Numerical and Laboratory Investigations of Regolith Dynamics

Details Numerical and Laboratory Investigations of Regolith Dynamics Numerical and Laboratory Investigations of Regolith Dynamics

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.1307m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #13.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1053

Mathematics

Logic

Scientific paper

Surfaces of planets and small bodies in our Solar System are often covered by a layer of granular material that can range from a fine regolith to a gravel-like structure of varying depths. Therefore, the dynamics of granular materials is involved in many events occurring during planetary and small-body evolution and contributes to their geological properties.
However from planets to asteroids, surface gravities vary by many orders of magnitude. Bodies with low surface gravity can be sensitive to processes that appear irrelevant in the case of larger planetary bodies. For instance, seismic vibration induced by small impacts has been proposed to explain the lack of very small craters on Eros and Itokawa.
To increase our understanding of regolith behaviour we have performed a series of numerical simulations and microgravity experiments. The numerical code is a modified version of the N-body code pkdgrav that has been adapted to handle hard-body collisions. The granular dynamics modifications consist primarily of providing wall "primitives” to simulate the boundaries of the experimental apparatus [1].
Our simulations currently focus on experiments for which we have experimental data. This allows direct comparisons to be made with laboratory experiments. Some specific examples which will be presented are the collective motion of granular materials in a dense regime as a result of shaking, avalanching behaviour and granular flows with a tumbler.
The microgravity experiment, AstEx that flew in November 2009 as part of ESA's `Fly your Thesis’ programme will also be presented. The experimental aim was to characterise the response of granular material to rotational shear forces in a microgravity environment.
This work benefits from financial support from TAS, the OU, the French Programme National de Planétologie, ESA and the RAS. DCR acknowledges support from NASA (Grant No. NNX08AM39G).
Reference: [1] Richardson, D.C. et al., Icarus (2010), submitted.

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