The Vagaries of Granular Flow

Existing theories for particulate flow lack the robustness, predictability and flexibility required to handle the totality of phenomena that such flow may exhibit. Some unwanted industrial issues (such as particle agglomeration) and their management still remain an “art”. Current practice is based mainly on ad-hoc models for each specific flow condition and on operator experience. The talk will describe the journey from the first rigorous effort to model granular flow to recent theories and models to explain the vagaries observed in practical applications. Open problems, in need of a solution, will be presented and the search for a “unifying” theory will be discussed.