Journal article
Force attractor in confined comminution of granular materials
O Ben-Nun, I Einav, A Tordesillas
Physical Review Letters | AMER PHYSICAL SOC | Published : 2010
Abstract
We reveal a novel attractor in the space of contact forces that bounds the behavior of granular materials during confined comminution. The attractor is reached asymptotically as the porosity reduces and the grain size distribution attains an ultimate power law scaling. The ultimate distribution of the contact forces follows a clear log-normal distribution, distinctively different from previous observations in uncrushable systems. Supporting evidence comes both from comprehensive discrete element simulations and a theoretical Apollonian model. © 2010 The American Physical Society.
Grants
Awarded by ARC
Funding Acknowledgements
O. B. N. gratefully acknowledges the support of the School of Civil Engineering at The University of Sydney. I. E. and A. T. acknowledge their ARC Grant No. DP0986876. Finally, the authors wish to thank Thomas Stemler and Raphael Blumenfeld for the fruitful discussions, and the very useful comments by the anonymous reviewers that helped improve the Letter.