TY - JOUR
T1 - On the dependence of the avalanche angle on the granular layer thickness
AU - Wyart, M.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - A layer of sand of thickness h flows down a rough surface if the inclination is larger than some threshold value start which decreases with increasing h. A tentative microscopic model for the dependence of start on h is proposed for rigid frictional grains, based on the following hypothesis: i) a horizontal layer of sand has some coordination z larger than a critical value zc, where mechanical stability is lost ii) as the tilt angle is increased, the configurations visited present a growing proportion zs of sliding contacts. Instability with respect to flow occurs when z- zs=zc. This criterion leads to a prediction for start(h) in good agreement with empirical observations.
AB - A layer of sand of thickness h flows down a rough surface if the inclination is larger than some threshold value start which decreases with increasing h. A tentative microscopic model for the dependence of start on h is proposed for rigid frictional grains, based on the following hypothesis: i) a horizontal layer of sand has some coordination z larger than a critical value zc, where mechanical stability is lost ii) as the tilt angle is increased, the configurations visited present a growing proportion zs of sliding contacts. Instability with respect to flow occurs when z- zs=zc. This criterion leads to a prediction for start(h) in good agreement with empirical observations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79051468746&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79051468746&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1209/0295-5075/85/24003
DO - 10.1209/0295-5075/85/24003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79051468746
VL - 85
JO - Journal de Physique (Paris), Lettres
JF - Journal de Physique (Paris), Lettres
SN - 0295-5075
IS - 2
M1 - 24003
ER -