Open Access

ARTICLE

Block Stratification of Sedimenting Granular Matter in a Vessel due to Vertical Vibrations

by

1 Ecole Centrale Paris, France
2 Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics, RAS, Perm, Russia
3 Perm State Pedagogical University, Perm, Russia

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2006, 2(3), 203-210. https://doi.org/10.3970/fdmp.2006.002.203

Abstract

Sedimentation of granular matter in a vertical channel filled with a viscous liquid and subject to longitudinal translational vibration is studied, starting froma compact suspension. A new vibrational effect is foundexperimentally and described theoretically; it is the formation of blocks (with a relatively high density) of sedimenting granular matter with stable lower and upper horizontal demarcations and a sharp density discontinuity. Owing to this phenomenon the sedimentation velocity of such granular matter is reduced. A new theoreticalmodel based on viscous vibrational particle interactionin the limit of concentrated suspensions is elaborated, assuming particle-particle attraction in direction parallel tovibration and particle-particle repulsion in the directionperpendicular to vibration. The related theoretical analysis proves the vibrational condensation phenomenon tobe due to the mean viscous hydrodynamic interaction ofparticles (attraction in the direction of vibration). The de-scribed effect has an important practical application forthe management of liquefied and diluted granular matter(including situations in which microgravity conditionsare attained).

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