Structural Inhomogeneity and Effects of Separation by Size and Density in Gravity Flow of Granular Materials

The authors have substantiated the expediency of representing the effect of separation of particles as a result of the conjugation of phenomena that are caused by the inhomogeneity of a granular medium and the spatial structural heterogeneity of a shear flow. With the general separation-dynamics model taking account of separation, convection, and mixing flows, regions of relative values of particle size and density have been determined, in which the dominance of the separation flows due to the local and spatial inhomogeneity of the granular-medium’s rapid gravity flow is noted. It has been established that the boundary of the regions of dominance of separation flows with a fundamentally different physical nature which is determined by hydrodynamics and diffusion kinetics is near the equilibrium line of inhomogeneous-particle masses.