Fluctuations of particle motion in granular avalanches - from the microscopic to the macroscopic scales

TL;DR

This paper investigates particle motion fluctuations during granular avalanches, revealing correlations across scales and implications for microscopic theories and particle entrainment mechanisms.

Contribution

It uncovers the relationship between velocity fluctuations, stress, and microscopic events like T1, advancing understanding of avalanche dynamics from microscopic to macroscopic levels.

Findings

Strong correlation between velocity fluctuation magnitude and velocity in space and time.

Temporal correlation between velocity magnitude and stress fluctuations.

Identification of a mechanism for particle entrainment in granular avalanches.

Abstract

In this study, we have investigated the fluctuations of particle motion, i.e. the non-affine motion, during the avalanche process, discovering a rich dynamics from the microscopic to the macroscopic scales. We find that there is strong correlation between the magnitude of the velocity fluctuation and the velocity magnitude in the spatial and temporal domains. The possible connection between this finding and STZ is discussed based on the direct measurement of the T1 events. In addition, the velocity magnitude of the system and the stress fluctuations of the system are strongly correlated temporally. Our finding will pose challenges to the development of more rigorous theories to describe the avalanche dynamics based on the microscopic approach. Moreover, our finding presents a plausible mechanism of the particle entrainment in a simple system.