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Velocity fluctuations inside two and three dimensional silos

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Abstract

In this paper we report experimental and numerical results on the velocity fluctuations of grains inside silos. Although simple models exist for the stationary and continuous approximation of the flow, the variability at the microscopic level (both ensemble averages and the fluctuations of individual particles around the average) reveal non-Gaussian statistics that resist a straightforward treatment. We also show that decreasing the orifice size causes an increase in the relative amplitude of the velocity fluctuations, meaning that the intermittency grows bigger.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spanish Government) through Projects Nos. FIS2014-57325 and FIS2017-84631, MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE. We would also like to express our gratitude to the late R. P. Behringer for all the discussions and talks we had with him, many of them concerning the topic of silo flow and clogging reported in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dpto. de Física y Mat. Apl., Fac. Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, 31080, Pamplona, Spain

    Iker Zuriguel, Diego Maza, Raúl Cruz Hidalgo & Angel Garcimartín

  2. Particle Analytics Ltd, Alrick Building, Max Born Crescent, The Kings Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3BF, UK

    Alvaro Janda

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  1. Iker Zuriguel
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  2. Diego Maza
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  3. Alvaro Janda
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  4. Raúl Cruz Hidalgo
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  5. Angel Garcimartín
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Correspondence to Iker Zuriguel.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection: In Memoriam of Robert P. Behringer.

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Zuriguel, I., Maza, D., Janda, A. et al. Velocity fluctuations inside two and three dimensional silos. Granular Matter 21, 47 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-019-0903-9

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