Effect of pressure on segregation in granular shear flows.

The effect of confining pressure (overburden) on segregation of granular material is studied in discrete element method (DEM) simulations of horizontal planar shear flow. To mitigate changes to the shear rate due to the changing overburden, a linear with depth variation in the streamwise velocity component is imposed using a simple feedback scheme. Under these conditions, both the rate of segregation and the ultimate degree of segregation in size bidisperse and density bidisperse granular flows decrease with increasing overburden pressure and scale with the overburden pressure normalized by the lithostatic pressure of the particle bed.