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We present 3D DEM simulations of bidisperse granular packings to investigate their jamming densities, $\phi_J$, and dimensionless bulk moduli, $K$, as a function of the size ratio, $\delta$, and the concentration of small particles, $X_{\mathrm S}$. We determine the partial and total bulk moduli for each packing and report the jamming transition diagram, i.e., the density or volume fraction marking both the first and second transitions of the system. At a large enough size difference, e.g., $\delta \le 0.22$, $X^{*}_{\mathrm S}$ divides the diagram with most small particles either non-jammed or jammed jointly with large ones. We find that the bulk modulus $K$ jumps at $X^{*}_{\mathrm S}(\delta = 0.15) \approx 0.21$, at the maximum jamming density, where both particle species mix most efficiently, while for $X_{\mathrm S} < X^{*}_{\mathrm S}$ $K$ is decoupled in two scenarios as a result of the first and second jamming transition. Along the second transition, $K$ rises relative to the values found at the first transition, however, is still small compared to $K$ at $X^{*}_{\mathrm S}$. While the first transition is sharp, the second is smooth, carried by small-large interactions, while the small-small contacts display a transition. This demonstrates that for low enough $\delta$ and $X_{\mathrm S}$, the jamming of small particles indeed impacts the internal resistance of the system. Our new results will allow tuning the bulk modulus $K$ or other properties, such as the wave speed, by choosing specific sizes and concentrations based on a better understanding of whether small particles contribute to the jammed structure or not, and how the micromechanical structure behaves at either transition., Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology. To achieve high product quality, the powder is best spread as a uniform, dense layer. The challenge for LPBF manufacturers is to develop a spreading process that can produce a consistent layer quality for the many powders used, which show considerable differences in spreadability. Therefore, we investigate the influence of material properties, process parameters and the type of spreading tool on the layer quality. The discrete particle method is used to simulate the spreading process and to define metrics to evaluate the powder layer characteristics. We found that particle shape and surface roughness in terms of rolling resistance and interparticle sliding friction as well as particle cohesion all have a major (sometimes surprising) influence on the powder layer quality: more irregular shaped particles, rougher particle surfaces and/or higher interfacial cohesion usually, but not always, lead to worse spreadability. Our findings illustrate that there is a trade-off between material properties and process parameters. Increasing the spreading speed decreases layer quality for non- and weakly cohesive powders, but improves it for strongly cohesive ones. Using a counter-clockwise rotating roller as a spreading tool improves the powder layer quality compared to spreading with a blade. Finally, for both geometries, a unique correlation between the quality criteria uniformity and mass fraction is reported and some of the findings are related to size-segregation during spreading., Comment: 38 pages, 24 figures, 2 tables

Powders are a special class of granular matter due to the important role of cohesive forces. The flow behavior of powders depends on the flow states and stress and is therefore difficult to measure/quantify with only one experiment. In this study, the most commonly used characterization tests that cover a wide range of states are compared: (static, free surface) angle of repose, the (quasi-static, confined) ring shear steady state angle of internal friction, and the (dynamic, free surface) rotating drum flow angle are considered for free flowing, moderately and strongly cohesive limestone powders. The free flowing powder gives good agreement among all different situations (devices), while the moderately and strongly cohesive powders behave more interestingly. Starting from the flow angle in the rotating drum and going slower, one can extrapolate to the limit of zero rotation rate, but then observes that the angle of repose measured from the heap is considerably larger, possibly due to its special history. When we stretch the ring shear test to its lowest confining stress limit, the steady state angle of internal friction of the cohesive powder coincides with the flow angle (at free surface) in the zero rotation rate limit., Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, LaTeX; 2nd reviewed version with minor changes (Powder Technology)

We present numerical evidence for an additional discontinuous transition inside the jammed regime for an asymmetric bidisperse granular packing upon compression. This additional transition line separates jammed states with networks of predominantly large particles from jammed networks formed by both large and small particles, and the transition is indicated by a discontinuity in the number of particles contributing to the jammed network. The additional transition line emerges from the curves of jamming transitions and terminates in an end-point where the discontinuity vanishes. The additional line is starting at a size ratio around $\delta = 0.22$ and grows longer for smaller $\delta$. For $\delta \to 0$, the additional transition line approaches a limit that can be derived analytically. The observed jamming scenarios are reminiscent of glass-glass transitions found in colloidal glasses., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

