Rheology of binary granular mixtures in the dense flow regime

We study the rheology of granular mixtures in a steady, fully developed, gravity-driven flow on an inclined plane, by means of discrete element method (DEM) simulations. Results are presented for a single component system and binary mixtures with particles of different size and density. Inclination angles, composition, size ratios and density ratios are varied to obtain different segregated configurations at equilibrium. Steady state profiles of the mean velocity, volume fractions, shear stress, shear rate, inertial number and apparent viscosity across the depth of the flowing layer are reported for the different cases. The viscosity varies with height and is found to depend on the local bulk density and composition, which, in turn, depend on the size ratio, the mass ratio and the degree of segregation. For a single component system, a viscoplastic rheological model [P. Jop et al., Nature 441, 727 (2006)] describes the data quite well. We propose a modification of the model for the case of mixtures. The mixture model predicts the viscosity for both well-mixed and segregated granular mixtures differing in size, density or both, using the same model parameters as obtained for the single component system. The predictions of a model for the volume fraction of the mixtures also agree well with simulation results. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3653276]