Order-disorder transition in swirled granular disks

Abstract

We study the order-disorder transition of horizontally swirled dry and wet granular disks by means of computer simulations. Our systematic investigation of the local order formation as a function of amplitude and period of the external driving force shows that a large cluster of hexagonally ordered particles forms for both dry and wet granular particles at intermediate driving energies. Disordered states are found at small and large driving energies. Wet granular particles reach a higher degree of local hexagonal order with respect to the dry case. For both cases we report a qualitative phase diagram showing the amount of local order at different state points. Furthermore, we find that the transition from hexagonal order to a disordered state is characterized by the appearance of particles with square local order. © 2014 American Physical Society.