Abstract
Swallowing of large objects and humans by quicksand fascinated writers for long time. Previously, it was believed that sand must contain liquid to achieve such characteristics. However, recently it has been proposed that even undampened loose sand (like in deserts) can swallow large objects and investigated in this paper. In this study, numerical simulations are performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM). The transition from packed to quicksand like state in granular material is obtained by passing gas near to minimum fluidization velocity and keeping bed stationary. It is observed in simulations that dry quicksand acts more like a fluid and the granular drag force due to penetration of intruder becomes isotropic and depth independent which is a deviation from packed bed. At the end of paper, the physics behind this behavior is explained by comparing force chains formed in packed and dry quicksand.
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