Continuum modelling of size segregation and flow in dense, bidisperse granular media: accounting for segregation driven by both pressure gradients and shear-strain-rate gradients

Abstract

Dense mixtures of particles of varying size tend to segregate based on size during flow. Granular size segregation impacts many industrial and geophysical processes, but the development of coupled, continuum models capable of predicting the evolution of segregation dynamics and flow fields in dense granular media across different geometries remains a challenge. One reason is because size segregation stems from two driving forces: pressure gradients and shear-strain-rate gradients. Another reason is the challenge of integrating segregation models with rheological constitutive equations for dense granular flow. In this paper we develop a continuum model that accounts for pressure-gradient-driven and shear-strain-rate-gradient-driven segregation, coupled to rheological modelling of a dense granular medium across the quasi-static and dense inertial flow regimes. To calibrate and test the continuum model, we perform discrete element method (DEM) simulations of dense flow of bidisperse granular systems in two flow geometries in which both segregation driving forces are present: inclined plane flow and planar shear flow with gravity. Steady-state DEM data from inclined plane flow is used to determine the dimensionless material parameters in the pressure-gradient-driven segregation model for both spheres and disks. Then, predictions of the continuum model are tested against DEM data across different cases of inclined plane flow and planar shear flow with gravity, while varying parameters such as the size of the flow geometry, the flow speed and the initial conditions. We find that it is crucial to account for both driving forces to capture segregation dynamics across both flow geometries with a single set of parameters.