Abram H. Clark

Particle Scale Dynamics in Granular Impact

We perform an experimental study of granular impact, where intruders strike 2D beds of photoelastic disks from above. High-speed video captures the intruder dynamics and the local granular force response, allowing investigation of grain-scale mechanisms in this process. We observe rich acoustic behavior at the leading edge of the intruder, strongly fluctuating in space and time, and we show that this acoustic activity controls the intruder deceleration, including large force fluctuations at short time scales. The average intruder dynamics match previous studies using empirical force laws, suggesting a new microscopic picture, where acoustic energy is carried away and dissipated.

Granular impact model as an energy-depth relation

Velocity-squared drag forces are common in describing an object moving through a granular material. The resulting force law is a nonlinear differential equation, and closed-form solutions of the dynamics are typically obtained by making simplifying assumptions. Here, we consider a generalized version of such a force law which has been used in many studies of granular impact. We show that recasting the force law into an equation for the kinetic energy vs. depth, K(z), yields a linear differential equation, and thus general closed-form solutions for the velocity vs. depth. This approach also has several advantages in fitting such models to experimental data, which we demonstrate by applying it to data from 2D impact experiments. We also present new experimental results for this model, including shape and depth dependence of the velocity-squared drag force.

Onset and cessation of motion in hydrodynamically sheared granular beds.

We performed molecular dynamics simulations of granular beds driven by a model hydrodynamic shear flow to elucidate general grain-scale mechanisms that determine the onset and cessation of sediment transport. By varying the Shields number (the nondimensional shear stress at the top of the bed) and particle Reynolds number (the ratio of particle inertia to viscous damping), we explore how variations of the fluid flow rate, particle inertia, and fluid viscosity affect the onset and cessation of bed motion. For low to moderate particle Reynolds numbers, a critical boundary separates mobile and static states. Transition times between these states diverge as this boundary is approached both from above and below. At high particle Reynolds number, inertial effects become dominant, and particle motion can be sustained well below flow rates at which mobilization of a static bed occurs. We also find that the onset of bed motion (for both low and high particle Reynolds numbers) is described by Weibullian weakest-link statistics and thus is crucially dependent on the packing structure of the granular bed, even deep beneath the surface.

Steady flow dynamics during granular impact.

We study experimentally and computationally the dynamics of granular flow during impacts where intruders strike a collection of disks from above. In the regime where granular force dynamics are much more rapid than the intruder motion, we find that the particle flow near the intruder is proportional to the instantaneous intruder speed; it is essentially constant when normalized by that speed. The granular flow is nearly divergence free and remains in balance with the intruder, despite the latters rapid deceleration. Simulations indicate that this observation is insensitive to grain properties, which can be explained by the separation of time scales between intergrain force dynamics and intruder dynamics. Assuming there is a comparable separation of time scales, we expect that our results are applicable to a broad class of dynamic or transient granular flows. Our results suggest that descriptions of static-in-time granular flows might be extended or modified to describe these dynamic flows. Additionally, we find that accurate grain-grain interactions are not necessary to correctly capture the granular flow in this regime.

Role of grain dynamics in determining the onset of sediment transport

Sediment transport occurs when the nondimensional fluid shear stress

Determining the onset of hydrodynamic erosion in turbulent flow

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Packing in protein cores

at the bed surface exceeds a minimum value

Granular impact dynamics: Fluctuations at short time-scales

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Jet-induced 2-D crater formation with horizontal symmetry breaking

. A large collection of data, known as the Shields curve, shows that

Granular Impact: A Grain-scale Approach

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