Stress distributions of the granular flow down an inclined chute

Granular flow down an inclined chute is investigated numerically using the discrete element method and an average method. The results indicate that there are two distinct layers in the heap: a flow layer and a static layer. The stresses can vary smoothly in the flow layer, but have relatively large fluctuations in the static layer for the average scale adopted. All normal stresses and one shear stress have a similar distribution trend in the flow layer: change little in the central region at the same height. They vary a bit near the wall except the normal stress Tyy. Other two shear stresses have different distributions. They have large magnitudes in a region close to the vertical wall.