Collisional Layer Research Articles

A lower-than-expected saltation threshold at Martian pressure and below

Aeolian sediment transport is observed to occur on Mars as well as other extraterrestrial environments, generating ripples and dunes as on Earth. The search for terrestrial analogs of planetary bedforms, as well as environmental simulation experiments able to reproduce their formation in planetary conditions, are powerful ways to question our understanding of geomorphological processes toward unusual environmental conditions. Here, we perform sediment transport laboratory experiments in a closed-circuit wind tunnel placed in a vacuum chamber and operated at extremely low pressures to show that Martian conditions belong to a previously unexplored saltation regime. The threshold wind speed required to initiate saltation is only quantitatively predicted by state-of-the art models up to a density ratio between grain and air of [Formula: see text] but unexpectedly falls to much lower values for higher density ratios. In contrast, impact ripples, whose emergence is continuously observed on the granular bed over the whole pressure range investigated, display a characteristic wavelength and propagation velocity essentially independent of pressure. A comparison of these findings with existing models suggests that sediment transport at low Reynolds number but high grain-to-fluid density ratio may be dominated by collective effects associated with grain inertia in the granular collisional layer.

Collisional transport model for intense bed load

Abstract In an open channel with a mobile bed, intense transport of bed load is associated with high-concentrated sediment-laden flow over a plane surface of the eroded bed due to high bed shear. Typically, the flow exhibits a layered internal structure in which virtually all sediment grains are transported through a collisional layer above the bed. Our investigation focuses on steady uniform turbulent open-channel flow with a developed collisional transport layer and combines modelling and experiment to relate integral quantities, as the discharge of solids, discharge of mixture, and flow depth with the longitudinal slope of the bed and the internal structure of the flow above the bed. A transport model is presented which considers flow with the internal structure described by linear vertical distributions of granular velocity and concentration across the collisional layer. The model employs constitutive relations based on the classical kinetic theory of granular flows selected by our previous experimental testing as appropriate for the flow and transport conditions under consideration. For given slope and depth of the flow, the model predicts the total discharge and the discharge of sediment. The model also predicts the layered structure of the flow, giving the thickness of the dense layer, collisional layer, and water layer. Model predictions are compared with results of intense bed-load experiment carried out for lightweight sediment in our laboratory tilting flume.

Vertical sorting in collisional layer of bimodal sediment transport

Abstract Intense collisional transport of bimodal sediment mixture in open-channel turbulent flow with water as carrying liquid is studied. The study focusses on steep inclined flows transporting solids of spherical shape and differing in either size or mass. A process of vertical sorting (segregation) of the two different solids fractions during the transport is analyzed and modelled. A segregation model is presented which is based on the kinetic theory of granular flows and builds on the Larcher-Jenkins segregation model for dry bimodal mixtures. Main modifications of the original model are the carrying medium (water instead of air) and a presence of a non-uniform distribution of sediment across the flow depth. Testing of the modified model reveals that the model is applicable to flow inclination slopes from 20 to 30 degrees approximately, making it appropriate for debris flow conditions. Changing the slope outside the specified range leads to numerical instability of the solution. A use of the bimodal mixture model is restricted to the grain size ratio 1.4 and no restriction is found for the grain mass ratio in a realistic range applicable to natural conditions. The model reveals trends in the vertical sorting under variable conditions showing that the sorting is more intense if flow is steeper and/or the difference in size or mass is bigger between the two sediment fractions in a bimodal mixture.

