We report experiments on the overall phase diagram of granular flows on an incline
with emphasis on high inclination angles where the mean layer velocity approaches
the terminal velocity of a single particle free falling in air. The granular flow
was characterized by measurements of the surface velocity, the average layer height,
and the mean density of the layer as functions of the hopper opening, the plane
inclination angle and the downstream distance x of the flow. At high inclination
angles the flow does not reach an x-invariant steady state over the
length of the inclined plane.
For low volume flow rates, a transition was detected between dense and
very dilute (gas) flow
regimes. We show using a vacuum flow channel that air did not qualitatively change
the phase diagram and did not quantitatively modify mean flow velocities of the
granular layer except for small changes in the very dilute gas-like phase.
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Normalized mean density of the flow as a function of the plane inclination angle. ![]() |