Two-dimensional Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) is a promising technique to study the behaviour of granular flows. The aim is to experimentally determine the free surface width and position of the shear band from the velocity profile to validate simulations in a split-bottom shear cell geometry. The position and velocities of scattered tracer particles are tracked as they move with the bulk flow by analyzing images. We then use a new technique to extract the continuum velocity field, applying coarse-graining with the postprocessing toolbox MercuryCG on the discrete experimental PTV data. For intermediate filling heights, the dependence of the shear (or angular) velocity on the radial coordinate at the free surface is well fitted by an error function. From the error function, we get the width and the centre position of the shear band. We investigate the dependence of these shear band properties on filling height and rotation frequencies of the shear cell for dry glass beads for rough and smooth wall surfaces. For rough surfaces, the data agrees with the existing experimental results and theoretical scaling predictions. For smooth surfaces, particle-wall slippage is significant and the data deviates from the predictions. We further study the effect of cohesion on the shear band properties by using small amount of silicon oil and glycerol as interstitial liquids with the glass beads. While silicon oil does not lead to big changes, glycerol changes the shear band properties considerably. The shear band gets wider and is situated further inward with increasing liquid saturation, due to the correspondingly increasing trend of particles to stick together.

We study slip-avalanches in two-dimensional soft athermal disks by quasi-static simulations of simple shear deformations. Sharp drops in shear stress, or slip-avalanches, are observed intermittently during steady state. Such the stress drop is caused by restructuring of the contact networks, accompanied by drastic changes of the interaction forces. The changes of the forces happen heterogeneously in space, indicating that collective non-affine motions of the disks are most pronounced when slip-avalanches occur. We analyze and predict statistics for the force changes, by transition rates of the force and contact angle, where slip-avalanches are characterized by their wide power-law tails. We find that the transition rates are described as a q-Gaussian distribution regardless of the area fraction of the disks. Because the transition rates quantify structural changes of the force-chains, our findings are an important step towards a microscopic theory of slip-avalanches in the experimentally accessible quasi-static regime., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

Biot's theory predicts the wave velocities of a saturated poroelastic granular medium from the elastic properties, density and geometry of its dry solid matrix and the pore fluid, neglecting the interaction between constituent particles and local flow. However, when the frequencies become high and the wavelengths comparable with particle size, the details of the microstructure start to play an important role. Here, a novel hydro-micromechanical numerical model is proposed by coupling the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with the discrete element method (DEM. The model allows to investigate the details of the particle-fluid interaction during propagation of elastic waves While the DEM is tracking the translational and rotational motion of each solid particle, the LBM can resolve the pore-scale hydrodynamics. Solid and fluid phases are two-way coupled through momentum exchange. The coupling scheme is benchmarked with the terminal velocity of a single sphere settling in a fluid. To mimic a pressure wave entering a saturated granular medium, an oscillating pressure boundary condition on the fluid is implemented and benchmarked with one-dimensional wave equations. Using a face centered cubic structure, the effects of input waveforms and frequencies on the dispersion relations are investigated. Finally, the wave velocities at various effective confining pressures predicted by the numerical model are compared with with Biot's analytical solution, and a very good agreement is found. In addition to the pressure and shear waves, slow compressional waves are observed in the simulations, as predicted by Biot's theory., Comment: Manuscript submitted to International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics

