- Letter
Clogging-flowing transition of granular media in a two-dimensional vertical pipe
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 in addition to the pipe-to-particle diameter ratio . We thus construct a clogging-flowing phase diagram within the 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 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.