How Sandcastles Fall

Details How Sandcastles Fall How Sandcastles Fall

1998-01-20

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9801204v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

4 pages, 2 figures, revtex

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.3141

Capillary forces significantly affect the stability of sandpiles. We analyze the stability of sandpiles with such forces, and find that the critical angle is unchanged in the limit of an infinitely large system; however, this angle is increased for finite-sized systems. The failure occurs in the bulk of the sandpile rather than at the surface. This is related to a standard result in soil mechanics. The increase in the critical angle is determined by the surface roughness of the particles, and exhibits three regimes as a function of the added-fluid volume. Our theory is in qualitative agreement with the recent experimental results of Hornbaker et al., although not with the interpretation they make of these results.

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