Elastic wave propagation provides a noninvasive way to probe granular materials. The discrete element method using particle configuration as input, allows a micromechanical interpretation on the acoustic response of a given granular system. This paper compares static and dynamic numerical probing methods, from which wave velocities are either deduced from elastic moduli or extracted from the time/frequency-domain signals. The dependence of wave velocities on key characteristics, i.e., perturbation magnitude and direction for static probing, and maximum travel distance and inserted signals for dynamic probing, is investigated. It is found that processing the frequency-domain signals obtained from dynamic probing leads to reproducible wave velocities at all wavenumbers, irrespective of the perturbation characteristics, whereas the maximum travel distance and input signals for the time domain analysis have to be carefully chosen, so as to obtain the same long-wavelength limits as from the frequency domain. Static and dynamic probes are applied to calibrated representative volumes of glass beads, subjected to cyclic oedometric compression. Although the perturbation magnitudes are selected to reveal only the elastic moduli, the deduced wave velocities are consistently lower than the long-wavelength limits at various stress states, and thus sensitive to sample size. While the static probes investigate the influence of stress history on modulus degradation, dynamic probing offers insights about how dispersion relations evolve during cyclic compression. Interestingly, immediately after each load reversal the incremental behavior is reversibly elastoplastic, until it becomes truly elastic with further unload/reload. With repeating unload/reload, the P- or S-wave dispersion relations become increasingly scalable with respect to their long-wavelength limits., Comment: Manuscript submitted to International Journal of Solids and Structures

We employ numerical simulations to understand the evolution of elastic standing waves in disordered frictional disk systems, where the dispersion relations of rotational sound modes are analyzed in detail. As in the case of frictional particles on a lattice, the rotational modes exhibit an "optical-like" dispersion relation in the high frequency regime, representing a shoulder of the vibrational density of states and fast oscillations of the autocorrelations of rotational velocities. A lattice-based model describes the dispersion relations of the rotational modes for small wave numbers. The rotational modes are perfectly explained by the model if tangential elastic forces between the disks in contact are large enough. If the tangential forces are comparable with or smaller than normal forces, the model fails for short wave lengths. However, the dispersion relation of the rotational modes then follows the model prediction for transverse modes, implying that the fast oscillations of disks' rotations switch to acoustic sound behavior. We evidence such a transition of the rotational modes by analyzing the eigen vectors of disordered frictional disks and identify upper and lower limits of the frequency-bands. We find that those are not reversed over the whole range of tangential stiffness as a remarkable difference from the rotational sound in frictional particles on a lattice., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures

Liquid has a significant effect on the flow of wet granular assemblies. We explore the effects of liquid induced cohesion on the flow characteristics of wet granular materials. We propose a cohesion-scaling approach that enables invariant flow characteristics for different particles sizes in rotating drums. The strength of capillary forces between the particles is significantly reduced by making the glass beads hydrophobic via chemical silanization. Main results of rotating drum experiments are that liquid-induced cohesion decreases both the width of the flowing region and the velocity of the particles at the free surface, but increases the width of the creeping region as well as the dynamic angle of repose. Also, the local granular temperature in the flowing region decreases with an increase of the capillary force. The scaling methodology in the flow regimes considered (rolling and cascading regimes) yields invariant bed flow characteristics for different particle sizes., Comment: Reviewed with minor comments and resubmitted to Powder Technology. 35 pages, 20 figures

We report on the scaling between the lift force and the velocity lag experienced by a single particle of different size in a monodisperse dense granular chute flow. The similarity of this scaling to the Saffman lift force in (micro) fluids, suggests an inertial origin for the lift force responsible for segregation of (isolated, large) intruders in dense granular flows. We also observe an anisotropic pressure/stress field surrounding the particle, which potentially lies at the origin of the velocity lag. These findings are relevant for modelling and theoretical predictions of particle-size segregation. At the same time, the suggested interplay between polydispersity and inertial effects in dense granular flows with stress- and strain-gradients, implies striking new parallels between fluids, suspensions and granular flows with wide application perspectives.

Simple homogeneous shear flows of frictionless, deformable particles are studied by particle simulations at large shear rates and for differently soft, deformable particles. The particle stiffness sets a time-scale that can be used to scale the physical quantities; thus the dimensionless shear rate, i.e. the inertial number (inversely proportional to pressure), can alternatively be expressed as inversely proportional to the square root of the particle stiffness. Asymptotic scaling relations for the field variables pressure, shear stress and granular temperature are inferred from simulations in both fluid and solid regimes, corresponding to unjammed and jammed conditions. Then the limit cases are merged to unique constitutive relations that cover also the transition zone in proximity of jamming. By exploiting the diverging behavior of the scaling laws at the jamming density, we arrive at continuous and differentiable phenomenological constitutive relations for the stresses and the granular temperature as functions of the volume fraction, shear rate, particle stiffness and distance from jamming. In contrast to steady shear flows of hard particles the (shear) stress ratio does not collapse as a function of the inertial number, indicating the need for an additional control parameter. In the range of particle stiffnesses investigated, in the solid regime, only the pressure is rate independent, whereas the shear stress exhibits a slight shear rate- and stiffness-dependency., Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Soft Matter

