Non-Gaussian behavior in jamming / unjamming transition in dense granular materials

Abstract

Experiments of penetration of a cylindrical intruder inside a bidimensional dense and disordered granular media were reported recently showing the jamming / unjamming transition. In the present work, we perform molecular dynamics simulations with the same geometry in order to assess both kinematic and static features of jamming / unjamming transition. We study the statistics of the particles velocities at the neighborhood of the intruder to evince that both experiments and simulations present the same qualitative behavior. We observe that the probability density functions (PDF) of velocities deviate from Gaussian depending on the packing fraction of the granular assembly. In order to quantify these deviations we consider a q-Gaussian (Tsallis) function to fit the PDF's. The q-value can be an indication of the presence of long range correlations along the system. We compare the fitted PDF's obtained with those obtained using the stretched exponential, and sketch some conclusions concerning the nature of the correlations along a granular confined flow. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.