Role of driving force on the clogging of inert particles in a bottleneck

Abstract

We present numerical results of the effect that the driving force has on the clogging probability of inert particles passing through a bottleneck. When the driving force is increased by four orders of magnitude, the mean avalanche size remains almost unaltered (increases 1.6 times) while the flow rate and the avalanche duration display strong dependence on this magnitude. This indicates that in order to characterize the ability of a system to clog, the right variable to consider is the number of particles that pass through the outlet. The weak dependence of this magnitude on the driving force is explained in terms of the average kinetic energy of the flowing grains that has to be dissipated in order to get an arch stabilized. © 2014 American Physical Society.