only the numerical stability of the analysed model but also the agreement of obtained results and real data. Modelling flow in packed beds of granular materials is a very challenging task in terms of discretization due to the existence of narrow spaces between spherical granules contacting tangentially in a single point. Standard approach to this issue results in a low quality mesh and unreliable results in consequence. Therefore the common method is to reduce the diameter of the modelled granules in order to eliminate the single-point contact between the individual granules. The drawback of such method is the adulteration of flow and contact heat resistance among others. Therefore an innovative method is proposed in the paper: single-point contact is extended to a cylinder-shaped volume contact. Such approach eliminates the low quality mesh elements and simultaneously introduces only slight distortion to the flow as well as contact heat transfer. The performed analysis of numerous test cases prove the great potential of the proposed method of meshing the packed beds of granular materials.

Spherical shock-wave propagation in three-dimensional granular packings.

PubMed

Xue, Kun; Bai, Chun-Hua

2011-02-01

We investigate numerically the spherical shock-wave propagation in an open dense granular packing perturbed by the sudden expansion of a spherical intruder in the interior of the pack, focusing on the correlation between geometrical fabrics and propagating properties. The measurements of the temporal and spatial variations in a variety of propagating properties define a consistent serrated wave substructure with characteristic length on the orders of particle diameters. Further inspection of particle packing reveals a well-defined particle layering that persists several particle diameters away from the intruder, although its dominant effects are only within one to two diameters. This interface-induced layering not only exactly coincides with the serrated wave profile, but also highlights the competition between two energy transmission mechanisms involving distinct transport speeds. The alternating dominances between these two mechanisms contribute to the nonlinear wave propagation on the particle scale. Moreover, the proliferation of intricate three-dimensional contact force networks suggests the anisotropic stress transmission, which is found to also arise from the localized packing structure in the vicinity of the intruder.

Rheology of granular flows across the transition from soft to rigid particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Favier de Coulomb, Adeline; Bouzid, Mehdi; Claudin, Philippe; Clément, Eric; Andreotti, Bruno

2017-10-01

The rheology of dense granular flows is often seen as dependent on the nature of the energy landscape defining the modes of energy relaxation under shear. We investigate numerically the transition from soft to rigid particles, varying S , their stiffness compared to the confining pressure over three decades, and the inertial number I of the shear flow over five decades. We show that the rheological constitutive relation, characterized by a dynamical friction coefficient of the form μ (I ) =μc+a Iα , is marginally affected by the particle stiffness, with constitutive parameters being essentially dependent on the interparticle friction. Similarly, the distribution of local shear rate mostly depends on the inertial number I , which shows that the characteristic time scale of plastic events is primarily controlled by the confining pressure and is insensitive to S . By contrast, the form under which energy is stored between these events and also the contact network properties such as the coordination number and the distance to isostaticity are strongly affected by stiffness, allowing us to discuss the different regimes in the (S ,I ) phase space.

SedFoam-2.0: a 3-D two-phase flow numerical model for sediment transport

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chauchat, Julien; Cheng, Zhen; Nagel, Tim; Bonamy, Cyrille; Hsu, Tian-Jian

2017-11-01

In this paper, a three-dimensional two-phase flow solver, SedFoam-2.0, is presented for sediment transport applications. The solver is extended from twoPhaseEulerFoam available in the 2.1.0 release of the open-source CFD (computational fluid dynamics) toolbox OpenFOAM. In this approach the sediment phase is modeled as a continuum, and constitutive laws have to be prescribed for the sediment stresses. In the proposed solver, two different intergranular stress models are implemented: the kinetic theory of granular flows and the dense granular flow rheology μ(I). For the fluid stress, laminar or turbulent flow regimes can be simulated and three different turbulence models are available for sediment transport: a simple mixing length model (one-dimensional configuration only), a k - ɛ, and a k - ω model. The numerical implementation is demonstrated on four test cases: sedimentation of suspended particles, laminar bed load, sheet flow, and scour at an apron. These test cases illustrate the capabilities of SedFoam-2.0 to deal with complex turbulent sediment transport problems with different combinations of intergranular stress and turbulence models.

