Related papers: Extraterrestrial sink dynamics in granular matter
In recent years, self-burrowing probes have been studied since they can be suitable for soil monitoring in locations with limited access such as outer space bodies and underneath existing structures. We study the performance of a…
Like in liquids, objects moving in granular materials experience a drag force. We investigate here whether and how the object acceleration affect this drag force. The study is based on simulations of a canonical drag test, which involves…
We develop an idealized dynamical model to predict the typical properties of outer extrasolar planetary systems, at radii beyond 5 AU. Our hypothesis is that dynamical evolution in outer planetary systems is controlled by a combination of…
We study the effects of gravity waves, or g-modes, on hot extrasolar planets. These planets are expected to possess stably-stratified atmospheres, which support gravity waves. In this paper, we review the derivation of the equation that…
Planet formation may begin much earlier than previously expected, when the protoplanetary disk is still massive and gravitationally unstable. It has been proposed that solid grains can concentrate in the spiral arms of self-gravitating…
Soft or weakly-consolidated sand refers to porous materials composed of particles (or grains) weakly held together to form a solid but that can be easily broken when subjected to stress. These materials do not behave as conventional…
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…
Prediction of flow profiles of slowly sheared granular materials is a major geophysical and industrial challenge. Understanding the role of gravity is particularly important for future planetary exploration in varying gravitational…
Frictional instabilities in fluid saturated granular materials underlie natural hazards, including submarine landslides and earthquake initiation. Experiments show distinct failure behaviors under subaerial and subaqueous conditions due to…
We report numerical simulations of strongly vibrated granular materials designed to mimic recent experiments performed both in presence [1] or absence [2] of gravity. We show that a model with impact velocity dependent restitution…
We use high-speed x-ray imaging to reveal how a small (~10cm) desert dwelling lizard, the sandfish (Scincus scincus), swims within a granular medium [1]. On the surface, the lizard uses a standard diagonal gait, but once below the surface,…
Any gravitating mass traversing a relatively sparse gas experiences a retarding force created by its disturbance of the surrounding medium. In a previous contribution (Lee & Stahler 2011), we determined this dynamical friction force when…
The traction evolution is a fundamental ingredient to model the dynamics of an earthquake rupture which ultimately controls, during the coseismic phase, the energy release, the stress redistribution and the consequent excitation of seismic…
Environmental science almost invariably proposes problems of extreme complexity, typically characterized by strongly nonlinear evolution dynamics. The systems under investigation have many degrees of freedom - which makes them complicated -…
We consider the dynamics of porous icy dust aggregates in a turbulent gas disk and investigate the stability of the disk. We evaluate the random velocity of porous dust aggregates by considering their self-gravity, collisions, aerodynamic…
The main goal of this paper is to set up a numerical laboratory for the study of the slow evolution of the density and of the pressure tensor profiles of an otherwise collisionless stellar system, as a result of the interactions with a…
We study experimentally the dynamics of a dense intruder sinking under gravity inside a vibrated 2D granular packing. The surrounding flow patterns are characterized and the falling trajectories are interpreted in terms of an effectivive…
Gravity-driven flows of granular matter are involved in a wide variety of situations, ranging from industrial processes to geophysical phenomena, such as avalanches or landslides. These flows are characterized by the coexistence of solid…
We analyze the frictionless motion of a point-like particle that slides under gravity on an inverted conical surface. This motion is studied for arbitrary initial conditions and a general relation, valid within 13%, between the periods of…
Instabilities and strong dynamical interactions between multiple giant planets have been proposed as a possible explanation for the surprising orbital properties of extrasolar planetary systems. In particular, dynamical instabilities seem…