Towards More Realism in the Simulation of Granular Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Despite its technical relevance, the methodology of granular particle simulations has not developed as fast as other fields of computer simulation and is still stuck with rather historical approaches of round particle modeling. This volume will serve as a cross-disciplinary forum to share ideas for modernizing the methodology. No computational approach will be regarded as the “holy grail”, and submissions for rigid body simulation are as welcome as for elastic particle approaches, as long as the objectives and the limits of validity are clearly stated. This Special Issue is aimed at an audience that is writing, verifying or developing code, is in need of improved methodologies and interested in further studies of a range of topics from modeling over computational geometry to numerical analysis. Accordingly, not only computational studies, but also experimental studies which provide reference cases and input data are welcome.

A (not necessarily exhaustive) list of suitable categories is:

• Realistic particle modeling (e.g., DEM simulations of non-spherical particles with friction; Analysis of geometrical or algorithmic issues in contact evaluation; Effects of shape and friction on Rheology; Conservation mechanisms for history effects in static and quasi-static granular ensembles)
• Reliable modeling in Granular Fluid Dynamics (e.g., Fluid–particle coupling with at least verification of drag, Strouhal numbers or wall correction factors from the literature; Considerations about macroscopic and granular Reynolds numbers)
• Verified simulations (e.g., Comparisons of experiments with simulations; Comparison of different simulation types with physical input parameters)
• Numerical analysis for discrete element simulations (e.g., Time integrators with improved stability; Analysis of constrained methods in the framework of differential algebraic system, Numerical stabilization of static friction and other constraints)
• Experiments which are suitable as test cases (e.g., Experiments on small systems where particle number and friction are well controlled, so that verification of simulations is possible; Experiments on density and history effects; Three-dimensionalization, i.e., the transition from monolayers between walls to fully three-dimensional system)
• Experimental data for granular particle simulation (e.g., Coefficients of friction for ``real’’ grain materials; Coefficients of pivoting friction; Angles of repose for assemblies with well-controlled particle parameters; Sound propagation in granular assemblies)
• Continuum approaches (e.g., Polar and Cosserat continua with replicable coupling lengths between linear and angular degrees of freedom; Coupling of particle and continuum models with physically justifiable boundaries)
• Programming techniques (e.g., fast prototyping of code; combination of different software platforms, parallelization)
• Unconventional approaches (e.g., DEM-simulations with long-range interactions, Graphics-card parallelization for simulations of particles with non-spherical shapes)

Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Matuttis
Guest Editor

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