Tetris Model for Granular Drag

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified lattice-based model to simulate granular drag experienced by objects moving through a bed of glass beads, achieving realistic results with efficient computation.

Contribution

It presents a novel lattice model using dimers to study granular drag, avoiding static friction complexities and enabling large-scale, fast simulations.

Findings

Model closely replicates experimental observations

Efficient simulation of large systems

Provides insights into granular drag mechanisms

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on objects moved vertically through a bed a glass beads, a simple model to study granular drag is proposed. The model consists of dimers on a slanted two-dimensional lattice through which objects are dragged very slowly to obtain full relaxation between moves. Such an approach avoids complications due to static friction in more realistic off-lattice models, and provides for fast simulations at large system sizes. The upward motion of objects of various diameters embedded in the lattice is simulated and close resemblance with the experiments is found.