Plane steady shear flow of a cohesionless granular material down an inclined plane: A model for flow avalanches. I. Theory (Q1082910)

A continuum mechanical model describing rapid shear flow of granular materials as deduced by \textit{J. T. Jenkins} and \textit{S. B. Savage} [J. Fluid Mech. 130, 187-202 (1983; Zbl 0523.76001)] from considerations of statistical mechanics is applied to steady plane shear flows down an inclined chute. We investigate in {\S}{\S}2 to 4 in detail plane chute flows of the Jenkins-Savage model and demonstrate the difficulties that arise with certain boundary conditions. Nonexistence of solutions, when aerodynamic drag is included, is demonstrated in {\S}5. We amend in {\S}6 the statistical model by incorporating in an adhoc fashion additional quasi- static stress contributions. It is demonstrated that addition of kinetic flux terms in the form of the statistical formulation of \textit{C. K. K. Lun}, \textit{S. B. Savage}, \textit{D. J. Jeffrey} and \textit{N. Chepurniy} [ibid. 140, 223-256 (1984; Zbl 0553.73098)] does not remove the difficulties encountered with the aerodynamic drag. Stress contributions involving the dyadic product of the particle density gradient with itself are needed. This complicates both boundary conditions.