arXiv subjects

H. J. Herrmann

Publications and source records attributed to H. J. Herrmann.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Hydrodynamic model for particle size segregation in granular media

We present a hydrodynamic theoretical model for "Brazil nut" size segregation in granular materials. We give analytical solutions for the rise velocity of a large intruder particle immersed in a medium of monodisperse fluidized small particles. We propose a new mechanism for this particle size-segregation due to buoyant forces caused by density variations which come from differences in the local "granular temperature". The mobility of the particles is modified by the energy dissipation due to inelastic collisions and this leads to a different behavior from what one would expect for an elastic system. Using our model we can explain the size ratio dependence of the upward velocity.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Self-organized Criticality on Small World Networks

We study the BTW-height model of self-organized criticality on a square lattice with some long range connections giving to the lattice the character of small world network. We find that as function of the fraction $p$ of long ranged bonds the power law of the avalanche size and lifetime distribution changes following a crossover scaling law with crossover exponents 2/3 and 1 for size and lifetime respectively.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

A Continuum Saltation Model for Sand Dunes

We derive a phenomenological continuum saltation model for aeolian sand transport that can serve as an efficient tool for geomorphological applications. The coupled differential equations for the average density and velocity of sand in the saltation layer reproduce both known equilibrium relations for the sand flux and the time evolution of the sand flux as predicted by microscopic saltation models. The three phenomenological parameters of the model are a reference height for the grain-air interaction, an effective restitution coefficient for the grain-bed interaction, and a multiplication factor characterizing the chain reaction caused by the impacts leading to a typical time or length scale of the saturation transients. We determine the values of these parameters by comparing our model with wind tunnel measurements. Our main interest are out of equilibrium situations where saturation transients are important, for instance at phase boundaries (ground/sand) or under unsteady wind conditions. We point out that saturation transients are indispensable for a proper description of sand flux over structured terrain, by applying the model to the windward side of an isolated dune, thereby resolving recently reported discrepancies between field measurements and theoretical predictions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2000

Rotationally driven gas of inelastic rough spheres

We study a two-dimensional gas of inelastic rough spheres, driven on the rotational degrees of freedom. Numerical simulations are compared to mean-field (MF) predictions with surprisingly good agreement for strong coupling of rotational and translational degrees of freedom -- even for very strong dissipation in the translational degrees. Although the system is spatially homogeneous, the rotational velocity distribution is essentially Maxwellian. Surprisingly, the distribution of tangential velocities is strongly deviating from a Maxwellian. An interpretation of these results is proposed, as well as a setup for an experiment.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2000

Force fluctuation in a driven elastic chain

We study the dynamics of an elastic chain driven on a disordered substrate and analyze numerically the statistics of force fluctuations at the depinning transition. The probability distribution function of the amplitude of the slip events for small velocities is a power law with an exponent $+AFw-tau$ depending on the driving velocity. This result is in qualitative agreement with experimental measurements performed on sliding elastic surfaces with macroscopic asperities. We explore the properties of the depinning transition as a function of the driving mode (i.e. constant force or constant velocity) and compute the force-velocity diagram using finite size scaling methods. The scaling exponents are in excellent agreement with the values expected in interface models and, contrary to previous studies, we found no difference in the exponents for periodic and disordered chains.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Cluster-Growth in Freely Cooling Granular Media

When dissipative particles are left alone, their fluctuation energy decays due to collisional interactions, clusters build up and grow with time until the system size is reached. When the effective dissipation is strong enough, this may lead to the `inelastic collapse', i.e. the divergence of the collision frequency of some particles. The cluster growth is an interesting physical phenomenon, whereas the inelastic collapse is an intrinsic effect of the inelastic hard sphere (IHS) model used to study the cluster growth - involving only a negligible number of particles in the system. Here, we extend the IHS model by introducing an elastic contact energy and the related contact duration t_c. This avoids the inelastic collapse and allows to examine the long-time behavior of the system. For a quantitative description of the cluster growth, we propose a burning - like algorithm in continuous space, that readily identifies all particles that belong to the same cluster. The criterion for this is here chosen to be only the particle distance. With this method we identify three regimes of behavior. First, for short times a homogeneous cooling state (HCS) exists, where a mean-field theory works nicely, and the clusters are tiny and grow very slowly. Second, at a certain time which depends on the system's properties, cluster growth starts and the clusters increase in size and mass until, in the third regime, the system size is reached and most of the particles are collected in one huge cluster.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Intermittent Granular Flow and Clogging with Internal Avalanches

The dynamics of intermittent granular flow through an orifice in a granular bin and the associated clogging due to formation of arches blocking the outlet, is studied numerically in two-dimensions. Our numerical results indicate that for small hole sizes, the system self-organizes to a steady state and the distribution of the grain displacements decays as power laws. On the other hand, for large holes, the outflow distributions are also observed to follow power law distributions.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv1999

Dilatancy and Friction in sheared granular media

We introduce a simple model to describe the frictional properties of granular media under shear. We model the friction force in term of the horizontal velocity v and the vertical position z of the slider, interpreting z as a constitutive variable characterizing the contact. Dilatancy is shown to play an essential role in the dynamic, inducing a stick-slip instability at low velocity. We compute the phase diagram, analyze numerically the model for a wide range of parameters and compare our results with experiments on dry and wet granular media, obtaining a good agreement. In particular, we reproduce the hysteretic velocity dependence of the frictional force.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv1999

