Kinks, logarithmic tails, and super-stability in bi-disperse granular media

Rene Batac, Marissa Pastor, Marko Arciaga, Johnrob Bantang and Christopher Monterola

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2009, vol. 388, issue 15, 3072-3082

Abstract: Determining the stability of granular matter piles is of basic concern in understanding many real-world phenomena (e.g. landslides, debris flow, and avalanches). While extensive literature exists dealing with the stability of mono-disperse systems, models for the dynamical behavior of poly-disperse media are still uncommon. Here, a simple experimental setup that probes the dependence of the repose angle (θ) for different proportions of granular mixtures is described. We demonstrate that a cellular automata (CA) grid with rules based on gravitational effects can phenomenologically mimic the dynamics of experimental data in terms of: (1) the presence of disruptions or kinks in an otherwise perfectly straight slope; (2) a concave logarithmic tail, indicative of the nature of the granular medium; and (3) the existence of supra-maximal repose angles for binary mixtures such that θmix>θ1,θ2, which can lead to super-stability, or 90-degree slopes. This latter result has profound implications because of the ubiquity of vertical slopes in nature, while standard continuum approaches cannot account for such (because it entails an infinite value of the coefficient of friction).

Keywords: Granular system; Static sandpiles; Granular compaction; Lattice theory and statistics; Porous materials; Granular materials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:388:y:2009:i:15:p:3072-3082

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2009.04.001

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