Revisiting the role of friction coefficients in granular collapses: confrontation of 3-D non-smooth simulations with experiments

TL;DR

This study combines 3D non-smooth numerical simulations with experiments to analyze granular collapses, emphasizing the importance of using the avalanche friction angle over the stop angle for accurate modeling.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a constant friction coefficient set to the avalanche angle accurately reproduces experimental granular collapses without regularization, challenging previous assumptions.

Findings

Non-smooth 3D model accurately matches experiments.

Using the avalanche angle improves collapse predictions.

Scaling laws hold up to aspect ratios of 10.

Abstract

In this paper, transient granular flows are examined both numerically and experimentally. Simulations are performed using the continuous 3D granular model introduced in Daviet & Bertails-Descoubes (2016), which represents the granular medium as an inelastic and dilatable continuum subject to the Drucker-Prager yield criterion in the dense regime. One notable feature of this numerical model is to resolve such a non-smooth rheology without any regularisation. We show that this non-smooth model, which relies on a constant friction coefficient, is able to reproduce with high fidelity various experimental granular collapses over inclined erodible beds, provided the friction coefficient is set to the avalanche angle - and not to the stop angle, as generally done. In order to better characterise the range of validity of the fully plastic rheology in the context of transient frictional flows, we further revisit scaling laws relating the shape of the final collapse deposit to the initial column aspect ratio, and accurately recover established power-law dependences up to aspect ratios in the order of 10. The influence of sidewall friction is then examined through experimental and simulated collapses with varying channel widths. The effective flow thickness is estimated in relation to the channel width, thereby challenging previously held assumptions on its estimation. Finally, we discuss the potential extension of the constant coefficient model with a hysteretic model to refine predictions of early-stage collapse dynamics, illustrating the impact of such phenomenology on transient flows and paving the way to more elaborate analysis.