Séminaire PMMH - Pascale Aussillous, Polytech’ & Aix Marseille Université

Discharge Flow of a Granular Media from a Silo : Experimental investigations and continuum modeling

Silos are widely used in the industry. While empirical predictions of the flow rate, based on scaling law, exist for more than a century, recently advances have been made on the understanding of the control parameters of the flow. In particular using a continuum model together with a visco-plastic frictional rheology seem to be successful in predicting the flow rate.

In order to gain a better understanding of the physical mechanisms at play during silo discharge, we are conducting experiments considering different unconventional geometries (lateral orifice, corner orifice, presence of an obstacle, cohesive materials, effect of gas injection...) and testing the ability of a continuum model to predict observations.