PERIODIC PATTERNS OF GRANULAR FLOW THROUGH A PLANE CONTAINER. NUMERICAL MODELS IN GEOMECHANICS. NUMOG III. PROCEEDINGS OF THE 3RD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT NIAGARA FALLS, CANADA, 8-11 MAY 1989

It is often reported that the flow of granular materials through storage containers causes cyclic perturbations in loads exerted on the containers' walls. It seems appropriate to relate these perturbations to cyclic changes in the velocity fields (flow patterns) in discharge processes. It is suggested that a volume strain (or density) softening model of granular matter, along with a hypothesis of minimum material effort, may provide a framework of analysis capable of predicting cyclic fluctuations in the velocity fields. Some preliminary results are presented.(a) for the covering abstract of this conference see IRRD 824029.