Properties of granular systems

Coordinator : Walter Kob

Granular systems are disordered materials that are ubiquitous in our daily life in the form of sand, powders, etc., and therefore they are highly important for civil engineering, food-science, and medical applications.

Although the structure of a heap of sand resembles the one of an atomistic glass, the dynamical properties are completely different. Recent studies indicate that this difference is closely related to the fact that the interaction between granular particles involves friction, an ingredient that is absent in atomic systems.

In this line of research we use particle based simulations to investigate the influence of friction on the relaxation dynamics of granular systems. These studies are done in close collaboration with experiments done in Shanghai and Chengdu which use computational tomography to investigate the static and dynamic properties of granular systems.