Labyrinth patterns in confined granular-fluid systems

B. Sandnes*, H. A. Knudsen, K. J. Måløy, E. G. Flekkøy

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    70 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A random, labyrinthine pattern emerges during slow drainage of a granular-fluid system in two-dimensional confinement. Compacted grains are pushed ahead of the fluid-air interface, which becomes unstable due to a competition between capillary forces and the frictional stress mobilized by grain-grain contact networks. We reproduce the pattern formation process in numerical simulations and present an analytical treatment that predicts the characteristic length scale of the labyrinth structure. The pattern length scale decreases with increasing volume fraction of grains in the system and increases with the system thickness.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number038001
    JournalPhysical Review Letters
    Volume99
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 17 Jul 2007

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Labyrinth patterns in confined granular-fluid systems'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this