Convection in horizontally shaken granular material

TL;DR

This paper investigates how convection patterns in horizontally shaken granular materials depend on inelastic properties, using molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the influence of restitution coefficients on pattern formation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the crucial role of inelasticity in convection pattern formation through detailed molecular dynamics simulations.

Findings

Convection patterns vary significantly with inelasticity.

Restitution coefficient influences the convection behavior.

Pattern formation depends on material inelastic properties.

Abstract

In horizontally shaken granular material different types of pattern formation have been reported. We want to deal with the convection instability which has been observed in experiments and which recently has been investigated numerically. Using two dimensional molecular dynamics we show that the convection pattern depends crucial on the inelastic properties of the material. The concept of restitution coefficient provides arguments for the change of the behaviour with variing inelasticity.