Numerical Investigation of the Evolution of Sandpiles

TL;DR

This paper uses molecular dynamics with nonspherical particles to study sandpile evolution, showing that grain shape influences the angle of repose and avalanche behavior, aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

Introduces a new model incorporating particle shape in molecular dynamics simulations, replacing static friction to study granular pile evolution.

Findings

Angle of repose depends on grain shape.

Simulation results match experimental avalanche statistics.

Nonspherical particles influence pile stability.

Abstract

The evolution of a pile of granular material is investigated by molecular dynamics using a new model including nonsphericity of the particles instead of introducing static friction terms. The angle of repose of the piles as well as the avalanche statistics gathered by the simulation agree with experimental results. The angle of repose of the pile is determined by the shape of the grains. Our results are compared with simulations using spherical grains and static friction.