Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7527
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- US Army Research Office-Division of Earth Materials and Processes [64455EV]
- US National Science Foundation (NSF) [EAR-1224943, DMR-1305199, MRSEC/DMR-1120901]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Materials Research [1305199] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Division Of Earth Sciences [1224943, 1344280] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Fluid-sheared granular transport sculpts landscapes and undermines infrastructure, yet predicting the onset of sediment transport remains notoriously unreliable. For almost a century, this onset has been treated as a discontinuous transition at which hydrodynamic forces overcome gravity-loaded grain-grain friction. Using a custom laminar-shear flume to image slow granular dynamics deep into the bed, here we find that the onset is instead a continuous transition from creeping to granular flow. This transition occurs inside the dense granular bed at a critical viscous number, similar to granular flows and colloidal suspensions and inconsistent with hydrodynamic frameworks. We propose a new phase diagram for sediment transport, where 'bed load' is a dense granular flow bounded by creep below and suspension above. Creep is characteristic of disordered solids and reminiscent of soil diffusion on hillslopes. Results provide new predictions for the onset and dynamics of sediment transport that challenge existing models.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available