(95ak) Modelling Granular Media with Dynamical Density Functional Theory

Granular media is ubiquitous in industrial processes, due to its physically useful traits. However, phenomena such as clustering and jamming can inhibit the benefit of granular media in a system. We would like to understand and predict such phenomena in a general system of hard particles, but modelling such systems is a challenge in itself. Continuum approximations of granular media are very problem specific, and do not always predict effects present in experiments. On the other hand, microscopic simulations become too computationally expensive to accurately model a large system of particles.

Recently, dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) has become popular and successful in the simulation of colloids (soft particle suspensions) [1]. DDFT is an attractive platform for modelling granular media, as the derivation starts at a particle level, and reaches a (computationally cheap) coarse grained model. We present a DDFT derivation adapted for granular media, and use small scale particle dynamics to suitably tune the dynamics for accurate simulation.