Conditions at interfaces of layered flow with intense bed load transport

Intense bed load transport in open channel flow is typically associated with a layered structure of the flow, in which individual layers exhibit different mechanisms of support and friction of transported sediment grains. In the lowermost layer adjacent to the channel bed, the grains slide over each other and maintain virtually permanent contact. In the uppermost layer below the water surface, typically no grains are transported. In the central layer, the grains collide with each other producing typical distributions of granular concentration and velocity across the collisional layer. Mathematical models describing the layered flow with intense bed load (as models based on kinetic theory of granular flows) consider flow conditions at interfaces of the individual layers in their flow predictions. Usually, experimental verification of interfacial predictions is lacking. We exploit results of our new experiments with plastic cylindrical sediment to identify a variation of the conditions at the interfaces (local interfacial granular concentrations and velocities) with varying flow discharge, depth and slope in a laboratory tilting flume. The experimental results include local granular concentration using an improved laser stripe method. The experiments are compared with predictions using our kinetic-theory based transport model with the aim to evaluate a match for experimentally-determined and model-predicted interfacial parameters.

Bed Load Transport Modelling Using Kinetic Theory

Intense transport of bed load is associated with highconcentrated sediment-laden flow over a plane mobile bed at high bed shear. Typically, the flow exhibits a layered internal structure in which a vast majority of sediment grains is transported through a collisional layer above the bed. Our investigation focuses on steady uniform open-channel flow with a developed collisional transport layer and combines modelling and experiment to relate integral quantities, as the discharge of solids, discharge of mixture, and flow depth with the longitudinal slope of the bed and the internal structure of the flow above the bed. In the paper, flow with the internal structure described by linear vertical distributions of granular velocity and concentration across the collisional layer is analyzed by a model based on the classical kinetic theory of granular flows. The model predicts the total discharge, the discharge of sediment, and the flow depth for given (experimentally determined) bed slope and thickness of collisional layer. The model also predicts whether the intefacial dense layer develops between the bed and the collisional layer and how thick it is. Model predictions are compared with results of intense bed-load experiment carried out for lightweight sediment in our laboratory tilting flume.

Pattern transition, microstructure, and dynamics in a two-dimensional vibrofluidized granular bed.

Experiments are conducted in a two-dimensional monolayer vibrofluidized bed of glass beads, with a goal to understand the transition scenario and the underlying microstructure and dynamics in different patterned states. At small shaking accelerations (Γ=Aω^{2}/g<1, where A and ω=2πf are the amplitude and angular frequency of shaking and g is the gravitational acceleration), the particles remain attached to the base of the vibrating container; this is known as the solid bed (SB). With increasing Γ (at large enough shaking amplitude A/d) and/or with increasing A/d (at large enough Γ), the sequence of transitions/bifurcations unfolds as follows: SB ("solid bed") to BB ("bouncing bed") to LS ("Leidenfrost state") to "2-roll convection" to "1-roll convection" and finally to a gas-like state. For a given length of the container, the coarsening of multiple convection rolls leading to the genesis of a "single-roll" structure (dubbed the multiroll transition) and its subsequent transition to a granular gas are two findings of this work. We show that the critical shaking intensity (Γ_{BB}^{LS}) for the BB→LS transition has a power-law dependence on the particle loading (F=h_{0}/d, where h_{0} is the number of particle layers at rest and d is the particle diameter) and the shaking amplitude (A/d). The characteristics of BB and LS states are studied by calculating (i) the coarse-grained density and temperature profiles and (ii) the pair correlation function. It is shown that while the contact network of particles in the BB state represents a hexagonal-packed structure, the contact network within the "floating cluster" of the LS resembles a liquid-like state. An unsteadiness of the Leidenfrost state has been uncovered wherein the interface (between the floating cluster and the dilute collisional layer underneath) and the top of the bed are found to oscillate sinusoidally, with the oscillation frequency closely matching the frequency of external shaking. Therefore, the granular Leidenfrost state is a period-1 wave as is the case for the BB state.