We study the rheology of dry and wet granular materials in the steady quasistatic regime using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) in a split-bottom ring shear cell with focus on the macroscopic friction. The aim of our study is to understand the local rheology of bulk flow at various positions in the shear band, where the system is in critical state. The general(ized) rheology has four dimensionless control parameters that relate the time scales of five significant phenomena, namely, the time scales related to confining pressure $t_p$, shear rate $t_{\dot{\gamma}}$, particle stiffness $t_k$, gravity $t_g$ and cohesion $t_c$, respectively. We show that those phenomena collectively contribute to the rheology as multiplicative correction functions. While $t_{\dot{\gamma}}$ is large and thus little important for most of the data studied, it can increase the friction of flow in critical state, where the shear gradients are high. $t_g$ and $t_k$ are comparable to $t_p$ in the bulk, but become more or less dominant relative to $t_p$ at the extremes of the free surface and deep inside the bulk, respectively. We also measure the effect of strong wet cohesion on the flow rheology, as quantified by decreasing $t_c$. Furthermore, the proposed rheological model predicts well the shear thinning behavior both in the bulk and near the free surface; shear thinning develops to shear thickening near the free surface with increasing cohesion.

Mechanical responses of soft particle packings to quasi-static deformations are determined by the microscopic restructuring of force-chain networks, where complex non-affine displacements of constituent particles cause the irreversible macroscopic behavior. Recently, we have proposed a master equation for the probability distribution functions of contact forces and interparticle gaps [K. Saitoh et al., Soft Matter 11, 1253 (2015)], where mutual exchanges of contacts and interparticle gaps, i.e. opening and closing contacts, are also involved in the stochastic description with the aid of Delaunay triangulations. We describe full details of the master equation and numerically investigate irreversible mechanical responses of soft particle packings to cyclic loading. The irreversibility observed in molecular dynamics simulations is well reproduced by the master equation if the system undergoes quasi-static deformations. We also confirm that the degree of irreversible responses is a decreasing function of the area fraction and the number of cycles., Comment: 17 pages, 21 figures (6 figures are not displayed)

Physical experiments can characterize the elastic response of granular materials in terms of macroscopic state-variables, namely volume (packing) fraction and stress, while the microstructure is not accessible and thus neglected. Here, by means of numerical simulations, we analyze dense, frictionless, granular assemblies with the final goal to relate the elastic moduli to the fabric state, i.e., to micro-structural averaged contact network features as contact number density and anisotropy. The particle samples are first isotropically compressed and later quasi-statically sheared under constant volume (undrained conditions). From various static, relaxed configurations at different shear strains, now infinitesimal strain steps are applied to "measure" the effective elastic response; we quantify the strain needed so that plasticity in the sample develops as soon as contact and structure rearrangements happen. Because of the anisotropy induced by shear, volumetric and deviatoric stresses and strains are cross-coupled via a single anisotropy modulus, which is proportional to the product of deviatoric fabric and bulk modulus (i.e. the isotropic fabric). Interestingly, the shear modulus of the material depends also on the actual stress state, along with the contact configuration anisotropy. Finally, a constitutive model based on incremental evolution equations for stress and fabric is introduced. By using the previously measured dependence of the stiffness tensor (elastic moduli) on the microstructure, the theory is able to predict with good agreement the evolution of pressure, shear stress and deviatoric fabric (anisotropy) for an independent undrained cyclic shear test, including the response to reversal of strain.

We study the bulk properties of isotropic bidisperse granular mixtures using discrete element simulations. The focus is on the influence of the size (radius) ratio of the two constituents and volume fraction on the mixture properties. We show that the effective bulk modulus of a dense granular (base) assembly can be enhanced by up to 20% by substituting as little as 5% of its volume with smaller sized particles. Particles of similar sizes barely affect the macroscopic properties of the mixture. On the other extreme, when a huge number of fine particles are included, most of them lie in the voids of the base material, acting as rattlers, leading to an overall weakening effect. In between the limits, an optimum size ratio that maximizes the bulk modulus of the mixture is found. For loose systems, the bulk modulus decreases monotonically with addition of fines regardless of the size ratio. Finally, we relate the mixture properties to the 'typical' pore size in a disordered structure as induced by the combined effect of operating volume fraction (consolidation) and size ratio.

