Dynamics of crater formation in immersed granular materials

Germán Varas (1) , Valérie Vidal (1) , Jean-Christophe Géminard (1)

1 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon

We report the formation of a crater at the free surface of an immersed granular bed, locally crossed by an ascending gas flow. In 2D, the crater consists of two piles which develop around the location of the gas emission. We observe that the typical size of the crater increases logarithmically with time, independently of the gas emission dynamics. We describe the related granular flows and give an account of the influence of the experimental parameters, especially of the grain size and of the gas flow.

Mots clés: Granular materials; rheology; complex fluid; applied fluid mechanics

Domaines: Physique Générale [physics.gen-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

Germán Varas, Valérie Vidal, Jean-Christophe Géminard. Dynamics of crater formation in immersed granular materials. 2009. ⟨ensl-00350535⟩