Related papers: Movers and shakers: Granular damping in microgravi…
The application of granular jamming in soft robotics is a recent and promising new technology offer exciting possibilities for creating higher performance robotic devices. Granular jamming is achieved via the application of a vacuum…
Granular grippers can manipulate a wide variety of objects, but need to be pressed on the object to conform to it. If the object is placed on unstable ground, e.g., on sand or water, this step might cause the object to sink or move away…
We experimentally measure a three-dimensional (3D) granular system's reversibility under cyclic compression. We image the grains using a refractive-index-matched fluid, then analyze the images using the artificial intelligence of…
We introduce a new approach to deriving approximate analytical solutions of a harmonic oscillator damped by purely nonlinear, or combinations of linear and nonlinear damping forces. Our approach is based on choosing a suitable trial…
We use a computational model to investigate the emergence of interaction forces between pairs of intruders in a horizontally vibrated granular fluid. The time evolution of a pair of particles shows a maximum of the likelihood to find the…
An overview of recent work on Monte Carlo simulations of a granular binary mixture is presented. The results are obtained numerically solving the Enskog equation for inelastic hard-spheres by means of an extension of the well-known direct…
Physical experiments can characterize the elastic response of granular materials in terms of macroscopic state-variables, namely volume (packing) fraction and stress, while the microstructure is not accessible and thus neglected. Here, by…
We investigate the down-hill creep of a layer of granular material on a slope caused by an oscillatory variation of the size of the particles. The material is modeled as an athermal two dimensional polydisperse system of soft disks under…
The main subject of this thesis rests on the study ---at different levels of description--- of instabilities in systems which are driven, i.e., maintained far from equilibrium by an external forcing. We focus here on two main classes,…
We study a two-dimensional gas of inelastic smooth hard dimers. Since the collisions between dimers are dissipative, being characterized by a coefficient of restitution $\alpha<1$, and no external driving force is present, the energy of the…
Discrete simulation methods are efficient tools to investigate the complex behaviors of complex fluids made of either dry granular materials or dilute suspensions. By contrast, materials made of soft and/or concentrated units (emulsions,…
We study fluidized granular gases in a stationary state determined by the balance between an external driving and the bulk dissipation. The two considered situations are inspired by recent experiments, where the gravity plays a major role…
We describe an experiment involving a mass oscillating in a viscous fluid and analyze viscous damping of harmonic motion. The mechanical oscillator is tracked using a simple webcam and an image processing algorithm records the position of…
"Granular elasticity," useful for calculating static stress distributions in granular media, is generalized by including the effects of slowly moving, deformed grains. The result is a hydrodynamic theory for granular solids that agrees well…
Simple homogeneous shear flows of frictionless, deformable particles are studied by particle simulations at large shear rates and for differently soft, deformable particles. The particle stiffness sets a time-scale that can be used to scale…
Studying the effect of mechanical perturbations on granular systems is crucial for understanding soil stability, avalanches, and earthquakes. We investigate a granular system as a laboratory proxy for fault gouge. When subjected to a slow…
Because of the huge commercial importance of granular systems, the second-most used material in industry after water, intersecting the industry in multiple trades, like pharmacy and agriculture, fundamental research on grain-like materials…
We investigate the flow of granular material in a rotating cylinder numerically using molecular dynamics in two dimensions. The particles are described by a new model which allows to simulate geometrically complicated shaped grains. The…
Discrete particle simulation methods have been used to study axial segregation in a horizontal rotating cylinder that is partially filled with a mixture of two different kinds of granular particles. Under suitable conditions segregation was…
Cohesive granular materials are found in many natural and industrial environments, but experimental platforms for exploring the innate mechanical properties of these materials are often limited by the difficulty of adjusting cohesion…