An incremental evolution equation, i.e. a Master equation in statistical mechanics, is introduced for force distributions in polydisperse frictional particle packings. As basic ingredients of the Master equation, the conditional probability distributions of particle overlaps are determined by molecular dynamics simulations. Interestingly, tails of the distributions become much narrower in the case of frictional particles than frictionless particles, implying that correlations of overlaps are strongly reduced by microscopic friction. Comparing different size distributions, we find that the tails are wider for the wider distribution., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Conference proceedings for PARTICLES 2015, 28-30 September, 2015, Barcelona, Spain

Wet granular materials in a quasi-static steady state shear flow have been studied with discrete particle simulations. Macroscopic quantities, consistent with the conservation laws of continuum theory, are obtained by time averaging and spatial coarse-graining. Initial studies involve understanding the effect of liquid content and liquid properties like the surface tension on the macroscopic quantities. Two parameters of the liquid bridge contact model have been studied as the constitutive parameters that define the structure of this model (i) the rupture distance of the liquid bridge model, which is proportional to the liquid content, and (ii) the maximum adhesive force, as controlled by the surface tension of the liquid. Subsequently a correlation is developed between these micro parameters and the steady state cohesion in the limit of zero confining pressure. Furthermore, as second result, the macroscopic torque measured at the walls, which is an experimentally accessible parameter, is predicted from our simulation results as a dependence on the micro-parameters. Finally, the steady state cohesion of a realistic non-linear liquid bridge contact model scales well with the steady state cohesion for a simpler linearized irreversible contact model with the same maximum adhesive force and equal energy dissipated per contact.

Grains inside a vertically vibrated box undergo a transition from a density inverted and horizontally homogeneous state, referred to as the granular Leidenfrost state, to a buoyancy-driven convective state. We perform a simulational study of the precursors of such a transition, and quantify their dynamics as the bed of grains is progressively fluidized. The transition is preceded by transient convective states, which increase their correlation time as the transition point is approached. Increasingly correlated convective flows lead to density fluctuations, as quantified by the structure factor, that also shows critical behaviour near the transition point. The amplitude of the modulations in the vertical velocity field are seen to be best described by a quintic supercritical amplitude equation with an additive noise term. The validity of such an amplitude equation, and previously observed collective semi-periodic oscillations of the bed of grains, suggests a new interpretation of the transition analogous to a coupled chain of vertically vibrated damped oscillators. Increasing the size of the container shows metastability of convective states, as well as an overall invariant critical behaviour close to the transition., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures

The interaction between visco-elasto-plastic and adhesive particles is the subject of this study, where "meso-particles" are introduced, i.e., simplified particles, whose contact mechanics is not taken into account in all details. A few examples of meso-particles include agglomerates or groups of primary particles, or inhomogeneous particles with micro-structures of the scale of the contact deformation, such as core-shell materials. A simple, flexible contact model for meso-particles is proposed, which allows to model the bulk behavior of assemblies of many particles in both rapid and slow, quasi-static flow situations. An attempt is made to categorize existing contact models for the normal force, discuss all the essential mechanical ingredients that must enter the model (qualitatively) and finally solve it analytically. The model combines a short-ranged, non-contact part (resembling either dry or wet materials) with an elaborate, visco-elasto-plastic and adhesive contact law. Using energy conservation arguments, an analytical expression for the coefficient of restitution is derived in terms of the impact velocity (for pair interactions or, equivalently, without loss of generality, for quasi-static situations in terms of the maximum overlap or confining stress). Adhesive particles (or meso-particles) stick to each other at very low impact velocity, while they rebound less dissipatively with increasing velocity, in agreement with previous studies. For even higher impact velocities an interesting second sticking and rebound regime is reported. The low velocity sticking is due to non-contact adhesive forces, the first rebound regime is due to stronger elastic and kinetic energies with little dissipation, while the high velocity sticking is generated by the non-linearly increasing, history dependent plastic dissipation and adhesive contact force., Comment: Resubmission to Powtech

