A Statistical Estimation Model for the Impact Force of Dry Granular Flow Against Rigid Barrier

The impact force on retaining structure, which is caused by granular flow comprised of dry particles originated from shallow landslide failure, still lacks systematic studies. In order to support the potential design requirement of structure used to resist this kind of impact, a series of dry granular impact experiments are conducted on one rigid barrier model. According to parametric analysis results, one nonlinear regression model is proposed to correlate total normal impact force at critical time (F_cr) with its influential parameters. Further, we complete a systematic statistics analysis and obtain a subsequent optimum regression equation based on the proposed model. According to experience and dimension balance, the equation is modified and finally transformed into one non-dimensional equation, which shows good agreement between predicted and observed results.     

Origin of the Velocity-Strengthening Nature of Granular Friction

A simple theory for a constitutive law for steady state dynamic friction in granular matter is presented. Starting from the energy balance equation together with the kinetics of grains, the energy dissipation rate is estimated, which directly leads to a constitutive law. The result indicates that a system of lower density is stronger than a system of higher density, albeit somewhat counterintuitive. This is a consequence of the fact that the grain rearrangement, which causes energy dissipation, is more frequent in a system of lower density. Thus, the velocity-strengthening nature of granular friction is naturally explained by the negative shear-rate dependence of the density. The present theory also qualitatively explains the experimental observation that a system of smaller layer thickness tends to be velocity-weakening.     

Simulation of submerged granular flows by development of a two-phase incompressible explicit mesh-free method

The interaction between fluid and sediment particles is widely involved in hydraulic engineering problems. In the current study, an explicit incompressible mesh-free method in the framework of the Moving Particle Semi-implicit(MPS) method is proposed to simulate the interaction between the two phases in submerged conditions. The proposed method solves two sets of the continuity and momentum equations, respectively, for the fluid phase and the sediment phase according to the mixture theory. In th...     

The effects of water interactions on engineering structures

ABSTRACT

The intended performance of hydraulic structures such as dams built on soluble rock or soil foundations may depend upon rates of dissolution caused by water seeping through joints, fissures or granular zones. Previous papers by one author and collaborators have defined the rates of dissolution for soluble rocks by means of a simple equation: dM/dt = K A (C_s—C)^θ. This relationship may be used as an aid to prediction of enlargement of joints and fissures in rocks, settlements of granular foundation strata, the deterioration of filters, risks to shallow but intensely loaded foundations, and durability of underground storage caverns in soluble rocks. The relationship requires a knowledge of the solution potentials of groundwater associated with these features of engineering structures. They in turn require an understanding of the relevant hydrochemistry and hydrology which is discussed in this paper.     

Hierarchical simulator of biofilm growth and dynamics in granular porous materials

A new simulator is developed for the prediction of the rate and pattern of growth of biofilms in granular porous media. The biofilm is considered as a heterogeneous porous material that exhibits a hierarchy of length scales. An effective-medium model is used to calculate the local hydraulic permeability and diffusion coefficient in the biofilm, as functions of the local geometric and physicochemical properties. The Navier–Stokes equations and the Brinkman equation are solved numerically to determine the velocity and pressure fields within the pore space and the biofilm, respectively. Biofilm fragments become detached if they are exposed to shear stress higher than a critical value. The detached fragments re-enter into the fluid stream and move within the pore space until they exit from the system or become reattached to downstream grain or biofilm surfaces. A Lagrangian-type simulation is used to determine the trajectories of detached fragments. The spatiotemporal distributions of a carbon source, an electron acceptor and a cell-to-cell signaling molecule are determined from the numerical solution of the governing convection–diffusion–reaction equations. The simulator incorporates growth and apoptosis kinetics for the bacterial cells and production and lysis kinetics for the EPS. The specific growth rate of active bacterial cells depends on the local concentrations of nutrients, mechanical stresses, and a quorum sensing mechanism. Growth-induced deformation of the biofilms is implemented with a cellular automaton approach. In this work, the spatiotemporal evolution of biofilms in the pore space of a 2D granular medium is simulated under high flow rate and nutrient-rich conditions. Transient changes in the pore geometry caused by biofilm growth lead to the formation of preferential flowpaths within the granular porous medium. The decrease of permeability caused by clogging of the porous medium is calculated and is found to be in qualitative agreement with published experimental results.     