Self-Structuring of Granular Media under Internal Avalanches

We study the phenomenon of internal avalanching within the context of recently proposed ``Tetris'' lattice models for granular media. We define a recycling dynamics under which the system reaches a steady state which is self-structured, i.e. it shows a complex interplay between textured internal structures and critical avalanche behavior. Furthermore we develop a general mean-field theory for this class of systems and discuss possible scenarios for the breakdown of universality.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1998

Internal avalanches in models of granular media

We study the phenomenon of internal avalanching within the context of recently introduced lattice models of granular media. The avalanche is produced by pulling out a grain at the base of the packing and studying how many grains have to rearrange before the packing is once more stable. We find that the avalanches are long-ranged, decaying as a power-law. We study the distriution of avalanches as a function of the density of the packing and find that the avalanche distribution is a very sensitive structural probe of the system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1998

Contact forces in regular 3D granular pile

We present exact results for the contact forces in a three dimensional static piling of identical, stiff and frictionless spheres. The pile studied is a pyramid of equilateral triangular base (``stack of cannonballs'') with a FCC (face centered cubic) structure. We show in particular that, as for the two dimensional case, the pressure on the base of such a pile is uniform.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv1998

Exact calculation of force networks in granular piles

We present calculations of forces for two dimensional static sandpile models. Using a symbolic calculation software we obtain exact results for several different orientations of the lattice and for different types of supporting surfaces. The model is simple, supposing spherical, identical, rigid particles on a regular triangular lattice, without friction and with unilateral spring-like contacts. Special attention is given to the stress tensor and pressure on the base of the pile. We show that orientation of the lattice and the characteristics of the supporting surface have a strong influence on the physical properties of the pile. Our results agree well with numerical simulations done on similar systems and show, in some specific cases, a dip i.e. a depression under the apex of the pile. We also estimate that the algorithm we have developed can be easily adapted to other configurations and models of granulates and can be used in other physical cases where piecewise linear systems are encountered.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv1998

Shock propagation in a granular chain

We numerically solve the propagation of a shock wave in a chain of elastic beads with no restoring forces under traction (no-tension elasticity). We find a sequence of peaks of decreasing amplitude and velocity. Analyzing the main peak at different times we confirm a recently proposed scaling law for its decay.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1997

A 1d Traffic Model with Threshold Parameters

The basic properties of traffic flow are analyzed using a simple deterministic one dimensional "car following model" with continuous variables based on a model introduced by Nagel and Herrmann [Physica A 199 254--269 (1993)] including a few modifications. As a first case we investigate the creation and propagation of jams in a platoon generated by a slow leading vehicle. In a second case we look at a system with the size L, periodic boundary conditions and identical vehicles. A strong dependence on the initial configuration of the fundamental diagram's shape can be found.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1997

Broad Histogram Monte Carlo

We propose a new Monte Carlo technique in which the degeneracy of energy states is obtained with a Markovian process analogous to that of Metropolis used currently in canonical simulations. The obtained histograms are much broader than those of the canonical histogram technique studied by Ferrenberg and Swendsen. Thus we can reliably reconstruct thermodynamic functions over a much larger temperature scale also away from the critical point. We show for the two-dimensional Ising model how our new method reproduces exact results more accurately and using less computer time than the conventional histogram method. We also show data in three dimensions for the Ising ferromagnet and the Edwards Anderson spin glass.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1997

A ``Tetris''-like model for the Compaction of Dry Granular Media

We propose a two-dimensional geometrical model, based on the concept of geometrical frustration, conceived for the study of compaction in granular media. The dynamics exhibits an interesting inverse logarithmic law that is well known from real experiments. Moreover we present a simple dynamical model of $N$ planes exchanging particles with excluded volume problems, which allows to clarify the origin of the logarithmic relaxations and the stationary density distribution. A simple mapping allows us to cast this Tetris-like model in the form of an Ising-like spin systems with vacancies.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1996

Broad Histogram Method

Ferrenberg and Swendsen histogram method is based on Boltzmann probability distribution which presents exponentially decaying tails. Thus, it gives accurate measures only within a narrow window around the simulated temperature. The larger the system, the narrower this window, and the worst the performance of this method. We present a quite different approach, defining a non-biased random walk along the E axis with long range power-law decaying tails, and measuring directly the degeneracy g(E), without thermodynamic constraints. Our arguments are general (model independent), and the method is shown to be exact for the 1D Ising ferromagnet. Also for the 2D Ising ferromagnet, our numerical results for different thermodynamic quantities agree quite well with exact expressions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1996

Fragmentation of Colliding Discs

We study the phenomena associated with the low-velocity impact of two solid discs of equal size using a cell model of brittle solids. The fragment ejection exhibits a jet-like structure the direction of which depends on the impact parameter. We obtain the velocity and the mass distribution of the debris. Varying the radius and the initial velocity of the colliding particles, the velocity components of the fragments show anomalous scaling. The mass distribution follows a power law in the region of intermediate masses.

cond-mat↗