The impact of fluid flow on force chains in granular media

Fluid flow through granular media is an important process found in nature and various engineering applications. The effect of fluid flow on the evolution of force chains in the granular media is explored using the photoelasticity theory. A transparent cell is designed to contain several photoelastic disks of different sizes and to allow fluid flow through the particle packing. Water is injected into the cell while the particle packing is under confining stress. Several images are taken for the conditions of different confining stresses and fluid injection rates. An algorithm of an image processing technique is developed to detect the orientation and magnitude of contact forces. The results show that forces in parallel and transverse to the flow direction increase with increasing water velocity, while parallel force shows a higher increasing rate. Published by AIP Publishing.