Short-time dynamics of a packing of polyhedral grains under horizontal vibrations

TL;DR

This study investigates the short-time dynamics of irregular polyhedral grain packings under horizontal vibrations, revealing how particle motion, compaction, and jamming depend on vibrational parameters through simulations.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the vibrational behavior and compaction dynamics of polyhedral granular packings under horizontal forcing, using contact dynamics simulations.

Findings

Particle displacement scales with inverse square of frequency

Short-time compaction rate peaks at a characteristic frequency

Wall motion exhibits strong anharmonicity due to jamming

Abstract

We analyze the dynamics of a 3D granular packing composed of particles of irregular polyhedral shape confined inside a rectangular box with a retaining wall sub jected to horizontal harmonic forcing. The simulations are performed by means of the contact dynamics method for a broad set of loading parameters. We explore the vibrational dynamics of the packing, the evolution of solid fraction and the scaling of dy- namics with the loading parameters. We show that the motion of the retaining wall is strongly anharmonic as a result of jamming and grain rearrangements. It is found that the mean particle displacement scales with inverse square of frequency, the inverse of the force amplitude and the square of gravity. The short- time compaction rate grows in proportion to frequency up to a characteristic frequency, corresponding to collective particle rearrangements between equilibrium states, and then it declines in inverse proportion to frequency.