Self-charging of identical grains in the absence of an external field
Computational Physics
2017-01-17 v4 Soft Condensed Matter
Abstract
We investigate the electrostatic charging of an agitated bed of identical grains using simulations, mathematical modeling, and experiments. We simulate charging with a discrete-element model including electrical multipoles and find that infinitesimally small initial charges can grow exponentially rapidly. We propose a mathematical Turing model that defines conditions for exponential charging to occur and provides insights into the mechanisms involved. Finally, we confirm the predicted exponential growth in experiments using vibrated grains under microgravity, and we describe novel predicted spatiotemporal states that merit further study.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1608.03210,
title = {Self-charging of identical grains in the absence of an external field},
author = {Ryuta Yoshimatsu and Nuno Araújo and Gerhard Wurm and Hans Herrmann and Troy Shinbrot},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.03210},
year = {2017}
}