Size segregation in compressible granular shear flows of binary particle systems

Abstract

This paper deals with the modelling and simulation of segregation in granular materials. The basis is a hydrodynamic model for granular material flows, which is extended to capture the dynamic process of segregation in shear flows of systems with small and large particles. The granular flow equations consist of a set of compressible Navier–Stokes-like equations as well as an equation for the granular temperature. With the help of the granular temperature equation, the granular flow equations are able to cover a wide range of regimes, starting from dilute to arresting flows. However, this paper focuses on dry granular shear flows. It extends this hydrodynamic system in a dense shear flow regime by a segregation equation using the framework of mixture theory. Special focus is lain on the segregation direction. A procedure from mechanics is adapted to obtain the segregation direction from the granular flow system independent of the choice of the coordinate system. In particular, this is done in three-dimensional space. Due to the compressibility of the granular flow system and the structure of the derived segregation equation, solving the segregation equation requires special numerical treatment. Therefore, a suitable numerical scheme is presented which prevents the system from reaching unphysical states.