Abstract
We investigate the flow through and jamming of small apertures for a column of granulardisks via a pseudo-dynamic model. We focus on the effect that the preparation ofthe granular assembly has on the size of the avalanches obtained. Ensembles ofpackings with different mean packing fractions are created by tapping the system atdifferent intensities. Surprisingly, the packing fraction is not a good indicator of theability of the deposit to jam a given orifice. Different mean avalanche sizes areobtained for deposits with the same mean packing fraction that were preparedwith very different tap intensities. It has been speculated that the number andsize of arches in the bulk of the granular column should be correlated with theability of the system to jam a small opening. We show that this correlation, if itexists, is rather poor. A comparison between bulk arches and jamming arches (i.e.,arches that block the opening) reveals that the aperture imposes a lower cutoff onthe horizontal span of the arches which is greater than the actual size of theopening. This is related to the fact that blocking arches have to have the appropriateorientation to fit the gap between two piles of grains resting on each side of theaperture.
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