Eur. Phys. J. E (2008) 26: 327-335
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10331-0

Regular Article

Short-time dynamics of a packing of polyhedral grains under horizontal vibrations

¹ Université Montpellier II, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier cedex 05, France
² Innovation and Research Departement of SNCF, 45 rue de Londres, 75379, Paris Cedex 08, France

^* e-mail: azema@lmgc.univ-montp2.fr

Received: 6 November 2007
Accepted: 13 May 2008
Published online: 6 June 2008

Abstract

We analyze the dynamics of a 3D granular packing composed of particles of irregular polyhedral shape confined inside a rectangular box with a retaining wall subjected to horizontal harmonic forcing. The simulations are performed by means of the contact dynamics method for a broad set of loading parameters. We explore the vibrational dynamics of the packing, the evolution of solid fraction and the scaling of dynamics with the loading parameters. We show that the motion of the retaining wall is strongly anharmonic as a result of jamming and grain rearrangements. It is found that the mean particle displacement scales with inverse square of frequency, the inverse of the force amplitude and the square of gravity. The short-time compaction rate grows in proportion to frequency up to a characteristic frequency, corresponding to collective particle rearrangements between equilibrium states, and then it declines in inverse proportion to frequency.