Measurement of Particle Dynamics in Rapid Granular Shear Flows

Micromechanics of rapid granular flows is studied in a two-dimensional planar granular Couette flow apparatus. The device is capable of generating particulate flows at different shearing rates and solid fractions. Monosize plastic disks are sheared across an annular test section for several shear rates. The motion of particles is recorded through a high speed digital camera and analyzed by image processing techniques. The average and fluctuation velocity profiles are obtained and granular temperature relations with shear rate are investigated. Average streaming velocity across the shear cell decays slightly faster than exponential, and is rather Gaussian when not too close to the wall. Fluctuation velocities and granular temperature across the shear cell are related to effective shear rate. Interparticle collisions are estimated from the particle trajectories and probability distribution of collision angles obtained from particle collision data. In dense flows, three peaks of collision angles are observed, which signal the onset of triangular structure formulation and cause crystallization. It is found that the distribution of collision angles is anisotropic