Column to pile transition in quasi-static deposition of granular chains

Abstract

The repose angle is a key geometric property that characterises the inter-particle friction and thereby granular flows. One of the common methods to measure this property is to deposit a pile by extracting a pre-filled cylinder and letting the material flow out. While the repose angle of spherical beads is insensitive to the aspect ratio of this pre-filled column, we find that long flexible granular chains show a remarkable transition from stable vertical columns to conical piles depending on the aspect ratio. Below a critical aspect ratio, the cessation of flow of granular chains due to inter-chain entanglement stabilises the columns, while above the critical aspect ratio the conical piles of long granular chains arise not out of shear flow but instead through a series of column collapse instabilities during the deposition process. We also identify the critical chain length below which the granular chains flow and behave similar to spherical particles.