Erosion dynamics of a wet granular medium

Abstract

Liquid may give strong cohesion properties to a granular medium, and confer a solidlike behavior. We study the erosion of a fixed circular aggregate of wet granular matter subjected to a flow of dry grains inside a half-filled rotating drum. During the rotation, the dry grains flow around the fixed obstacle. We show that its diameter decreases linearly with time for low liquid content, as wet grains are pulled out of the aggregate. This erosion phenomenon is governed by the properties of the liquids. The erosion rate decreases exponentially with the surface tension while it depends on the viscosity to the power -1. We propose a model based on the force fluctuations arising inside the flow, explaining both dependencies: The capillary force acts as a threshold and the viscosity controls the erosion time scale. We also provide experiments using different flowing grains, confirming our model.