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Bottlenecks in granular flow: When does an obstacle increase the flow rate in an hourglass?

F. Alonso-Marroquin1,*, S. I. Azeezullah1,2, S. A. Galindo-Torres3, and L. M. Olsen-Kettle4

  • 1School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 2School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
  • 3School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
  • 4School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia

  • *fernando.alonso@sydney.edu.au
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Phys. Rev. E 85, 020301(R) – Published 22 February, 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.020301

Abstract

Bottlenecks occur in a wide range of situations from pedestrians, ants, cattle, and traffic flow to the transport of granular materials. We examine granular flow across a bottleneck using simulations of monodisperse disks. Contrary to expectations but consistent with previous work, we find that the flow rate across a bottleneck actually increases if an obstacle is optimally placed before it. Using the hourglass theory and a velocity-density relation, we show that the peak flow rate corresponds to a transition from free flow to congested flow, similar to the phase transition in traffic flow.

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Phys. Rev. E 85, 020301(R)– Published 22 February, 2012
  • Received 10 February 2011

©2012 American Physical Society

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