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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Kinematics of densely flowing granular mixtures
1St Anthony Falls Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414, USA.
Abstract:
We measure the kinematics of segregating granular mixtures in dense free-surface boundary-layer flow in a rotated drum. We find that in a segregating mixture, the different components move with roughly the same velocities, except for a relatively small segregation velocity perpendicular to the direction of flow. On the other hand, the mean variance of the velocities--often associated with a granular temperature--may differ for the two components. In the majority of the high-density boundary layer, the difference is driven by relative particle size and may be understood considering a geometrically motivated model. In the low-density region at the top of the boundary layer, the difference is driven by relative particle mass, similar to observations in more energetic systems.
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