Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userLow-velocity collision behaviour of clusters composed of sub-mm sized dust aggregates
57
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
The experiments presented aim to measure the outcome of collisions between sub-mm sized protoplanetary dust aggregate analogues. We also observed the clusters formed from these aggregates and their collision behaviour. The experiments were performed at the drop tower in Bremen. The protoplanetary dust analogue materials were micrometre-sized monodisperse and polydisperse SiO$_2$ particles prepared into aggregates with sizes between 120~$mu$m and 250~$mu$m. One of the dust samples contained aggregates that were previously compacted through repeated bouncing. During three flights of 9~s of microgravity each, individual collisions between aggregates and the formation of clusters of up to a few millimetres in size were observed. In addition, the collisions of clusters with the experiment cell walls leading to compaction or fragmentation were recorded. We observed collisions amongst dust aggregates and collisions between dust clusters and the cell aluminium walls at speeds ranging from about 0.1 cm/s to 20 cm/s. The velocities at which sticking occurred ranged from 0.18 to 5.0 cm/s for aggregates composed of monodisperse dust, with an average value of 2.1 cm/s for reduced masses ranging from 1.2x10-6 to 1.8x10-3 g with an average value of 2.2x10-4 g. From the restructuring and fragmentation of clusters composed of dust aggregates colliding with the aluminium cell walls, we derived a collision recipe for dust aggregates ($sim$100 $mu$m) following the model of Dominik & Thielens (1997) developed for microscopic particles. We measured a critical rolling energy of 1.8x10-13 J and a critical breaking energy of 3.5x10-13 J for 100 $mu$m-sized non-compacted aggregates.
rate research
Read More
We investigated fundamental processes of collisional sticking and fragmentation of dust aggregates by carrying out N-body simulations of submicron-sized icy dust monomers. We examined the condition for collisional growth of two colliding dust aggregates in a wide range of the mass ratio, 1-64. We found that the mass transfer from a larger dust aggregate to a smaller one is a dominant process in collisions with a mass ratio of 2-30 and impact velocity of approx 30-170 m s^-1. As a result, the critical velocity, v_fra, for fragmentation of the largest body is considerably reduced for such unequal-mass collisions; v_fra of collisions with a mass ratio of 3 is about half of that obtained from equal-mass collisions. The impact velocity is generally higher for collisions between dust aggregates with higher mass ratios because of the difference between the radial drift velocities in the typical condition of protoplanetary disks. Therefore, the reduced v_fra for unequal-mass collisions would delay growth of dust grains in the inner region of protoplanetary disks.
Planetesimal formation is one of the most important unsolved problems in planet formation theory. In particular, rocky planetesimal formation is difficult because silicate dust grains are easily broken when they collide. Recently, it has been proposed that they can grow as porous aggregates when their monomer radius is smaller than $sim$ 10 nm, which can also avoid the radial drift toward the central star. However, the stability of a layer composed of such porous silicate dust aggregates has not been investigated. Therefore, we investigate the gravitational instability of this dust layer. To evaluate the disk stability, we calculate Toomres stability parameter $Q$, for which we need to evaluate the equilibrium random velocity of dust aggregates. We calculate the equilibrium random velocity considering gravitational scattering and collisions between dust aggregates, drag by mean flow of gas, stirring by gas turbulence, and gravitational scattering by gas density fluctuation due to turbulence. We derive the condition of the gravitational instability using the disk mass, dust-to-gas ratio, turbulent strength, orbital radius, and dust monomer radius. We find that, for the minimum mass solar nebula model at 1 au, the dust layer becomes gravitationally unstable when the turbulent strength $alphalesssim10^{-5}$. If the dust-to-gas ratio is increased twice, the gravitational instability occurs for $alphalesssim10^{-4}$. We also find that the dust layer is more unstable in disks with larger mass, higher dust-to-gas ratio, and weaker turbulent strength, at larger orbital radius, and with a larger monomer radius.
The collisional and sticking properties of sub-mm-sized aggregates composed of protoplanetary dust analogue material are measured, including the statistical threshold velocity between sticking and bouncing, their surface energy and tensile strength within aggregate clusters. We performed an experiment on the REXUS 12 suborbital rocket. The protoplanetary dust analogue materials were micrometre-sized monodisperse and polydisperse SiO2 particles prepared into aggregates with sizes around 120 $mu$m and 330 $mu$m, respectively and volume filling factors around 0.37. During the experimental run of 150 s under reduced gravity conditions, the sticking of aggregates and the formation and fragmentation of clusters of up to a few millimetres in size was observed. The sticking probability of the sub-mm-sized dust aggregates could be derived for velocities decreasing from 22 to 3 cm/s. The transition from bouncing to sticking collisions happened at 12.7 cm/s for the smaller aggregates composed of monodisperse particles and at 11.5 and 11.7 cm/s for the larger aggregates composed of mono- and polydisperse dust particles, respectively. Using the pull-off force of sub-mm-sized dust aggregates from the clusters, the surface energy of the aggregates composed of monodisperse dust was derived to be 1.6x10-5 J/m2, which can be scaled down to 1.7x10-2 J/m2 for the micrometre-sized monomer particles and is in good agreement with previous measurements for silica particles. The tensile strengths of these aggregates within the clusters were derived to be 1.9 Pa and 1.6 Pa for the small and large dust aggregates, respectively. These values are in good agreement with recent tensile strength measurements for mm-sized silica aggregates. Using our data on the sticking-bouncing threshold, estimates of the maximum aggregate size can be given. For a minimum mass solar nebula model, aggregates can reach sizes of 1 cm.
We present experimental phase functions of three types of millimeter-sized dust grains consisting of enstatite, quartz and volcanic material from Mount Etna, respectively. The three grains present similar sizes but different absorbing properties. The measurements are performed at 527 nm covering the scattering angle range from 3 to 170 degrees. The measured phase functions show two well defined regions i) soft forward peaks and ii) a continuous increase with the scattering angle at side- and back-scattering regions. This behavior at side- and back-scattering regions are in agreement with the observed phase functions for the Fomalhaut and HR 4796A dust rings. Further computations and measurements (including polarization) for millimeter sized-grains are needed to draw some conclusions about the fluffy or compact structure of the dust grains.
Comets are thought to have information about the formation process of our solar system. Recently, detailed information about comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been found by a spacecraft mission Rosetta. It is remarkable that its tensile strength was estimated. In this paper, we measure and formulate the tensile strength of porous dust aggregates using numerical simulations, motivated by porous dust aggregation model of planetesimal formation. We perform three-dimensional numerical simulations using a monomer interaction model with periodic boundary condition. We stretch out a dust aggregate with a various initial volume filling factor between $10^{-2}$ and 0.5. We find that the tensile stress takes the maximum value at the time when the volume filling factor decreases to about a half of the initial value. The maximum stress is defined to be the tensile strength. We take an average of the results with 10 different initial shapes to smooth out the effects of initial shapes of aggregates. Finally, we numerically obtain the relation between the tensile strength and the initial volume filling factor of dust aggregates. We also use a simple semi-analytical model and successfully reproduce the numerical results, which enables us to apply to a wide parameter range and different materials. The obtained relation is consistent with previous experiments and numerical simulations about silicate dust aggregates. We estimate that the monomer radius of comet 67P has to be about 3.3--220 $mathrm{mu m}$ to reproduce its tensile strength using our model.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
