Scale dependence of segregation patterns in the filling of silos

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Athani, Shivakumar, Marks, Benjy, Guillard, François, Gillespie, Alistair, Einav, Itai
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Athani, Shivakumar
Marks, Benjy
Guillard, François
Gillespie, Alistair
Einav, Itai
author_facet Athani, Shivakumar
Marks, Benjy
Guillard, François
Gillespie, Alistair
Einav, Itai
contents Size segregation in granular flows is a well-known phenomenon: laboratory experiments consistently show that large particles migrate toward silo walls during filling, while smaller particles concentrate near the center. Paradoxically, field observations in large-scale industrial silos often report the opposite pattern, challenging these findings. We demarcate these patterns through a systematic experimental study spanning a range of dimensionless numbers relevant to bidisperse granular flows in quasi-2D silos under both dry and immersed conditions, varying container geometry and fluid viscosity. Image analysis reveals that the observed patterns are governed by two key dimensionless parameters: the slenderness of the silo and the Stokes number, which encapsulates the balance between particle inertia and viscous drag. Our results demonstrate the role of fluids on segregation dynamics and provide a unified scaling framework that reconciles laboratory- and field-scale observations in air.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_00318
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scale dependence of segregation patterns in the filling of silos
Athani, Shivakumar
Marks, Benjy
Guillard, François
Gillespie, Alistair
Einav, Itai
Soft Condensed Matter
Size segregation in granular flows is a well-known phenomenon: laboratory experiments consistently show that large particles migrate toward silo walls during filling, while smaller particles concentrate near the center. Paradoxically, field observations in large-scale industrial silos often report the opposite pattern, challenging these findings. We demarcate these patterns through a systematic experimental study spanning a range of dimensionless numbers relevant to bidisperse granular flows in quasi-2D silos under both dry and immersed conditions, varying container geometry and fluid viscosity. Image analysis reveals that the observed patterns are governed by two key dimensionless parameters: the slenderness of the silo and the Stokes number, which encapsulates the balance between particle inertia and viscous drag. Our results demonstrate the role of fluids on segregation dynamics and provide a unified scaling framework that reconciles laboratory- and field-scale observations in air.
title Scale dependence of segregation patterns in the filling of silos
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00318