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G?
is intersected by many stress discontinuities,
yet in the experimental determination of the -- B __c___,
velocity field described below there was n J 1 I
evidence of any velocity discontinuities. If &he . /
velocities are indeed a result of the stress dis-
-- - - - --z-p
made of aluminium were used to give a vari- The hopper was photographed with a cine-
ety of orifice sizes. We use the phrase hopper camera running at 8 or 16 frames per second,
thickness to denote the distance between the depending on the flow rate, and filming was
245
TABLE 1
lower part of the hopper the flow is con- Thus we expect the horizontal velocity u to
verging towards the orifice between stagnant be a function of the gradient of the particle
zones within which the velocity is too small velocity, au/ax,
to be measured and probably genuinely zero. au
We call the flowing part the converging flow
zone. At large distances above the orifice the
u=f -
t ax 1
velocity is uniform and this is described as the The simplest non-trivial form of this equa-
plug flow zone which is separated from the tion is
converging zone by a transition zone. Apart av
from the stagnant zone the zone boundaries u=-_B-
are ill-defined, one zone merging gradually ax
into the next. The stagnant zone boundary on
where B is a constant which, for want of a
the other hand is clear-cut and reproducible.
better name, we will call the kinematic
It is also noteworthy that the stagnant zone
constant.
boundary is not straight. Combining this with the continuity equa-
tion for an incompressible material (since
voidage changes are not large),
KINEMATIC MODEL
au au
+-=o (4)
We propose a model in which the particles Z ay
immediately above the orifice fall out of the
hopper and that the particles in the layer above yields
slide into the vacant space, jostling one an- au
other for position. The next layer similarly _ =Bg2 (5)
slips into the newly created space. This model ay
is purely kinematic, it being assumed that the This is exactly the equation obtained by
weight of each particle is sufficient to cause Mullins and is of the same form as that ob-
the motion which is therefore unaffected by tained by Litwiniszyn, though in the latter
any stress gradients_ case the dependent variable is probability, not
Consider three particles as shown in Fig. 5. velocity. Indeed, the mathematical formula-
tion of the proposed model as expressed in
eqns. (3) and (5) is identical to Mullins. The
present model does not, however, give any
information of the magnitude of B, in con-
trast to Litwiniszyns model, which predicts
that B = cy2/2p _
ch
1 I r
0
kc
The form of eqn. (3) is the simplest pos-
sible version of the general relationship of
eqn. (2). It has no theoretical justification
must therefore be confirmed
the experimental evidence-
or rejected on
and
Equation (5) has the form of the well- Substituting into eqn. (5) yields
known diffusion equation, for which solu-
P 2
tions are available in a great many geometrical _ = _ =-_x 2
(10)
situations; see, for example, Crank [13], and BY x
Mullins quotes several of these of relevance to where the separation constant is put in the
hoppers. _Lwosolutions are of particular inter- form --X2 since Y(y) must tend to zero as
est and are discussed below. y + =_
Hence we obtain
Similarity solution Y = A~-X=BY
In the converging flow zone, the influence (lla)
-10. -8 -6. -. -2 0 2 L. 6 B 10
Xfcm.
X,Crn
-.
is of course the region of maximum velocity arate explanations. We propose the kinematic
gradient, au/ax. model solely for the steady flow under gravity
On the evidence of Table 2 and Figs. 7 - 13 of a dilated material.
we believe that the kinematic model, though
clearly lacking perfection, provides a much
CONCLUSION
more accurate description of the flow than
would be given by any model based on the A kinematic model involving only one em-
concepts of plasticity. The experimental pirical constant has been prepared for the pre-
results do not enable us to distkiguish between diction of velocity profiles in granular mate-
the kinematic model and the two stochastic rials. Thirty-three determinations of this ccn-
models_ We do, however, feel that it is a more stant have been made, of which 27 yield sub-
realistic model and is capable of refinement if stantially the same value; the remaining deter-
necessary_ The physical bases of the stochastic minations were all obtained in regions where a
models seem somewhat abstract, and further- reliable estimate was not to be expected. This
more Litwiniszyns model predicts a value for is believed to give strong support to the model.