The steady shear rheology of granular materials is investigated in slow quasi-static states and inertial flows. The effect of the gravity field and contact stiffness, which are conventionally trivialized is the focus of this study. Series of Discrete Element Method simulations are performed on a weakly frictional granular assembly in a split-bottom geometry considering various gravity fields and contact stiffnesses. While traditionally the inertial number, i.e., the ratio of stress to strain-rate timescales describes the flow rheology, we find that a second dimensionless number, the ratio of softness and stress timescales, must also be included to characterize the bulk flow behavior. For slow, quasi-static flows, the density increases while the macroscopic friction decreases with respective increase in particle softness and gravity. This trend is added to the $\mu(I)$ rheology and can be traced back to the anisotropy in the contact network, displaying a linear correlation between macroscopic friction and deviatoric fabric in the steady state. Interestingly, the linear relation holds when the external rotation rate is increased for a given gravity field and contact stiffness., Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures

We perform experiments and discrete element simulations on the dosing of cohesive granular materials in a simplified geometry. The setup is a simplified canister box where the powder is dosed out of the box through the action of a constant-pitch screw feeder connected to a motor. A dose consists of a rotation step followed by a period of rest before the next dosage. From the experiments, we report on the operational performance of the dosing process through a variation of dosage time, coil pitch and initial powder mass. We find that the dosed mass shows an increasing linear dependence on the dosage time and rotation speed. In contrast, the mass output from the canister is not directly proportional to an increase/decrease in the number coils. By calibrating the interparticle friction and cohesion, we show that DEM simulation can quantitatively reproduce the experimental findings for smaller masses but also overestimate arching and blockage. With appropriate homogenization tools, further insights into microstructure and macroscopic fields can be obtained. This work shows that particle scaling and the adaptation of particle properties is a viable approach to overcome the untreatable number of particles inherent in experiments with fine, cohesive powders and opens the gateway to simulating their flow in more complex geometries.

We present findings from uniaxial (oedometric) compression tests on two cohesive industrially relevant granular materials (cocoa and limestone powder). Experimental results are presented for the compressibility, tested with two devices -- the FT4 Powder Rheometer and the custom made lambdameter. We focus on the stress response and the slow relaxation behavior of the cohesive samples tested. After compression ends, at constant volume, the ongoing stress relaxation is found to follow a power law consistently for both cohesive powders and for the different testing equipments. A simple (incremental algebraic evolution) model is proposed for the stress relaxation in cohesive powders, which includes a response timescale along with a second, dimensionless relaxation parameter. The reported observations are useful for both the improvement of discrete element simulations and constitutive macroscopic models for cohesive granular materials.

Soft, disordered, micro-structured materials are ubiquitous in nature and industry, and are different from ordinary fluids or solids, with unusual, interesting static and flow properties. The transition from fluid to solid -at the so-called jamming density- features a multitude of complex mechanisms, but there is no unified theoretical framework that explains them all. In this study, a simple yet quantitative and predictive model is presented, which allows for a variable, changing jamming density, encompassing the memory of the deformation history and explaining a multitude of phenomena at and around jamming. The jamming density, now introduced as a new state-variable, changes due to the deformation history and relates the system's macroscopic response to its microstructure. The packing efficiency can increase logarithmically slow under gentle repeated (isotropic) compression, leading to an increase of the jamming density. In contrast, shear deformations cause anisotropy, changing the packing efficiency exponentially fast with either dilatancy or compactancy. The memory of the system near jamming can be explained by a microstatistical model that involves a multiscale, fractal energy landscape and links the microscopic particle picture to the macroscopic continuum description, providing a unified explanation for the qualitatively different flow-behavior for different deformation modes. To complement our work, a recipe to extract the history-dependent jamming density from experimentally accessible data is proposed, and alternative state-variables are compared. The proposed simple macroscopic constitutive model is calibrated with the memory of microstructure. Such approach can help understanding predicting and mitigating failure of structures or geophysical hazards, and will bring forward industrial process design/optimization, and help solving scientific challenges in fundamental research.

