Dynamics of fluctuation of the top location of a sandpile.pdfVIP

Typeset with jpsj2.cls ver.1.2 Full Paper Dynamics of fluctuation of the top location of a sandpile Chiyori Urabe∗ Graduate School of Human and Environmental, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501 5 We investigate the fluctuation of the top location of a sandpile numerically using the two- 0 dimensional discrete elements method. We feed particles to a sandpile at a fixed time interval 0 2 and calculate power spectra from the time series of the top location. We find that the power n spectra are approximated as power functions, and their exponents increase to −1 through a u plateau as the time interval decreases. For small time interval, avalanches occur continuously J 2 either on the left or right side slope of a sandpile, and the slope on which avalanches take place switches intermittently. The long time fluctuation of the top location corresponds to ] O the switchings. For the time series of the switchings, we discuss the relation between the A power spectrum and the distribution of waiting times based on analytic theories. . n i KEYWORDS: top location, fluctuation, sandpile, granular flow, avalanches, power law, switch- l n ings [ 1 v 5 1. Introduction 0 0 Dense systems of granular materials exhibit solid-like and fluid-like behaviors,1–4 and many 6 0 researches are devoted on them. For the static phase, the spatial distribution of stress on the 5 0 bottom of a sandpile was measured in experiments, and it is known that its functional form / n depends on the history of the formation of the sandpile.