Molecular dynamics of arbitrarily shaped granular particles}

We propose a new model for the description of complex granular particles and their interaction in molecular dynamics simulations of granular material in two dimensions. The grains are composed of triangles which are connected by deformable beams. Particles are allowed to be convex or concave. We present first results of simulations using this particle model.Comment: uuencoded compressed PostScript, 40 pages, 19 figures (included

Molecular Dynamics of Comminution in Ball Mills

We investigate autogenous fragmentation of dry granular material in rotating cylinders using two-dimensional molecular dynamics. By evaluation of spatial force distributions achieved numerically for various rotation velocities we argue that comminution occurs mainly due to the existence of force chains. A statistical analysis of theses force chains explains the spatial distribution of comminution efficiency in ball mills as measured experimentally by Rothkegel and Rolf. For animated sequences of our simulations see http://summa.physik.hu-berlin.de/~kies/Research/RotatingCylinder/rotatingcylind er.htmlComment: 15 pages, 13 figure

Avalanche statistics of sand heaps

Large scale computer simulations are presented to investigate the avalanche statistics of sand piles using molecular dynamics. We could show that different methods of measurement lead to contradicting conclusions, presumably due to avalanches not reaching the end of the experimental table.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Simulation of rotating drum experiments using non-circular particles

We investigate the flow of granular material in a rotating cylinder numerically using molecular dynamics in two dimensions. The particles are described by a new model which allows to simulate geometrically complicated shaped grains. The results of the simulation agree significantly better with experiments than the results which are based on circular particles.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure