No Arabic abstract
The collapse of an inclined cohesive granular layer triggered by a certain perturbation can be a model for not only landslides on Earth but also relaxations of asteroidal surface terrains. To understand such terrain dynamics, we conduct a series of experiments of a solid-projectile impact onto an inclined wet granular layer with various water contents and inclination angles. As a result, we find two types of outcomes: crater formation and collapse. The collapse phase is observed when the inclination angle is close to the maximum stable angle and the impact-induced vibration at the bottom of wet granular layer is sufficiently strong. To explain the collapse condition, we propose a simple block model considering the maximum stable angle, inclination angle, and impact-induced vibrational acceleration. Additionally, the attenuating propagation of the impact-induced vibrational acceleration is estimated on the basis of three-dimensional numerical simulations with discrete element method using dry particles. By combining wet-granular experiments and dry-granular simulations, we find that the impact-induced acceleration attenuates anisotropically in space. With a help of this attenuation form, the physical conditions to induce the collapse can be estimated using the block model.
We develop an original apparatus of the granular impact experiment by which the incident angle of the solid projectile and inclination angle of the target granular layer can be systematically varied. Whereas most of the natural cratering events occur on inclined surfaces with various incident angles, there have not been any experiments on oblique impacts on an inclined target surface. To perform systematic impact experiments, a novel experimental apparatus has to be developed. Therefore, we build an apparatus for impact experiments where both the incident angle and the inclination angle can be independently varied. The projectile-injection unit accelerates a plastic ball (6~mm in diameter) up to $v_isimeq 100$~m~s$^{-1}$ impact velocity. The barrel of the injection unit is made with a three-dimensional printer. The impact dynamics is captured by high-speed cameras to directly measure the impact velocity and incident angle. The rebound dynamics of the projectile (restitution coefficient and rebound angle) is also measured. The final crater shapes are measured using a line-laser profiler mounted on the electric stages. By scanning the surface using this system, a three-dimensional crater shape (height map) can be constructed. From the measured result, we can define and measure the characteristic quantities of the crater. The analyzed result on the restitution dynamics is presented as an example of systematic experiments using the developed system.
We employ a novel fluid-particle model to study the shearing behavior of granular soils under different saturation levels, ranging from the dry material via the capillary bridge regime to higher saturation levels with percolating clusters. The full complexity of possible liquid morphologies is taken into account, implying the formation of isolated arbitrary-sized liquid clusters with individual Laplace pressures that evolve by liquid exchange via films on the grain surface. Liquid clusters can grow in size, shrink, merge and split, depending on local conditions, changes of accessible liquid and the pore space morphology determined by the granular phase. This phase is represented by a discrete particle model based on Contact Dynamics, where capillary forces exerted from a liquid phase add to the motion of spherical particles. We study the macroscopic response of the system due to an external compression force at various liquid contents with the help of triaxial shear tests. Additionally, the change in liquid cluster distributions during the compression due to the deformation of the pore space is evaluated close to the critical load.
We investigate the dynamics of a partially saturated grain-liquid mixture with a rotating drum apparatus. The drum is partially filled with the mixture and then rotated about its horizontal axis. We focus on the continous avalanching regime and measure the impact of volume fraction and viscosity of the liquid on the dynamic surface angle. The inclination angle of the surface is observed to increase sharply to a peak and then decrease as a function of liquid volume fraction. The height of the peak is observed to increase with rotation rate. For higher liquid volume fractions, the inclination angle of the surface can decrease with viscosity before increasing. The viscosity where the minima occurs decreases with the rotation rate of the drum. Limited measurements of the flow depth were made, and these were observed to show only fractional changes with volume fraction and rotation speeds. We show that the qualitative features of our observations can be understood by analyzing the effect of lubrication forces on the timescale over which particles come in contact.
Although a large number of astronomical craters are actually produced by the oblique impacts onto inclined surfaces, most of the laboratory experiments mimicking the impact cratering have been performed by the vertical impact onto a horizontal target surface. In previous studies on the effects of oblique impact and inclined terrain, only one of the impact angle $varphi$ or target inclination angle $theta$ has been varied in the experiments. Therefore, we perform impact-cratering experiments by systematically varying both $varphi$ and $theta$. A solid projectile of diameter $D_{rm i}=6$~mm is impacted onto a sand surface with the range of impact velocity $v_{rm i}=7$--$97$~m~s$^{-1}$. From the experimental result, we develop scaling laws for the crater dimensions on the basis of $Pi$-group scaling. As a result, the crater dimensions such as cavity volume, diameter, aspect ratio, and depth-diameter ratio can be scaled by the factors $sin varphi$ and $cos theta$ as well as the usual impact parameters ($v_{rm i}$, $D_{rm i}$, density of projectile, and surface gravity). Finally, we consider the possible application of the obtained scaling laws to the estimate of impact conditions (e.g., impact speed and impact angle) in natural crater records.
We propose an explanation for the onset of oscillations seen in numerical simulations of dense, inclined flows of inelastic, frictional spheres. It is based on a phase transition between disordered and ordered collisional states that may be interrupted by the formation of force chains. Low frequency oscillations between ordered and disordered states take place over weakly bumpy bases; higher-frequency oscillations over strongly bumpy bases involve the formation of particle chains that extend to the base and interrupt the phase change. The predicted frequency and amplitude of the oscillations induced by the unstable part of the equation of state are similar to those seen in the simulations and they depend upon the contact stiffness in the same way. Such oscillations could be the source of sound produced by flowing sand.