Hopper flows of deformable particles

Abstract

Numerous experimental and computational studies show that continuous hopper flows of granular materials obey the Beverloo equation that relates the volume flow rate $Q$ and the orifice width $w$: $Q \sim (w/σ_{\rm avg}-k)^β$, where $σ_{\rm avg}$ is the average particle diameter, $kσ_{\rm avg}$ is an offset where $Q\sim 0$, the power-law scaling exponent $β=d-1/2$, and $d$ is the spatial dimension. Recent studies of hopper flows of deformable particles in different background fluids suggest that the particle stiffness and dissipation mechanism can also strongly affect the power-law scaling exponent $β$. We carry out computational studies of hopper flows of deformable particles with both kinetic friction and background fluid dissipation in two and three dimensions. We show that the exponent $β$ varies continuously with the ratio of the viscous drag to the kinetic friction coefficient, $λ=ζ/μ$. $β= d-1/2$ in the $λ\rightarrow 0$ limit and $d-3/2$ in the $λ\rightarrow \infty$ limit, with a midpoint $λ_c$ that depends on the hopper opening angle $θ_w$. We also characterize the spatial structure of the flows and associate changes in spatial structure of the hopper flows to changes in the exponent $β$. The offset $k$ increases with particle stiffness until $k \sim k_{\rm max}$ in the hard-particle limit, where $k_{\rm max} \sim 3.5$ is larger for $λ\rightarrow \infty$ compared to that for $λ\rightarrow 0$. Finally, we show that the simulations of hopper flows of deformable particles in the $λ\rightarrow \infty$ limit recapitulate the experimental results for quasi-2D hopper flows of oil droplets in water.