Paper Presentation:


Particle Based Simulation of Granular Materials

Nathan Bell, Yizhou Yu, and Peter J. Mucha

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Questions

Q 1) Lindsay Grace asks...

In theory, could you simulate particle breakdown by dynamically removing the spheres that comprise the non-spherical granules so that the velocity, mass, collisions, etc. of the non-spherical granule(s) changes. For example, could I simulate soft granules that start to break apart as they continue to rub against each other from simulated shake, wind, etc? Could I also add a hardness factor for other collisions (e.g. in the example given, could the metal ball have the ability to crush granules to make a finer "powder?")


A)  The paper does not address the issue of particle breakdown. The authors assume the pariticles to be rigid bodies. However, the question of particle break down is very interesting because the sheer forces that are taken into account in the simulation can be extended to cause the particle breakdown. From the framework described in the paper, I see this extention of the phenomena to be highly plausible.

I am of the opinion that the reason why it has not been implemented is that it may not be very significant for the level of detail in which they did their simulations.

Q 2) Javier Iparraguirre asks...

Can be included as a future enhancement the gravitational attraction of the particles?


A) I am not sure if you are referring to the gravity due to earth or the force of attraction between particles. In either case, it should not be difficult to include the force into the existing framework. I think the force of attraction between particles becomes significant for very huge masses like planets and is generally negligible for small particles like granules where frictional forces are more significant.