Related papers: Force chains bias the dynamic response to impacts …
Solar system small bodies come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, which are achieved following very individual evolutional paths through billions of years. This paper focuses on the reshaping process of rubble-pile asteroids driven by…
In nature, granular materials fail in abrupt avalanches, earthquakes, and other hazardous events, and also creep over time. Proposed failure mechanisms for these systems are broadly framed as friction-limited. However, mechanical…
We present a series of numerical simulations using a shock physics smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code, investigating energetic impacts on small celestial bodies characterised by diverse internal structures, ranging from weak and…
An asteroid spun up to its critical limit has unique surface mechanical properties that its gravity and the centrifugal force largely balance, creating a relaxation environment where low-energy events such as mass shedding may trigger…
We have recently developed some simple continuum models of static granular media which display "fragile" behaviour: they predict that the medium is unable to support certain types of infinitesimal load (which we call "incompatible" loads)…
This work analyzes the energetics of asteroid rubble piles in order to understand what asteroid morphologies should naturally arise from their formation and evolution process. In doing this, a phase diagram is developed that maps out the…
Remote measurements and in-situ observations confirm the idea that asteroids up to few hundreds of meters in size might be rubble piles. The dynamics of these objects can be studied using N-body simulations of gravitational aggregation. We…
We present a framework to study regolith segregation on rubble-pile asteroids (self-gravitating granular aggregates) due to seismic shaking induced by impacts sustained during their lifetimes. We first relate the amplitude and frequency of…
Many small bodies in the solar system are believed to be rubble piles, a collection of smaller elements separated by voids. We propose a model for the structure of a self-gravitating rubble pile. Static friction prevents its elements from…
We present a novel implementation of a soft sphere, discrete elements code to simulate the dynamics of self-gravitating granular materials. The code is used to study the outcome of sub-sonic collisions between self-gravitating rubble piles…
The transmission of forces through a disordered granular system is studied by means of a geometrical-topological approach that reduces the granular packing into a set of layers. This layered structure constitutes the skeleton through which…
This paper presents a brief review and latest results of the work that has been carried out by the Planetary Science community in order to understand that role of the geotechnical properties of granular asteroids (commonly known as…
The strength and stability of frictional interfaces, ranging from tribological systems to earthquake faults, are intimately related to the underlying spatially-extended dynamics. Here we provide a comprehensive theoretical account, both…
Shock metamorphism in ordinary chondrites allows for reconstructing impact events between asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Shock-darkening of ordinary chondrites occurs at the onset of complete shock melting of the rock (>70 GPa) or…
We explore the hypothesis that, due to small van der Waals forces between constituent grains, small rubble pile asteroids have a small but non-zero cohesive strength. The nature of this model predicts that the cohesive strength should be…
Spin off events and impacts can eject boulders from an asteroid surface and rubble pile asteroids can accumulate from debris following a collision between large asteroids. These processes produce a population of gravitational bound objects…
We revisit the problem of the stress distribution in a frictional sandpile under gravity, equipped with a new numerical model of granular assemblies with both normal and tangential (frictional) inter-granular forces. Numerical simulations…
Context. Rotational instability of rubble-pile asteroids can trigger mass shedding, forming transient debris clouds that may provide the initial conditions for secondary formation in binary systems. Aims. We investigate the dynamical and…
Dynamic characterization of mechanical properties of dust aggregates has been one of the most important problems to quantitatively discuss the dust growth in protoplanetary disks. We experimentally investigate the dynamic properties of dust…
Rubble-pile asteroids can form through the self-gravitational reaccumulation of fragments produced during large-scale collisions. To investigate how differentiated bodies are disrupted and how iron-rich rubble piles may form, we performed…