arXiv subjects

Thorsten Poeschel

Publications and source records attributed to Thorsten Poeschel.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Oblique Impact of Frictionless Spheres: On the Limitations of Hard Sphere Models for Granular Dynamics

When granular systems are modeled by frictionless hard spheres, particle-particle collisions are considered as instantaneous events. This implies that while the velocities change according to the collision rule, the positions of the particles are the same before and after such an event. We show that depending on the material and system parameters, this assumption may fail. For the case of viscoelastic particles we present a universal condition which allows to assess whether the hard-sphere modeling and, thus, event-driven Molecular Dynamics simulations are justified.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Coefficient of Restitution as a Fluctuating Quantity

The coefficient of restitution of a spherical particle in contact with a flat plate is investigated as a function of the impact velocity. As an experimental observation we notice non-trivial (non-Gaussian) fluctuations of the measured values. For a fixed impact velocity, the probability density of the coefficient of restitution, $p(ε)$, is formed by two exponential functions (one increasing, one decreasing) of different slope. This behavior may be explained by a certain roughness of the particle which leads to energy transfer between the linear and rotational degrees of freedom.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Collision of Viscoelastic Spheres: Compact Expressions for the Coefficient of Normal Restitution

The coefficient of restitution of colliding viscoelastic spheres is analytically known as a complete series expansion in terms of the impact velocity where all (infinitely many) coefficients are known. While beeing analytically exact, this result is not suitable for applications in efficient event-driven Molecular Dynamics (eMD) or Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Based on the analytic result, here we derive expressions for the coefficient of restitution which allow for an application in efficient eMD and MC simulations of granular Systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Movers and shakers: Granular damping in microgravity

The response of an oscillating granular damper to an initial perturbation is studied using experiments performed in microgravity and granular dynamics mulations. High-speed video and image processing techniques are used to extract experimental data. An inelastic hard sphere model is developed to perform simulations and the results are in excellent agreement with the experiments. The granular damper behaves like a frictional damper and a linear decay of the amplitude is bserved. This is true even for the simulation model, where friction forces are absent. A simple expression is developed which predicts the optimal damping conditions for a given amplitude and is independent of the oscillation frequency and particle inelasticities.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2010

Three Balls Problem Revisited - On the Limitations of Event-Driven Modeling

If a tennis ball is held above a basket ball with their centers vertically aligned, and the balls are released to collide with the floor, the tennis ball may rebound at a surprisingly high speed. We show in this article that the simple textbook explanation of this effect is an oversimplification, even for the limit of perfectly elastic particles. Instead, there may occur a rather complex scenario including multiple collisions which may lead to a very different final velocity as compared with the velocity resulting from the oversimplified model.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2009

Force Statistics and Correlations in Dense Granular Packings

In dense, static, polydisperse granular media under isotropic pressure, the probability density and the correlations of particle-wall contact forces are studied. Furthermore, the probability density functions of the populations of pressures measured with different sized circular pressure cells is examined. The questions answered are: (i) What is the number of contacts that has to be considered so that the measured pressure lies within a certain error margin from its expectation value? (ii) What is the statistics of the pressure probability density as function of the size of the pressure cell? Astonishing non-random correlations between contact forces are evidenced, which range at least 10 to 15 particle diameter. Finally, an experiment is proposed to tackle and better understand this issue.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2009

Fractal Substructures due to Fragmentation and Reagglomeration

Cohesive powders form agglomerates that can be very porous. Hence they are also very fragile. Consider a process of complete fragmentation on a characteristic length scale $\ell$, where the fragments are subsequently allowed to settle under gravity. If this fragmentation-reagglomeration cycle is repeated sufficiently often, the powder develops a fractal substructure with robust statistical properties. The structural evolution is discussed for two different models: The first one is an off-lattice model, in which a fragment does not stick to the surface of other fragments that have already settled, but rolls down until it finds a locally stable position. The second one is a simpler lattice model, in which a fragment sticks at first contact with the agglomerate of fragments that have already settled. Results for the fragment size distribution are shown as well. One can distinguish scale invariant dust and fragments of a characteristic size. Their role in the process of structure formation will be addressed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Fractal Substructure of a Nanopowder

The structural evolution of a nano-powder by repeated dispersion and settling can lead to characteristic fractal substructures. This is shown by numerical simulations of a two-dimensional model agglomerate of adhesive rigid particles. The agglomerate is cut into fragments of a characteristic size l, which then are settling under gravity. Repeating this procedure converges to a loosely packed structure, the properties of which are investigated: a) The final packing density is independent of the initialization, b) the short-range correlation function is independent of the fragment size, c) the structure is fractal up to the fragmentation scale l with a fractal dimension close to 1.7, and d) the relaxation time increases linearly with l.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2007

Coefficient of tangential restitution for the linear dashpot model

The linear dashpot model for the inelastic normal force between colliding spheres leads to a constant coefficient of normal restitution, $ε_n=$const., which makes this model very popular for the investigation of dilute and moderately dense granular systems. For two frequently used models for the tangential interaction force we determine the coefficient of tangential restitution $ε_t$, both analytically and by numerical integration of Newton's equation. Although $ε_n=$const. for the linear-dashpot model, we obtain pronounced and characteristic dependencies of the tangential coefficient on the impact velocity $ε_t=ε_t(\vec{g})$. The results may be used for event-driven simulations of granular systems of frictional particles.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2007

