Filling a silo with a mixture of grains: Friction-induced segregation

We study the filling process of a two-dimensional silo with inelastic particles by simulation of a granular media lattice gas (GMLG) model. We calculate the surface shape and flow profiles for a monodisperse system and we introduce a novel generalization of the GMLG model for a binary mixture of particles of different friction properties where, for the first time, we measure the segregation process on the surface. The results are in good agreement with a recent theory, and we explain the observed small deviations by the nonuniform velocity profile.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to be appear in Europhys. Let

Dynamic asset trees and Black Monday

The minimum spanning tree, based on the concept of ultrametricity, is constructed from the correlation matrix of stock returns. The dynamics of this asset tree can be characterised by its normalised length and the mean occupation layer, as measured from an appropriately chosen centre called the `central node'. We show how the tree length shrinks during a stock market crisis, Black Monday in this case, and how a strong reconfiguration takes place, resulting in topological shrinking of the tree.Comment: 6 pages, 3 eps figues. Elsevier style. Will appear in Physica A as part of the Bali conference proceedings, in pres

Autonomic SLA-Aware service virtualization for distributed systems

Cloud Computing builds on the latest achievements of diverse research areas, such as Grid Computing, Service-oriented computing, business processes and virtualization. Managing such heterogeneous environments requires sophisticated interoperation of adaptive coordinating components. In this paper we introduce an SLA-aware Service Virtualization architecture that provides non-functional guarantees in the form of Service Level Agreements and consists of a three-layered infrastructure including agreement negotiation, service brokering and on demand deployment. In order to avoid costly SLA violations, flexible and adaptive SLA attainment strategies are used with a failure propagation approach. We demonstrate the advantages of our proposed solution with a biochemical case study in a Cloud simulation environment. © 2011 IEEE

Experimental evidence on the development of scale invariance in the internal structure of self-affine aggregates

It is shown that an alternative approach for the characterization of growing branched patterns consists of the statistical analysis of frozen structures, which cannot be modified by further growth, that arise due to competitive processes among neighbor growing structures. Scaling relationships applied to these structures provide a method to evaluate relevant exponents and to characterize growing systems into universality classes. The analysis is applied to quasi-two-dimensional electrochemically formed silver branched patterns showing that the size distribution of frozen structures exhibits scale invariance. The measured exponents, within the error bars, remind us those predicted by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Piling and avalanches of magnetized particles

We performed computer simulations based on a two-dimensional Distinct Element Method to study granular systems of magnetized spherical particles. We measured the angle of repose and the surface roughness of particle piles, and we studied the effect of magnetization on avalanching. We report linear dependence of both angle of repose and surface roughness on the ratio $f$ of the magnetic dipole interaction and the gravitational force (\emph{interparticle force ratio}). There is a difference in avalanche formation at small and at large interparticle force ratios. The transition is at $f_c \approx 7$. For $f < f_c$ the particles forming the avalanches leave the system in a quasi-continuous granular flow (\emph{granular regime}), while for $f > f_c$ the avalanches are formed by long particle clusters (\emph{correlated regime}). The transition is not sharp. We give plausible estimates for $f_c$ based on stability criteria.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Force indeterminacy in the jammed state of hard disks

Granular packings of hard discs are investigated by means of contact dynamics which is an appropriate technique to explore the allowed force-realizations in the space of contact forces. Configurations are generated for given values of the friction coefficient, and then an ensemble of equilibrium forces is found for fixed contacts. We study the force fluctuations within this ensemble. In the limit of zero friction the fluctuations vanish in accordance with the isostaticity of the packing. The magnitude of the fluctuations has a non-monotonous friction dependence. The increase for small friction can be attributed to the opening of the angle of the Coulomb cone, while the decrease as friction increases is due to the reduction of connectivity of the contact-network, leading to local, independent clusters of indeterminacy. We discuss the relevance of indeterminacy to packings of deformable particles and to the mechanical response properties.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes, journal reference adde

Crossover of interface growth dynamics during corrosion and passivation

We study a model of corrosion and passivation of a metalic surface in contact with a solution using scaling arguments and simulation. The passive layer is porous so that the metal surface is in contact with the solution. The volume excess of the products may suppress the access of the solution to the metal surface, but it is then restored by a diffusion mechanism. A metalic site in contact with the solution or with the porous layer can be passivated with rate p and volume excess diffuses with rate D. At small times, the corrosion front linearly grows in time, but the growth velocity shows a t^{-1/2} decrease after a crossover time of order t_c ~ D/p^2, where the average front height is of order h_c ~ D/p. A universal scaling relation between h/h_c and t/t_c is proposed and confirmed by simulation for 0.00005 <= p <= 0.5 in square lattices. The roughness of the corrosion front shows a crossover from Kardar-Parisi-Zhang scaling to Laplacian growth (diffusion-limited erosion - DLE) at t_c. The amplitudes of roughness scaling are obtained by the same kind of arguments as previously applied to other competitive growth models. The simulation results confirm their validity. Since the proposed model captures the essential ingredients of different corrosion processes, we also expect these universal features to appear in real systems.Comment: 17 pages, including 7 figures; submitted articl