Solids volume fraction of size-disperse dense granular flows

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Solids volume fraction is perhaps the most fundamental state variable describing granular materials. The solids volume fraction is nearly constant in dense granular flows, but nonetheless plays a crucial role in setting their rheology, with the viscosity diverging as the volume fraction reaches a critical value. For grains of a single size this critical volume fraction is a constant, but in mixtures of more than one size of grain, it varies with the particle size distribution. The aim of this project is to develop continuum models that describe the numerous interactions and dependencies between particle size distribution, volume fraction, rheology and segregation rate, many of which are currently unexplored. A combination of laboratory experiments and discrete element simulations will be used to validate new continuum models for granular segregation and flow, in which the solids volume fraction evolves as part of the solution. The project brings together the research areas of particle technology, complex fluids and rheology, and continuum mechanics.