Experimental assessment of the effective friction at the base of granular chute flows on smooth incline

TL;DR

This study provides direct measurements of basal friction in granular chute flows on smooth inclines, revealing how friction varies with slope angle, particle hold-up, and gate opening, and confirming recent simulation results.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive experimental assessment of basal friction components across a wide range of flow conditions and validates recent numerical simulation findings.

Findings

Basal friction coefficient increases with slope angle and decreases with particle hold-up.

Friction saturates at high angles depending on gate opening.

Flow velocity scales with particle hold-up H with an exponent near 1/4.

Abstract

We report on direct measurements of the basal force components for granular material flowing down a smooth incline. We investigate granular flows for a large range of inclination angles from teta=13.4{\deg} to 83.6{\deg} and various gate opening of the chute. We find that the effective basal friction coefficient, muB, obtained from the ratio of the longitudinal force to the normal one exhibits a systematic increase with increasing slope angle and a significant weakening with increasing particle hold-up H (the depth-integrated particle volume fraction). At low angles, the basal friction is slightly less than or equal to tan(teta). The deviation from tan(teta) can be interpreted as a contribution from the side-wall to the overall friction. At larger angles, the basal friction muB saturates at an asymptotic value that is dependent on the gate opening of the chute. Importantly, our data confirm the outcomes of recent discrete numerical simulations. First, for steady and fully developed flows as well as for moderately accelerated ones, the variation of the basal friction can be captured through a unique dimensionless number, the Froude number Fr, defined as Fr=U/(gHcos(teta))^1/2, where U is the mean flow velocity. Second, the mean velocity scales with the particle hold-up H with a power exponent close to 1/4, contrasting with the Bagnold scaling (U~H^3/2).