The Slow Erosion Limit in a Model of Granular Flow

Debora Amadori, Wen Shen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study a 2 × 2 system of balance laws that describes the evolution of a granular material (avalanche) flowing downhill. The original model was proposed by Hadeler and Kuttler (Granul Matter 2:9-18, 1999). The Cauchy problem for this system has been studied by the authors in recent papers (Amadori and Shen in Commun Partial Differ Equ 34:1003-1040, 2009; Shen in J Math Anal Appl 339:828-838, 2008). In this paper, we first consider an initial-boundary value problem. The boundary condition is given by the flow of the incoming material. For this problem we prove the global existence of BV solutions for a suitable class of data, with bounded but possibly large total variations. We then study the "slow erosion (or deposition) limit". We show that, if the thickness of the moving layer remains small, then the profile of the standing layer depends only on the total mass of the avalanche flowing downhill, not on the time-law describing the rate at which the material slides down. More precisely, in the limit as the thickness of the moving layer tends to zero, the slope of the mountain is provided by an entropy solution to a scalar integro-differential conservation law.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-31
Number of pages31
JournalArchive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis
Volume199
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2011

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Analysis
  • Mathematics (miscellaneous)
  • Mechanical Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Slow Erosion Limit in a Model of Granular Flow'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this