Coefficient of Restitution for Viscoelastic Spheres: The Effect of Delayed Recovery

The coefficient of normal restitution of colliding viscoelastic spheres is computed as a function of the material properties and the impact velocity. From simple arguments it becomes clear that in a collision of purely repulsively interacting particles, the particles loose contact slightly before the distance of the centers of the spheres reaches the sum of the radii, that is, the particles recover their shape only after they lose contact with their collision partner. This effect was neglected in earlier calculations which leads erroneously to attractive forces and, thus, to an underestimation of the coefficient of restitution. As a result we find a novel dependence of the coefficient of restitution on the impact rate.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2007

Close-packed granular clusters: hydrostatics and persistent Gaussian fluctuations

Dense granular clusters often behave like macro-particles. We address this interesting phenomenon in a model system of inelastically colliding hard disks inside a circular box, driven by a thermal wall at zero gravity. Molecular dynamics simulations show a close-packed cluster of an almost circular shape, weakly fluctuating in space and isolated from the driving wall by a low-density gas. The density profile of the system agrees very well with the azimuthally symmetric solution of granular hydrostatic equations employing constitutive relations by Grossman et al., whereas the widely used Enskog-type constitutive relations show poor accuracy. We find that fluctuations of the center of mass of the system are Gaussian. This suggests an effective Langevin description in terms of a macro-particle, confined by a harmonic potential and driven by a delta-correlated noise. Surprisingly, the fluctuations persist when increasing the number of particles in the system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Hourglass of constant weight

In contrast to a still common belief, a steadily flowing hourglass changes its weight in the course of time. We will show that, nevertheless, it is possible to construct hourglasses that do not change their weight.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2007

Granular Gas Cooling and Relaxation to the Steady State in Regard to the Overpopulated Tail of the Velocity Distribution

We present a universal description of the velocity distribution function of granular gases, $f(v)$, valid for both, small and intermediate velocities where $v$ is close to the thermal velocity and also for large $v$ where the distribution function reveals an exponentially decaying tail. By means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations and by kinetic theory we show that the deviation from the Maxwell distribution in the high-energy tail leads to small but detectable variation of the cooling coefficient and to extraordinary large relaxation time.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Coefficient of restitution and linear dashpot model revisited

With the assumption of a linear-dashpot interaction force, we compute the coefficient of restitution as a function of the elastic and dissipative material constants, k and gamma by integrating Newton's equation of motion for an isolated pair of colliding particles. It turns out that an expression e(k,gamma) widely used in the literature is even qualitatively incorrect due to an incorrect definition of the duration of the collision.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2006

Granular Hydrodynamics and Pattern Formation in Vertically Oscillated Granular Disks Layers

A numerical hydrodynamic model of a vibrated granular bed in 2D is elaborated based on a highly accurate Shock Capturing scheme applied to the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for granular flow. The hydrodynamic simulation of granular flows is numerically difficult, particularly in systems where dilute and dense regions occur at the same time and interact with each other. As an example of such a problematic system we investigate the formation of Faraday waves in a 2d system which is exposed to vertical vibration in the presence of gravity. The results of the CHD agree quantitatively well with event-driven Molecular Dynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Efficient numerical simulation of granular matter using the Bottom-To-Top Reconstruction method

The numerical simulation of granular systems of even moderate size is a challenging computational problem. In most investigations, either Molecular Dynamics or Event-driven Molecular Dynamics is applied. Here we show that in certain cases, mainly (but not exclusively) for static granular packings, the Bottom-to-top Reconstruction method allows for the efficient simulation of very large systems. We apply the method to heap formation, granular flow in a rotating cylinder and to structure formation in nano-powders. We also present an efficient implementation of the algorithm in C++, including a benchmark.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2006

Impact of high-energy tails on granular gas properties

The velocity distribution function of granular gases in the homogeneous cooling state as well as some heated granular gases decays for large velocities as $f\propto\exp(- {\rm const.} v)$. That is, its high-energy tail is overpopulated as compared with the Maxwell distribution. At the present time, there is no theory to describe the influence of the tail on the kinetic characteristics of granular gases. We develop an approach to quantify the overpopulated tail and analyze its impact on granular gas properties, in particular on the cooling coefficient. We observe and explain anomalously slow relaxation of the velocity distribution function to its steady state.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Translations and Rotations are correlated in Granular Gases

In a granular gas of rough particles the axis of rotation is shown to be correlated with the translational velocity of the particles. The average relative orientation of angular and linear velocities depends on the parameters which characterise the dissipative nature of the collision. We derive a simple theory for these correlations and validate it with numerical simulations for a wide range of coefficients of normal and tangential restitution. The limit of smooth spheres is shown to be singular: even an arbitrarily small roughness of the particles gives rise to orientational correlations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