DEM Simulation of Rotational Disruption of Rubble-Pile Asteroids

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Scientific paper

We report on our study of rotation induced disruption of a self-gravitating granular aggregate by using a Discrete Element Method (DEM) granular dynamics code, a class of simulation commonly used in the granular mechanics community. Specifically, we simulate the behavior of a computer simulated asteroid when subjected to an array of rotation rates that cross its disruption limit. The code used to carry out these studies implements a Soft-sphere DEM method as applied for granular systems. In addition a novel algorithm to calculate self-gravitating forces which makes use of the DEM static grid has been developed and implemented in the code. By using a DEM code, it is possible to model a poly-disperse aggregate with a specified size distribution power law, incorporate contact forces such as dry cohesion and friction, and compute internal stresses within the gravitational aggregate. This approach to the modeling of gravitational aggregates is complementary to and distinctly different than other approaches reported in the literature.
The simulations use both 2D and 3D modeling for analysis. One aim of this work is to understand the basic processes and dynamics of aggregates during the disruption process. We have used these simulations to understand how to form a contact binary that mimics observed asteroid shapes, how to accelerate the rotation rate of the aggregate so that it has enough time to reshape and find a stable configuration and how to analyze a system that has an occasionally changing shape. From a more physical point of view, we have focused on the understanding of the dynamics of the reshaping process, the evolution of internal stresses during this reshaping and finding the critical disruption angular velocity.
This research was supported by a grant from NASA's PG&G Program: NNX10AJ66G

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