A substantial number of algorithms exists for the simulation of moving particles suspended in fluids. However, finding the best method to address a particular physical problem is often highly non-trivial and depends on the properties of the particles and the involved fluid(s) together. In this report we provide a short overview on a number of existing simulation methods and provide two state of the art examples in more detail. In both cases, the particles are described using a Discrete Element Method (DEM). The DEM solver is usually coupled to a fluid-solver, which can be classified as grid-based or mesh-free (one example for each is given). Fluid solvers feature different resolutions relative to the particle size and separation. First, a multicomponent lattice Boltzmann algorithm (mesh-based and with rather fine resolution) is presented to study the behavior of particle stabilized fluid interfaces and second, a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics implementation (mesh-free, meso-scale resolution, similar to the particle size) is introduced to highlight a new player in the field, which is expected to be particularly suited for flows including free surfaces., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

The channel size distribution in hard sphere systems, based on the local neighbor correlation of four particle positions, is investigated for all volume fractions up to jamming. For each particle, all three particle combinations of neighbors define channels, which are relevant for the concept of caging. The analysis of the channel size distribution is shown to be very useful in distinguishing between gaseous, liquid, partially and fully crystallized, and glassy (random) jammed states. A common microstructural feature of four coplanar particles is observed in crystalline and glassy jammed states, suggesting the presence of "hidden" two-dimensional order in three-dimensional random close packings., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Shear cell simulations and experiments of weakly wetted particles (a few volume percent liquid binders) are compared, with the goal to understand their flow rheology. Application examples are cores for metal casting by core shooting made of sand and liquid binding materials. The experiments are carried out with a Couette-like rotating viscometer. The weakly wetted granular materials are made of quartz sand and small amounts of Newtonian liquids. For comparison, experiments on dry sand are also performed with a modified configuration of the viscometer. The numerical model involves spherical, monodisperse particles with contact forces and a simple liquid bridge model for individual capillary bridges between two particles. Different liquid content and properties lead to different flow rheology when measuring the shear stress-strain relations. In the experiments of the weakly wetted granular material, the apparent shear viscosity $\eta_g$ scales inversely proportional to the inertial number $I$, for all shear rates. On the contrary, in the dry case, an intermediate scaling regime inversely quadratic in $I$ is observed for moderate shear rates. In the simulations, both scaling regimes are found for dry and wet granular material as well.

The contact mechanics of individual, very small particles with other particles and walls is studied using a nanoindenter setup that allows normal and lateral displacement control and measurement of the respective forces. The sliding, rolling and torsional forces and torques are tested with borosilicate microspheres, featuring radii of about 10$\mu$m. The contacts are with flat silicon substrates of different roughness for pure sliding and rolling and with silicon based, ion-beam crafted rail systems for combined rolling and torsion. The experimental results are discussed and compared to various analytical predictions and contact models, allowing for two concurrent interpretations of the effects of surface roughness, plasticity and adhesion. This enables us to determine both rolling and torsion friction coefficients together with their associated length scales. Interestingly, even though normal contacts behave elastically (Hertzian), all other modes of motion display effects due to surface roughness and consequent plastic deformation. The influence of adhesion is interpreted in the framework of different models and is very different for different degrees of freedom, being largest for rolling.

It is widely recognized in particle technology that adhesive powders show a wide range of different bulk behavior due to the peculiarity of the particle interaction. We use Discrete Element simulations to investigate the effect of contact cohesion on the steady state of dense powders in a slowly sheared split-bottom Couette cell, which imposes a wide stable shear band. The intensity of cohesive forces can be quantified by the {\em granular Bond number} ($Bo$), namely the ratio between maximum attractive force and average force due to external compression. We find that the shear banding phenomenon is almost independent of cohesion for Bond numbers $Bo<1$, but for $Bo \ge 1$ cohesive forces start to play an important role, as both width and center position of the band increase for $Bo > 1$. Inside the shear band, the mean normal contact force is always independent of cohesion and depends only on the confining stress. In contrast, when the behavior is analyzed focusing on the eigen-directions of the local strain rate tensor, a dependence on cohesion shows up. Forces carried by contacts along the compressive and tensile directions are symmetric about the mean force (larger and smaller respectively), while the force along the third, neutral direction follows the mean force. This anisotropy of the force network increases with cohesion, just like the heterogeneity in all (compressive, tensile and neutral) directions., Comment: 12 pages, 20 figures, accepted in Physical Review E