Seismic wave propagation in granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tancredi, Gonzalo; López, Francisco; Gallot, Thomas; Ginares, Alejandro; Ortega, Henry; Sanchís, Johnny; Agriela, Adrián; Weatherley, Dion

2016-10-01

Asteroids and small bodies of the Solar System are thought to be agglomerates of irregular boulders, therefore cataloged as granular media. It is a consensus that many asteroids might be considered as rubble or gravel piles.Impacts on their surface could produce seismic waves which propagate in the interior of these bodies, thus causing modifications in the internal distribution of rocks and ejections of particles and dust, resulting in a cometary-type comma.We present experimental and numerical results on the study of propagation of impact-induced seismic waves in granular media, with special focus on behavior changes by increasing compression.For the experiment, we use an acrylic box filled with granular materials such as sand, gravel and glass spheres. Pressure inside the box is controlled by a movable side wall and measured with sensors. Impacts are created on the upper face of the box through a hole, ranging from free-falling spheres to gunshots. We put high-speed cameras outside the box to record the impact as well as piezoelectic sensors and accelerometers placed at several depths in the granular material to detect the seismic wave.Numerical simulations are performed with ESyS-Particle, a software that implements the Discrete Element Method. The experimental setting is reproduced in the numerical simulations using both individual spherical particles and agglomerates of spherical particles shaped as irregular boulders, according to rock models obtained with a 3D scanner. The numerical experiments also reproduces the force loading on one of the wall to vary the pressure inside the box.We are interested in the velocity, attenuation and energy transmission of the waves. These quantities are measured in the experiments and in the simulations. We study the dependance of these three parameters with characteristics like: impact speed, properties of the target material and the pressure in the media.These results are relevant to understand the outcomes of impacts in rubble/gravel pile asteroids.

The runout of granular material: from analogue to numerical modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Longchamp, Celine; Caspar, Olivier; Gygax, Remo; Podladchikov, Yury; Jaboyedoff, Michel

2014-05-01

Rock avalanches are catastrophic events in which important granular rock masses (>106 m3) travel at velocities up to ten meters per second. The mobilized rock mass travel long distances, which in exceptional cases can reach up to tens of kilometers. Those highly destructive and uncontrollable events, give important insight to understand the interactions between the displaced masses and landscape conditions. However, as those events are not frequent, analogue and numerical modelling plays a fundamental role to better understand their behaviour. The objective of the research is to explore the propagation of rock avalanches and to compare a simple numerical model with analogue modelling. The laboratory experiments investigate the fluidlike flow of a granular mass down a slope. The flow is unconfined, following a 45° slope and spreading freely on a horizontal depositional surface. Different grainsize of calibrate material (115, 545 and 2605 μm) and substratum roughness (simulate by aluminium and sandpapers with grainsize from 16 to 425 μm) were used in order to understand their influence on the motion of a granular mass. High speed movies are recorded to analyse the behaviour of the mass during the whole experiment. The numerical model is based on the continuum mechanics approach and solving the shallow water equations. The avalanche is described from an eulerian point of view within a continuum framework as single phase of incompressible granular material following Mohr-Coulomb friction law. The combination of the fluid dynamic equation with the frictional law enables the self-channelization of the mass without any topographic constraints or special border conditions. The results obtained with the numerical model are similar to those observed with the analogue. In both cases, based on similar initial condition (slope, volume, basal friction, height of fall and initial velocity), the runout of the mass is of comparable size and the shape of the deposit matches well. This preliminary version of the code gives encouraging results in agreement with those obtained with laboratory experiments.

Characteristics of undulatory locomotion in granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Zhiwei; Pak, On Shun; Elfring, Gwynn J.

2016-03-01

Undulatory locomotion is ubiquitous in nature and observed in different media, from the swimming of flagellated microorganisms in biological fluids, to the slithering of snakes on land, or the locomotion of sandfish lizards in sand. Despite the similarity in the undulating pattern, the swimming characteristics depend on the rheological properties of different media. Analysis of locomotion in granular materials is relatively less developed compared with fluids partially due to a lack of validated force models but recently a resistive force theory in granular media has been proposed and shown useful in studying the locomotion of a sand-swimming lizard. Here we employ the proposed model to investigate the swimming characteristics of a slender filament, of both finite and infinite length, undulating in a granular medium and compare the results with swimming in viscous fluids. In particular, we characterize the effects of drifting and pitching in terms of propulsion speed and efficiency for a finite sinusoidal swimmer. We also find that, similar to Lighthill's results using resistive force theory in viscous fluids, the sawtooth swimmer is the optimal waveform for propulsion speed at a given power consumption in granular media. The results complement our understanding of undulatory locomotion and provide insights into the effective design of locomotive systems in granular media.