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Clogging-flowing transition of granular media in a two-dimensional vertical pipe

Y. Zhou1,*, M. Li1, Y. Guan1, Y. Wang1, Y. Liu1, and Z. Zou2,†

  • 1Beijing Key Laboratory of Passive Safety Technology for Nuclear Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Marine Thermal Energy and Power, Wuhan, Hubei 430205, China

  • *Contact author: yixian.zhou@ncepu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: zou_zhenhai@sina.com

Phys. Rev. E 113, L023401 – Published 3 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qs87-8yts

Abstract

We experimentally and numerically investigate the clogging behavior of granular materials in a two-dimensional vertical pipe. The nonmonotonicity of the clogging probability found in a cylindrical vertical pipe [López et al., Phys. Rev. E 102, 010902(R) (2020)] is also observed in the two-dimensional case. We numerically demonstrate that the clogging probability strongly correlates with the friction coefficient μ in addition to the pipe-to-particle diameter ratio D/d. We thus construct a clogging-flowing D/d−μ phase diagram within the 2<D/d<3 range. Finally, by analyzing the geometrical arrangements of particles and using a simple analysis of forces and torques, we are able to predict the clogging-flowing transition in the D/d−μ phase diagram and explain the mechanism of the observed counterintuitive nonmonotonicity in more detail. We demonstrate that for pipe clogging, friction-mediated force and torque equilibrium are essential for arch formation.

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