B roughly an order of magnitude too small. The value of the kinematic constant obtained
The model will, however, only be justified if has been used to predict velocity profiles
it predicts the velocity distributions in other which in all cases have approximated closely
situations, and experiments are under way to to the measured velocities.
check this as well as to investigate the rela- The experiments cannot distinguish between
tionship between B am3 particle diameter. the proposed model and that of Mullins, since
Though the kinematic model predicts the these result in identical equations. Nor can
observed velocities with considerable accuracy, they dismiss Litwiniszyns model if the ques-
these differ markedly from those found by tionable extension from displacement to ve-
Levinson et al. 1123 and Bransby and Blair- locity is accepted_ All three models are, how-
Fish [ll] _ This clearly requires explanation. ever, either kinematic or stochastic in form
The principal difference between our experi- and make no reference to the stress distribu-
ments and those of other workers is that we tion within the material. We therefore con-
concemsd ourselves only with the steady flow cluded that free-flowing granular materials
of a dilared material. Almost all other flow mea- discharging from hoppers are not driven by
surements have been concerned with the early the stress field, as has usually been assumed,
stages of the motion of a material that had but move simply by the particles in one layer
been relatively compacted_ When a densely slipping into the spaces vacated by the layer
packed material begins to flow, dilation will beneath.
take place in the vicinity of the initial failure It would seem that granular materials are
surfaces. This material will therefore weaken like the Ancient Mariners ship:
locally and subsequent motion will take place But why drives on that ship so fast
preferentially along the same failure surfaces. Without or wave or wind?
Thus in the initial stages of the motion the The air is cut away before
material will divide itself into more or less And closes from behind.
rigid blocks separated by narrow failure zones.
In this type of flow, velocities that fluctuate
with respect to time and position must be ex- ACKNOWLEDGEMEtNTS
pected, and it is not until the whole of the
We wish to thank the Wolfson Foundation
material has become dilated that steady flow
for financial support for this project.
will occur.
There is yet a third flow mode that can oc-
cur in a granular material, and this is when the LIST OF SYMBOLS
motion is caused by the movement of some
solid object such as a blade through the mate- 4 Fourier series constant
rial. Under these circumstances the concepts hopper half-width
of plasticity might well be relevant. : kinematic constant
We believe that these three flowing modes b orifice half-width
are fundamentally different and require sep- d particle diameter
253
P probability density 2 A. W. Jenike, Utah Univ. Eng. Exp. Stn. Bull_ 108
Q volumetric flowrate/thickness of hopper (1961).
horizontal velocity 3 D. C. Drucker, Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Mech. of Soil
U
Vehicle Systems, 1961_
v, piug fIow veIocity at the orifice 4 A. Drescher and G. De Josselin de Jong, J. Mech.
v vertical velocity Phys. Solids, 20 (1972) 337_
vo centre-line vertical velocity 5 G. De Josseiin de Jong, Geotechnique, Zl(l971)
plug fIow velocity 551.
UP
6 W. G. Pariseau, Powder Technol., 3 (1969) 218.
X horizontal rectilinear coordinate
7 R. C. James and P. L. Bransby, Geotechnique, 21
x0 initial horizontal position (1971) 61.
Y vertical rectilinear coordinate 8 R. M. Home and R. M. Nedderman, Powder
a cage half-width Technol., 19 (1978) 243.
eigen-value 9 W. W. Mullins, Powder Technol., 9 (1976) 29_
L
10 J. Litwiniszyn, Bull. Acad. Pal. Sci., Ser. Sci.
P cage height
Tech., 9 (1963) 61.
11 P. L_ Bransby and P. M. Blair-Fish, Powder
Technol., 11(1975) 273.
REFERENCES 12 M. Levinson, B. Shmutter and W. Resnick,
Powder Technol., 16 (1977) 29.
1 A. J. M. Spencer, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 12 (1964) 13 J. Crank, Mathematics of Diffusion, Oxford Univ.
337. Press, London, 1975.