Effects of Mixing Granular Iron with Sand on the Kinetics of Trichloroethylene Reduction

A substantial cost of granular iron permeable reactive barriers is that of the granular iron itself. Cutting the iron with sand can reduce costs, but several performance issues arise. In particular, reaction rates are expected to decline as the percentage of iron in the blend is diminished. This might occur simply as a function of iron content, or mass transfer effects may play a role in a much less predictable fashion. Column experiments were conducted to investigate the performance consequences of mixing Connelly granular iron with sand using the reduction kinetics of trichloroethylene (TCE) to quantify the changes. Five mixing ratios (i.e., 100%, 85%, 75%, 50%, and 25% of iron by weight) were studied. The experimental data showed that there is a noticeable decrease in the reaction rate when the content of sand is 25% by weight (iron mass to pore volume ratio, Fe/V_p = 3548 g/L) or greater. An analysis of the reaction kinetics, using the Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate equation, indicated that mass transfer became an apparent cause of rate loss when the iron content fell below 50% by weight (Fe/V_p = 2223 g/L). Paradoxically, there were tentative indications that TCE removal rates were higher in a 15% sand + 85% iron mixture (Fe/V_p = 4416 g/L) than they were in 100% iron (Fe/V_p = 4577 g/L). This subtle improvement in performance might be due to an increase of iron surface available for contact with TCE, due to grain packing in the sand-iron mixture.     

Electrical conduction and formation factor in isotropic porous media

A macroscopic form of Ohm's law is obtained for isotropic porous media saturated with an electrically conductive fluid by using volumetric averaging concepts. Closure of the macroscopic charge transport equation is aided by approximative modelling of the average geometric structures of three different types of isotropic porous media, namely foamlike materials, granular media and crossflow over prismatic bundles. Modelling of the microscopic charge transport necessitated the introduction of a representative interstitial flux of charge carriers and required quantification of the geometric tortuosity applicable to transport phenomena in general. Deterministic expressions for the formation factor are obtained and compare favourably with experimental results.     

地震波在湿颗粒介质中的传播

本文利用拉格朗日运动方程建立了湿颗粒介质中的波场方程组,由此研究了平面简谐波在其中的传播。文中还导出了湿颗粒介质中的支承拉梅系数和耦合弹性系数的表示式。     

Stick–Slip and the Transition to Steady Sliding in a 2D Granular Medium and a Fixed Particle Lattice

We report an experimental study of the stick–slip to steady sliding behavior of a solid object pulled, via a spring, across 2D granular substrates of photoelastic disks that are either fixed in a solid lattice (granular solid) or unconstrained, forming a granular bed. We observe a progression of friction regimes with increasing sliding speed, including single-slip, double-slip, and mixed stick–slip regimes, steady sliding, and inertial oscillations. For the case of the granular bed, we report a detailed analysis of frictional behavior for the low speed stick–slip regime, including spring and elastic energy dependencies during the stick and slip portions of the motion. For the case of the granular solid, we explore friction in the presence and absence of externally applied vibrations, and compare it with sliding on a granular bed, which is intrinsically disordered. We observe that external vibration reduces transition values for both the single-slip to double-slip transition and the stick–slip to steady sliding transition. Moreover, we observe that the effect of packing disorder on granular friction seems similar to the effect of vibration-induced disorder, a result that, to our knowledge, has not been reported previously in the experimental literature.     

Mechanism for the instability of slopes composed of granular materials

The mechanism of instability of slopes composed of granular materials was examined through a tilting-box experiment using an assembly of aluminium rods and direct shear tests. A detailed observation of the experiment and the simple physical model led to the following conclusion. Avalanching of granular materials is triggered by rotation of rods at the slope surface. The force inducing the rotation was caused by the weight of the particles transmitted through contact points. Therefore, the mechanism of avalanching of granular materials was not comparable to the shear mechanism that has been considered to be responsible for the instability of slopes made of granular materials. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on wave propagation in granular medium

Summary The body wave propagation in granular medium is discussed in two sections. In Section I, the solutions of general equations of granular medium involving displacement vector and rotation vector are shown to be dependent on the solutions of four different equations. In Section II, the plane wave propagation is studied, showing the dispersion and dissipation of body waves in the granular medium.     

Granular flow experiments on the interaction with stationary runout path materials and comparison to rock avalanche events

The central focus of this work is to study the processes acting well below the surface of a moving rock or debris avalanche during travel over stationary substrate material. Small‐scale physical models at a linear scale of 1:10⁴ used coal as avalanche analogue material and different granular material simulating sedimentary substrates varying in frictional resistance, thickness and relative basal boundary roughness, as well as inerodible, non‐deformable runout path conditions. Substrate materials with the least frictional resistance showed the greatest response to granular flow overriding, becoming entirely mobilized beneath and ahead of the moving mass and producing the longest runout observed with a unique deposit profile shape. With a smooth substrate basal contact, failure occurred along this plane and avalanche and substrate became coupled during runout. With a rough base, however, temporary force chains of grain contacts in the substrate prevailed longer, imparted their resistance to motion/shear into the granular flow, and the flow rear section consequently halted earlier than when moving over substrates with a weak base. Reducing substrate thickness diminished the effect of basal contact roughness on granular flow runout and deposit length. Inerodible, non‐deformable substrate conditions caused changes in granular flow behaviour from essentially en masse sliding on low‐friction surfaces to increasing granular agitation over rougher paths. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Granular Controls on Periodicity of Stick-Slip Events: Kinematics and Force-Chains in an Experimental Fault

