Related papers: Avalanches and clusters in planar crack front prop…
We study avalanche dynamics and local activity of forced-flow imbibition fronts in disordered media. We focus on the front dynamics as the mean velocity $\bar{v}$ of the interface is decreased and the pinning state is approached. Scaling…
Uniform spherical beads were used to explore the behavior of a granular system near its critical angle of repose on a conical bead pile. We found two tuning parameters that could take the system to a critical point where a simple power-law…
In this thesis I discuss analytical approaches to disordered systems using field theory. Disordered systems are characterized by a random energy landscape due to heterogeneities, which remains fixed on the time scales of the phenomena…
We develop and discuss the properties of a new class of lattice-based avalanche models of solar flares. These models are readily amenable to a relatively unambiguous physical interpretation in terms of slow twisting of a coronal loop. They…
Plastic yield of amorphous solids occurs by power law distributed slip avalanches whose universality is still debated. Determination of the power law exponents from experiments and molecular dynamics simulations is hampered by limited…
Close to the yielding transition, amorphous solids exhibit a jerky dynamics characterized by plastic avalanches. The statistics of these avalanches have been measured experimentally and numerically using a variety of different triggering…
Physical systems characterized by stick-slip dynamics often display avalanches. Regardless of the diversity of their microscopic structure, these systems are governed by a power-law distribution of avalanche size and duration. Here we focus…
We analyze the scaling of avalanche precursors in the three dimensional random fuse model by numerical simulations. We find that both the integrated and non-integrated avalanche size distributions are in good agreement with the results of…
The presence of universality of avalanches characterizing the inelastic response of disordered materials has the potential to bridge the gap from micro- to macroscale. In this study, we explore the statistics and the scaling behavior of…
We present results on a meso-scale model for amorphous matter in athermal, quasi-static (a-AQS), steady state shear flow. In particular, we perform a careful analysis of the scaling with the lateral system size, $L$, of: i) statistics of…
We analyze the statistics of water droplet avalanches in a continuously driven system. Distributions are obtained for avalanche size, lifetime, and time between successive avalanches, along with power spectra and return maps. For low flow…
Stress vs. strain fluctuations in athermal amorphous solids are an example of `crackling noise' of the type studied extensively in the context of elastic membranes moving through random potentials. Contrary to the latter, we do not have a…
We study a recently proposed equation for the avalanche distribution in the Bak-Sneppen model. We demonstrate that this equation indirectly relates $\tau$,the exponent for the power law distribution of avalanche sizes, to $D$, the fractal…
We study several probability distributions relevant to the avalanche dynamics of elastic interfaces driven on a random substrate: The distribution of size, duration, lateral extension or area, as well as velocities. Results from the…
We propose a simple model for arch formation in silos. We show that small pertubations (such as the thermal expansion of the beads) may lead to giant stress fluctuations on the bottom plate of the silo. The relative amplitude $\Delta$ of…
Spatial distributions of heavy particles suspended in an incompressible isotropic and homogeneous turbulent flow are investigated by means of high resolution direct numerical simulations. In the dissipative range, it is shown that particles…
We consider the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile model on a two-dimensional square lattice of lattice sizes up to L=4096. A detailed analysis of the probability distribution of the size, area, duration and radius of the avalanches will be…
In a freely cooling granular material fluctuations in density and temperature cause position dependent energy loss. Due to strong local dissipation, pressure and energy drop rapidly and material moves from `hot' to `cold' regions, leading…
The sequence of deformation bursts during plastic deformation exhibits scale-free features. In addition to the burst or avalanche sizes and the rate of avalanches the process is characterized by correlations in the series which become…
Recent experiments show that an avalanche initiated from a point source propagates downwards by invading a triangular shaped region. The opening angle of this triangle appears to reach 180$^o$ for a critical inclination of the pile, beyond…