Dynamics of an Intruder in Dense Granular Fluids


Abstract in English

We investigate the dynamics of an intruder pulled by a constant force in a dense two-dimensional granular fluid by means of event-driven molecular dynamics simulations. In a first step, we show how a propagating momentum front develops and compactifies the system when reflected by the boundaries. To be closer to recent experiments cite{candelier2010journey,candelier2009creep}, we then add a frictional force acting on each particle, proportional to the particles velocity. We show how to implement frictional motion in an event-driven simulation. This allows us to carry out extensive numerical simulations aiming at the dependence of the intruders velocity on packing fraction and pulling force. We identify a linear relation for small and a nonlinear regime for high pulling forces and investigate the dependence of these regimes on granular temperature.

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