Experimental study of shear flows and convective heat transfer characteristics of granular materials

Granular material shear flows and convective heat transfer characteristics are presented. The experiments were conducted with two sizes of glass beads. The experiments were conducted with two sizes of glass beads. Information was obtained on the shear stress of polyethylene pellets. Bulk flow properties are used to evaluate wall shear. Development of a method for determining bulk density allowed for more accurate calculation of flow quantities. A derivation of a compressible open channel equation is given for determining the wall shear. Results show that the friction coefficient is not a constant but increases with the Froude Number. The presentation of the wall shear as a function of a wide range of solid fractions is the first experimental work that can be directly compared to analytical and computational investigations. The convective heat transfer properties of flowing granular materials were investigated by examining the flow over a flat heating plate. A derivation for convective heat transfer to flowing granular material is given to predict the heat transfer properties over a wide range of flow conditions.