Employing molecular dynamics simulations of jammed soft particles, we study microscopic responses of force-chain networks to quasi-static isotropic (de)compressions. We show that not only contacts but also interparticle gaps between the nearest neighbors must be considered for the stochastic evolution of the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of forces, where the mutual exchange of contacts and interparticle gaps, i.e. opening and closing contacts, are also crucial to the incremental system behaviors. By numerically determining the transition rates for all changes of contacts and gaps, we formulate a Master equation for the PDFs of forces, where the insight one gets from the transition rates is striking: The mean change of forces reflects non-affine system response, while their fluctuations obey uncorrelated Gaussian statistics. In contrast, interparticle gaps are reacting mostly affine in average, but imply multi-scale correlations according to a wider stable distribution function., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Soft Matter

We present simulations and a theoretical treatment of vertically vibrated granular media. The systems considered are confined in narrow quasi-two-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional (column) geometries, where the vertical extension of the container is much larger than both horizontal lengths. The additional geometric constraint present in the column setup frustrates the convection state that is normally observed in wider geometries. This makes it possible to study collective oscillations of the grains with a characteristic frequency that is much lower than the frequency of energy injection. The frequency and amplitude of these oscillations are studied as a function of the energy input parameters and the size of the container. We observe that, in the quasi-two-dimensional setup, low-frequency oscillations are present even in the convective regime. This suggests that they may play a significant role in the transition from a density inverted state to convection. Two models are also presented; the first one, based on Cauchy's equations, is able to predict with high accuracy the frequency of the particles' collective motion. This first principles model requires a single input parameter, i.e, the centre of mass of the system. The model shows that a sufficient condition for the existence of the low-frequency mode is an inverted density profile with distinct low and high density regions, a condition that may apply to other systems too. The second, simpler model just assumes an harmonic oscillator like behaviour and, using thermodynamic arguments, is also able to reproduce the observed frequencies with high accuracy., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures

When a dense monolayer of macroscopic slightly polydisperse spheres floats on chaotic capillary Faraday waves, a coexistence of large scale convective motion and caging dynamics typical for jammed systems is observed. We subtract the convective mean flow using a coarse graining and reveal subdiffusion for the caging time scales followed by a diffusive regime at later times. To test the system in the light of dynamic criticality, we apply the methods of dynamic heterogeneity to obtain the power-law divergent time and length scales as the floater concentration approaches the jamming point. We find that these are independent of the application of the coarse graining procedure. The critical exponents are consistent with those found in dense suspensions of colloids indicating universal stochastic dynamics., Comment: submitted, 6 pages, 3 figures

First, a meshless simulation method is presented for multiphase fluid-particle flows with a two-way coupled Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) for the fluid and the Discrete Element Method (DEM) for the solid phase. The unresolved fluid model, based on the locally averaged Navier Stokes equations, is expected to be considerably faster than fully resolved models. Furthermore, in contrast to similar mesh-based Discrete Particle Methods (DPMs), our purely particle-based method enjoys the flexibility that comes from the lack of a prescribed mesh. It is suitable for problems such as free surface flow or flow around complex, moving and/or intermeshed geometries and is applicable to both dilute and dense particle flows. Second, a comprehensive validation procedure for fluid-particle simulations is presented and applied here to the SPH-DEM method, using simulations of single and multiple particle sedimentation in a 3D fluid column and comparison with analytical models. Millimetre-sized particles are used along with three different test fluids: air, water and a water-glycerol solution. The velocity evolution for a single particle compares well (less than 1% error) with the analytical solution as long as the fluid resolution is coarser than two times the particle diameter. Two more complex multiple particle sedimentation problems (sedimentation of a homogeneous porous block and an inhomogeneous Rayleigh Taylor instability) are also reproduced well for porosities 0.6 <= \epsilon <= 1.0, although care should be taken in the presence of high porosity gradients. Overall the SPH-DEM method successfully reproduces quantitatively the expected behaviour in the test cases, and promises to be a flexible and accurate tool for other, realistic fluid-particle system simulations., Comment: 45 pages, 14 figures