Intruder in a two-dimensional granular system: Effects of dynamic and static basal friction on stick-slip and clogging dynamics

TL;DR

This study uses simulations to investigate how static and dynamic basal friction influence the stick-slip and clogging behaviors of an intruder moving through a two-dimensional granular system, extending previous experimental findings.

Contribution

The paper introduces a simulation model that accurately reproduces experimental results and explores a broader friction parameter space, revealing the dominant role of dynamic friction in intruder dynamics.

Findings

Dynamic friction significantly influences stick-slip behavior below a coefficient of 0.1.

Static friction has a marginal effect on intruder dynamics.

Simulation results align well with experimental data.

Abstract

We discuss the results of simulations of an intruder pulled through a two-dimensional granular system by a spring, using a model designed to lend insight into the experimental findings described by Kozlowski et al. [Phys. Rev. E, 100, 032905 (2019)]. In that previous study the presence of basal friction between the grains and the base was observed to change the intruder dynamics from clogging to stick-slip. Here we first show that our simulation results are in excellent agreement with the experimental data for a variety of experimentally accessible friction coefficients governing interactions of particles with each other and with boundaries. Then, we use simulations to explore a broader range of parameter space, focusing on the friction between the particles and the base. We consider a range of both static and dynamic basal friction coefficients, which are difficult to vary smoothly in experiments. The simulations show that dynamic friction strongly affects the stick-slip behaviour when the coefficient is decreased below 0.1, while static friction plays only a marginal role in the intruder dynamics.