It is a long-standing question whether granular fault material such as gouge plays a major role in controlling fault dynamics such as seismicity and slip-periodicity. In both natural and experimental faults, granular materials resist shear and accommodate strain via interparticle friction, fracture toughness, fluid pressure, dilation, and interparticle rearrangements. Here, we isolate the effects of particle rearrangements on granular deformation through laboratory experiments. Within a sheared photoelastic granular aggregate at constant volume, we simultaneously visualize both particle-scale kinematics and interparticle forces, the latter taking the form of force-chains. We observe stick-slip deformation and associated force drops during an overall strengthening of the shear zone. This strengthening regime provides insight into granular rheology and conditions of stick-slip periodicity, and may be qualitatively analogous to slip that accompanies longer term interseismic strengthening of natural faults. Of particular note is the observation that increasing the packing density increases the stiffness of the granular aggregate and decreases the damping (increases time-scales) during slip events. At relatively loose packing density, the slip displacements during the events follow an approximately power-law distribution, as opposed to an exponential distribution at higher packing density. The system exhibits switching between quasi-periodic and aperiodic slip behavior at all packing densities. Higher packing densities favor quasi-periodic behavior, with a longer time interval between aperiodic events than between quasi-periodic events. This difference in the time-scale of aperiodic stick-slip deformation is reflected in both the kinematics of interparticle slip and the force-chain dynamics: all major force-chain reorganizations are associated with aperiodic events. Our experiments conceptually link observations of natural fault dynamics with current models for granular stick-slip dynamics. We find that the stick-slip dynamics are consistent with a driven harmonic oscillator model with damping provided by an effective viscosity, and that shear-transformation-zone, jamming, and crackling noise theories provide insight into the effective stiffness and patterns of shear localization during deformation.     

Visualizations and Optimization of Iron–Sand Mixtures for Permeable Reactive Barriers

Diluting granular iron with sand is a common practice performed to minimize clogging and to reduce the cost of permeable reactive barrier (PRB) installations. This study used a pore‐scale image analysis technique and a reanalysis of previously published data to test the hypothesis of Bi et al. (2009) that the mixing of 15% by weight sand with a commercial, platy‐grained iron medium opens the pore space between grains, exposes more reactive grain surface to flowing water, and leads to a more reactive medium (i.e., promoting faster transformation rates per unit volume of medium) than 100% by weight granular iron. Four mixing ratios (100, 85, 75 and 50% iron by weight) were compared on the basis of two morphological parameters measured in section: (1) total grain area, which correlates with the total amount of iron present, and (2) grain perimeter, which is governed by both the mobile solution‐available surface and the total amount of iron present. As expected, grain areas exposed in section were highest for 100% iron packings and decreased with increasing sand content. The estimated iron grain effective perimeters (i.e., accessible to mobile water) for 85% iron‐by weight mixtures were similar to 100% iron and decreased in 75 and 50% iron mixtures. The section confirmed that the presence of 15% sand by weight opened up the pore structure, likely improving the mobile‐water to iron contact. The analysis of kinetic column experimental data indicated that the same trend was present in the sorption capacity term in the Kinetic Iron Model (KIM) equation, providing corroborating evidence that the iron surface availability was higher in the 85% iron medium than the 100% iron medium on a per gram of iron basis.     

An experimental study of dispersion of an interactive tracer in chemically heterogeneous medium at a column scale

This paper aims at examining the increase of phenol adsorption breakthrough curves spreading caused by the chemical heterogeneity of granular activated carbon fixed beds. The local and the thermodynamic equilibrium assumption, as well as the nonlinear adsorption obeying to Langmuir isotherm, are considered. This study particularly tempts to link the reduced variance of phenol breakthrough curves to a measurable quantifying parameter of the chemical heterogeneity. The investigated artificial heterogeneous media are prepared by alternating layers of two types of granular activated carbon, active and non-active ones, that have similar physical properties. On the one hand, the chemical heterogeneity is quantified by the active layer relative thickness of the column length, l₁/L. On the other hand, it is quantified by the mean value of the probability distribution γ. The latter also represents the mean active grains mass ratio of the total medium mass, hence the medium mean capacity. The obtained results show an increase in the reduced variance and thus the effective global dispersion with the heterogeneity; the increase is as important as the medium capacity decreases. However, the dispersion increase achieves a limit value, even when the heterogeneity increases. The results are statistically modelled using a regression equation function of the capacity variation in terms of γ and the chemical heterogeneity in terms of l₁/L. The relationship combining the medium capacity and the chemical heterogeneity is obtained. The relationship implicitly takes into account the effect of the column length.     

