Spreading and Piling of Granular Material

More than 50% of sales in the world involve products such as coffee powder or fertilizer. This is known as granular material, making it the second most used type of material in industry, after water. However, the industry uses empirical methods on how to store or transport these materials because the range of different materials and their properties is large and varied, while a common description is still actively researched. We intend to understand the behavior of model granular material focusing on the mechanics of building a sandpile. We are doing this by controlling a jet of grains falling onto a surface and analyzing the growth of a pile. This process will give us insight into the stability and flow dynamics of dense granular media, to produce a description of bulk processes at a large scale. This research can be applied to design efficient manufacturing processes that handle granular materials across numerous industries such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and energy production.

Faculty Mentor: Alban Sauret

Project Mentor: Ram Sudhir Sharma