Investigation of sheet-flow processes based on novel acoustic high-resolution velocity and concentration measurements

AbstractA new dataset of uniform and steady sheet-flow experiments is presented in this paper. An acoustic concentration and velocity profiler (ACVP) is used to measure time-resolved profiles of collocated 2C velocity ($u,w$) and sediment concentration and to measure the time evolution of the bed interface position. Ensemble averaging over 11 similar experiment realisations is done to evaluate the mean profiles of streamwise velocity, concentration, sediment flux and Reynolds shear stress. The repeatability, stationarity and uniformity of the flow are carefully checked for a Shields number${\it\theta}\approx 0.5$and a suspension number of$S=1.1$. The mean profile analysis allows to separate the flow into two distinct layers: a suspension layer dominated by turbulence and a bed layer dominated by granular interactions. The bed layer can be further subdivided into a frictional layer capped by a collisional layer. In the suspension layer, the mixing length profile is linear with a strongly reduced von Karman parameter equal to 0.225. The Schmidt number is found to be constant in this region with a mean value of${\it\sigma}_{s}=0.44$. The present results are then interpreted in terms of existing modelling approaches and the underlying assumptions are discussed. In particular, the well-known Rouse profile is shown to predict the concentration profile adequately in the suspension layer provided that all the required parameters can be evaluated separately. However, the strong intermittency of the flow observed in the bed layer under the impact of turbulent large-scale coherent flow structures suggests the limitations of averaged steady two-phase flow models.

Analytical Solution of Collisional Sheet Flows

This work focuses on the sediment transport that is dominated by collisional exchange of momentum between particles and can be identified as the transition regime between bed-load and suspended-load transport. Idealizing the particles as inelastic frictional spheres and accounting for the role of the interstitial fluid on particle collisions, three regions characterize such flows: a diffuse collisional layer neighboring the free surface, in which a simple trapezium rule is employed to solve a boundary-value problem based on the kinetic theory; a dense, algebraic layer, in which there is an algebraic balance between production and dissipation of particle fluctuation energy, the concentration is approximately constant, and correlated motion between the particles exists; and a macroviscous layer, close to the erodible bed, in which the collisions are inelastic and the fluid viscous force dominates the momentum exchange. Using boundary conditions of no-slip and yielding at the erodible bed and vanishing of th...

Effects of ion demagnetization in the plasma sheet

A 2 1/2‐D nonradiative, electromagnetic particle code is used to investigate processes in the plasma sheet in the Earth's magnetotail that can generate the field‐aligned currents associated with auroral arcs. The setting of the simulation is the midnight meridian plane on closed magnetic field lines. The magnetic field is supported self‐consistently by a plasma sheet population. The system is driven by an external convection electric field that causes particles from the lobe region to drift onto the plasma sheet. Momentum exchange between the field and the lobe particles accelerated through the plasma sheet balances the sunward Maxwell stresses. The particle and field boundaries are spatially separated by a collisional layer representing the effect of the neutral atmosphere. During the simulation, new particles are continually injected into the system from the “ionospheric” regions. The simulations show the generation of currents circulating in the noon‐midnight plane due to the differing degrees of magnetization between ions and electrons. These currents give rise to magnetic fields perpendicular to the noon‐midnight meridian plane. North‐south asymmetries in the lobe plasma density enhance current circulation between the plasma sheet and the ionospheric boundaries. Necessary conditions for generation of auroral currents suggest a new interpretation of the growth and expansive phases of the auroral substorm.

Interrelated structures of the transport shock and collisional relaxation layer in a multitemperature, multilevel ionized gas

The gas dynamic structures of the transport shock and the downstream collisional relaxation layer are evaluated for partially ionized monatomic gases. Elastic and inelastic collisional nonequilibrium effects are taken into consideration. In the microscopic model of the atom, three electronic levels are accounted for. By using an asymtpotic technique, the shock morphology is found on a continuum flow basis. This procedure gives two distinct layers in which the nonequilibrium effects to be considered are different. A transport shock appears as the inner solution to an outer collisional relaxation layer. The results show four main interesting points: (i) On structuring the transport shock, ionization and excitation rates must be included in the formulation, since the flow is not frozen with respect to the population of the different electronic levels; (ii) an electron temperature precursor appears at the beginning of the transport shock; (iii) the collisional layer is rationally reduced to quadrature for special initial conditions, which (iv) are obtained from new Rankine-Hugoniot relations for the inner shock.