A Unifying Phase Diagram for the Dynamics of Sheared Solids and Granular Materials

We present a simple unifying model that can be used to analyze, within a single framework, different dynamic regimes of shear deformation of brittle, plastic, and granular materials. The basic dynamic regimes seen in the response of both solids and granular materials to slowly increasing loading are scale-invariant behavior with power law statistics, quasi-periodicity of system size events, and persisting long term mode switching between the former two types of response. The model provides universal analytical mean field results on the statistics of failure events in the different regimes and distributed versus localized spatial responses. The results are summarized in a phase diagram spanned by three tuning parameters: dynamic strength change (weakening, neutral or strengthening) during slip events, dissipation of stress transfer (related to the void fraction in granular materials and damaged solids), and the ratio of shear rate over healing rate controlling the regaining of cohesion following failures in brittle solids. The mean field scaling predictions agree with experimental, numerical, and observational data on deformation avalanches of solids, granular materials, and earthquake faults. The model provides additional predictions that should be tested with future observation and simulation data.     

The micromechanics of friction in a granular layer

A grain bridge model is used to provide a physical interpretation of the rate- and state-dependent friction parameters for the simple shear of a granular layer. This model differs from the simpler asperity model in that it recognizes the difference between the fracture of a grain and the fracture of an adhesion between grains, and it explicitly accounts for dilation in the granular layer. The model provides an explanation for the observed differences in the friction of granular layers deformed between rough surfaces and those deformed between smooth surfaces and for the evolution of the friction parameters with displacement. The observed evolution from velocity strengthening to velocity weakening with displacement is interpreted as being due to the change in the micromechanics of strain accommodation from grain crushing to slip between adjacent grains; this change is associated with the observed evolution of a fractal grain structure.     

Numerical issues in plasticity models for granular materials

Friction plays a fundamental role in the mechanics of granular materials. Two problems are considered: (i) heap formation and (ii) granular flow. Both problems admit closely related mathematical models. In each case, analytical and numerical difficulties are discussed. Efficient and reliable numerical methods are proposed and implemented. The results are illustrated by several computational experiments.     

Numerical modelling of aeolian erosion over a surface with non‐uniformly distributed roughness elements

The present study is focused on the analysis of the mean wall friction velocity on a surface including roughness elements exposed to a turbulent boundary layer. These roughness elements represent non‐erodible particles over an erodible surface of an agglomeration of granular material on industrial sites. A first study has proposed a formulation that describes the evolution of the friction velocity as a function of geometrical parameters and cover rate with different uniform roughness distributions. The present simulations deal with non‐uniform distributions of particles with a random sampling of diameters, heights, positions and arrangements. The evolution (relative to geometrical parameters of the roughness elements) of the friction velocity for several non‐uniform distributions of roughness elements was analysed by the equation proposed in the literature and compared to the results obtained with the numerical simulations. This comparison showed very good agreement. Thus, the formulation developed for uniform particles was found also to be valid for a larger spectrum of particles noted on industrial sites. The present work aims also to investigate in detail the fluid mechanics over several roughness particles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In-plane and anti-plane strong shaking of soil systems and structures

The concept of in-plane and anti-plane shaking is introduced with a rigid block on a plane surface with Coulomb friction. Using a hypoplastic constitutive relation to model the mechanical behaviour of the soil, numerical solutions for a rigid block on a thin dry or saturated soil layer are obtained. The coupled nature of dynamic problems involving granular materials is shown, i.e. the motion of the block changes the soil state—skeleton stresses and density—which in turn affects the block motion. Motions of the block as well as soil response can be more realistically calculated by the new model. The same constitutive equation is applied to the numerical simulation of the propagation of plane waves in homogeneous and layered level soil deposits induced by a wave coming from below. Experiments with a novel laminar shake box as well as real seismic records from well-documented sites during strong earthquakes are used to verify the adequacy of the hypoplasticity-based numerical model for the prediction of soil response during strong earthquakes. The response of a homogeneous earth dam subjected to in-plane and anti-plane shaking is investigated numerically. In-plane and anti-plane shaking is shown to cause nearly the same spreading of a sand dam under drained conditions, whereas under undrained conditions anti-plane shaking causes stronger spreading of the dam. The dynamic behaviour of a breakwater founded on rockfill and soft clay during the 1995 Kobe earthquake is back-calculated to show the good performance of the proposed numerical model also with a structure. Section 9 deals with buildings on mattresses of densified cohesionless soils or fine-grained soils with granular columns, slopes with ‘hidden’ dams and structures on piles traversing clayey slopes to show the suitability of hypoplasticity-based models for the earthquake-resistant design and safety assessment of geotechnical systems.