Exponential velocity profile of granular flows down a confined heap.

Abstract

Thick granular flows are essential to many natural and industrial phenomena. Experimentally, it has been well established that the grain velocity profile is linear from the free surface to a certain depth, after which it decreases exponentially in the so-called "creep region". In this paper we obtain an exponential velocity profile based on the force balance of a grain near a wall, where the Janssen effect and the non-locality of interactions between grains are considered. When experimental parameters such as flow angles and friction coefficients are introduced in our model, it is able to reproduce experimental creep velocity profiles previously reported in the literature.