INTERNAL AVALANCHES IN MODELS OF GRANULAR MEDIA

/ Authors

S. Krishnamurthy, Hans Jürgen Herrmann, V. Loreto, M. Nicodemi, S. Paris, ICA1, U. Stuttgart, H Germany, Universita di NapoliFederico, Napoli

and 5 more authors

Italy., Laboratoire Surface du Verre et Interfaces, Unite Mixte de Recherche CNRSSaint-Gobain, Aubervilliers, France.

/ Abstract

We study the phenomenon of internal avalanching within the context of recently introduced lattice models of granular media. The avalanche is produced by pulling out a grain at the base of the packing and then studying the number of grains to be rearranged before the packing is stable again. We find that the avalanches are long-ranged, decaying as a power law. We study the distribution of avalanches as a function of the density of the packing and find that the avalanche distribution is a very sensitive structural probe of the system.

Journal: Fractals

DOI: 10.1142/s0218348x99000074