To the Continuum and Beyond!

Published on: 20 November 2020

The Editors of Granular Matter are pleased to announce the second in the new Granular Matter Webinar Series

Tuesday 24 November, 15.00 EU time

 
To the Continuum and Beyond!” 
by: Prof. Ken Kamrin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT

 
The ability to predict granular flows efficiently has been a major challenge for years. An accurate and robust continuum model would be ideal, as it could lead to fast simulation of industrial and geo-scale problems. However, there are a number of granular flow behaviors that complicate the development of a continuum treatment including coupled history effects, nontrivial phase change, pressure-sensitive yielding, nonlocal effects, and shear banding phenomena. Rather than attempt to combine all these effects together, this talk will begin by identifying a class of problems that tend to be well-predicted using a very simple continuum treatment. These are problems based on intrusion, where the intrusive dynamics of solid objects (e.g. locomotion, impact) is the primary interest. We then discuss two ways to extend this basic continuum framework with nonstandard "add-ons", in order to handle various complications. First, we will discuss the state of affairs in nonlocal modeling approaches, and focus on some new results pertinent to the physics of nonlocality. Secondly, as an alternative to adding more complexity to the continuum model, we will discuss a hybridized DEM/continuum method that allows us to adaptively choose subdomains in a problem to be treated with continuum modeling vs discrete element modeling. This allows us to keep a simple and fast-to-solve continuum model almost everywhere, while providing a more precise DEM treatment in zones that fall outside the scope of the continuum model.
 
Below, please find the links to the webinar itself, and an update page advertising it.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/565338397
https://www.springer.com/journal/10035/updates/18300828