Location
Harrisonburg, VA
Start Date
16-5-2012 9:00 AM
End Date
16-5-2012 9:20 AM
Description
Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and industry, from avalanches to the mixing of pharmaceuticals, yet the behavior of these “fluids” is poorly understood. While individual particles interact simply through friction and inelastic collisions, the non-linear forces and large number of particles leads to an unpredictable, complex system. History dependence, strong fluctuations and sudden failure are commonly observed, making predictive equations of macroscopic flow difficult or impossible to determine. Our recent work focuses on jamming, avalanching and shear banding in dense granular and granular-fluid flows and, in particular, the effects of external vibration and surface chemistry on flow properties. Ongoing challenges include visualizing the internal structure of complex flows, quantifying flow characteristics that extend across experimental geometries and identifying relevant control parameters.
Presenter Bio
Brian Utter Associate Professor, Physics & Astronomy, JMU
Brian Utter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at James Madison University. He received a B.S. in physics from Rutgers University (1995), a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University (2001), and conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University. His research interests focus on complex systems and multiphase flows, and include experiments on dense granular shear, surface chemistry effects in multiphase flows, and the jamming transition in vibrated granular materials. Ongoing work aims to connect particle imaging data with rheology of these systems.
Included in
Imaging and Rheology of Complex Granular & Granular-Fluid Flows
Harrisonburg, VA
Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and industry, from avalanches to the mixing of pharmaceuticals, yet the behavior of these “fluids” is poorly understood. While individual particles interact simply through friction and inelastic collisions, the non-linear forces and large number of particles leads to an unpredictable, complex system. History dependence, strong fluctuations and sudden failure are commonly observed, making predictive equations of macroscopic flow difficult or impossible to determine. Our recent work focuses on jamming, avalanching and shear banding in dense granular and granular-fluid flows and, in particular, the effects of external vibration and surface chemistry on flow properties. Ongoing challenges include visualizing the internal structure of complex flows, quantifying flow characteristics that extend across experimental geometries and identifying relevant control parameters.
