The Lift on a Disc Immersed in a Rotating Granular Bed

The discrete element method has been used to study the lift FL on a stationary disc immersed coaxially in a slowly rotating cylinder containing a granular material. In a tall granular column, FL rises with the immersion depth h, but reaches a roughly constant asymptote at large h, in agreement with previous studies. Our results indicate that the argument in some earlier studies that FL is proportional to the static stress gradient is incorrect. Instead, our results show that the lift is caused by an asymmetry in the dilation and shear rate between the regions above and below the disc. We argue that the cause of the lift is similar to that in fluids, namely that it arises as a result of the disturbance in the velocity and density fields around the body due to its motion relative to the granular bed. (C) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers