# Domains growth and packing properties in driven granular media subject to gravity

## I Introduction

Non-thermal disordered systems as granular media show a variety of dynamical phenomena with interesting properties . For instance, important physical features were recently discovered in shaking experiments, where the dynamics of grains is driven, under the effects of gravity, by sequences of shakes (“taps”) . A very common phenomenon recorded in those experiments is compaction: when a box filled with loose packed sand is shaken at low amplitudes, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ex}`$ ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ex}=a/g`$, where $`a`$ is the shake peak acceleration and $`g`$ the gravity acceleration constant), the bulk density of the system increases with the number of shakes. Interestingly, the Chicago group has experimentally shown that compaction is logarithmically slow . Several models have been proposed to describe these kind of dynamical behaviours , but a detailed investigations of its microscopic nature is still incomplete.

In the present paper we discuss some aspects of such a problem by focusing on the details of the packing structure. Our analysis is developed in the context of recently introduced lattice gas models for granular media: the IFLG and Tetris. These models are very simple and thus very schematic, but they interestingly describe, in a single framework, many dynamical properties of granular media ranging from logarithmic compaction , “irreversible-reversible” cycles and aging , anomalous dynamical responses , to segregation, avalanches effects and several others. As a generalisation of the q-Model , they have been also studied  to describe “scalar force” patterns.

To understand the grain packing structure, we recorded the bulk density distribution in the present models, which in some cases turns out to be definitely non Gaussian. We propose a variant of our models to be able to describe also grain-grain surface interactions, which are to be considered for instance in cases of charged grains or non dry media. Interestingly, we find that the dynamics of compaction is not qualitatively affected by these details of grains interactions, at least up to when the coupling strength is of the order of the effective temperature induced by shaking. We have also studied some microscopic aspects of density compaction concerning the formation of “domains of grains” during the dynamics, which we describe in some details. All these results shed some light on the origin and the character of the slow dynamics in vibrated granular media. An experimental check of our findings, which in many cases is still missing, would be important to settle our theoretical understanding of granular media. Actually, the present paper is also devoted to compare in some details the two considered models and outline their different microscopic properties.

Before entering the details of the paper, in the following section, for sake of completeness, we briefly explain the definition of our lattice gas models and we point out their relations to some well known models as the Ising model, its Blume-Emery-Griffith counterpart, Edwards-Anderson Spin Glasses and driven systems as the Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn model.

## II Frustrated lattice gas models

The characteristic properties of the Frustrated Lattice Gas we introduced to describe the dynamics of dry granular materials (in the regime of high packing densities and small shaking amplitude), are fully described in Ref.s .

The crucial ingredient of these models is, actually, the presence of “frustration” in the motion of grains . The models consist of a system of elongated particles which occupy the sites of, say, a square lattice tilted by $`45^0`$. The particles have an internal degree of freedom $`S_i=\pm 1`$ corresponding to two possible orientations on the square lattice. Nearest neighbour sites can be both occupied only if particles do not overlap (i.e., they have the right reciprocal orientation) otherwise they have to move apart. In our models particles undergo a driven diffusive Monte Carlo (MC) dynamics. In absence of vibrations they are subject only to gravity and they can move downwards always fulfilling the non overlap condition. The presence of vibration is introduced by also allowing particles to diffuse upwards with a probability $`p_{up}`$. The quantity $`x_0=p_{up}/p_{down}`$ (with $`p_{down}=1p_{up}`$), as we will see, is related to an effective temperature  and plays the role of the experimental tap vibrations intensity.

Our models can be interestingly mapped on standard lattice gas models of Statistical Mechanics, whose Hamiltonian has an hard core repulsion term ($`J\mathrm{}`$): $`H_{HC}=J_{ij}f_{ij}(S_i,S_j)n_in_j`$, where $`n_i=0,1`$ are occupancy variables, $`S_i=\pm 1`$ are the above spin variables associated to the orientations of the particles, $`J`$ represents the infinite repulsion felt by the particles when they overlap. The hard core repulsion function $`f_{ij}(S_i,S_j)`$ is 0 or 1 depending whether the orientations $`S_i,S_j`$ of neighbours is allowed or not.

The choice of $`f_{ij}(S_i,S_j)`$ depends on the particular model. Here we consider two models: the Tetris and the Ising Frustrated Lattice Gas (IFLG). In the Tetris model $`f_{ij}(S_i,S_j)`$ is given by: $`f_{ij}^{Tetris}(S_i,S_j)=1/2(S_iS_jϵ_{ij}(S_i+S_j)+1)`$ here $`ϵ_{ij}=+1`$ for bonds along one direction of the lattice and $`ϵ_{ij}=1`$ for bonds on the other. This corresponds to a generalised Blume-Emery-Griffith Hamiltonian, and has an “antiferromagnetic” equilibrium phase diagram. In order to have a non trivial behaviour the dynamics of the Tetris has a crucial purely kinetic constraint: particles can flip their “spin” only if many of their own neighbours are empty (3, in our simulations), as much as in facilitated kinetic Ising models .

Real granular media may have more disorder due to broader grain shape distribution or to absence of a regular underlying lattice, and each grain moves in the disordered environment generated by the others. To describe this kind of scenario, we previously introduced a model, the Ising Frustrated Lattice Gas (IFLG), made of grains moving in a lattice with quenched geometric disorder, with the following hard core repulsion function: $`f_{ij}^{IFLG}(S_i,S_j)=1/2(ϵ_{ij}S_iS_j1)`$ where $`ϵ_{ij}=\pm 1`$ are quenched random interactions associated to the edges of the lattice, describing the fact that particles must satisfy the geometric constraint of the environment considered as “practically” quenched. The IFLG shows a non trivial dynamics without the necessity to introduce kinetic constraints. The Hamiltonian of the IFLG exhibits rich behaviours in connection with those of “site frustrated percolation”  and Spin Glasses .

The other important contribution to the Hamiltonian of a granular media we consider, is gravitational energy: $`H_G=g_in_iy_i`$, where g is the gravity constant and $`y_i`$ is the hight of particle $`i`$ (we set to unity grains mass and lattice spacing). The temperature, $`T`$, of the present Hamiltonian system (with $`J=\mathrm{}`$) is related to the ratio $`x_0=p_{up}/p_{down}`$ via the following relation: $`e^{2g/T}=x_0`$. The adimensional quantity $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{ln}(x_0^{1/2})=T/g`$, seems to play the same role as the amplitude of the vibrations in real granular matter .

A further term which could appear in the Hamiltonian is a coupling between neighbouring grains, due, for instance, to the presence of some fluids which, due to surface tensions, exerts attraction between particles, or electrical charges on grains surfaces which might attract or repel others grains . Thus the full schematic Hamiltonian may have an other term as the following:

$$H_{SI}=K_2\underset{<ij>}{}n_in_j$$
(1)   
The coupling $`K_2`$ must be fixed by the specific interaction potential considered. Thus, the complete Hamiltonian results to be of the form:

$$H=H_{HC}+H_G+H_{SI}$$
(2)   
Below, we will generally consider a system of particles interacting just via hard core repulsions, i.e., $`K_2=0`$, corresponding, for instance, to dry non charged granular systems. We will also discuss the presence of attraction between neighbouring grains (i.e., $`K_2>0`$), which, we show, does not qualitatively change the general scenario (at least for $`K_2`$ not too large with respect to $`g\mathrm{\Gamma }`$).

It is interesting to notice that the present models are very similar to a driven Ising lattice model introduced by Katz, Lebowitz and Spohn to describe non equilibrium steady states in fast ionic conductors and other systems . One of the relevant differences is the boundary conditions imposed on particles motions.

## III Bulk density distribution

Monte Carlo simulations of the present models have periodic boundary conditions along the horizontal direction and rigid walls at bottom and top (here we consider a two dimensional sample, but analogous results are found in three dimensions as shown in Ref.). After fixing the $`ϵ_{ij}`$ (which are random in the IFLG), the initial particle configuration is prepared by randomly inserting particles of given spin into the box from its top and then letting them fall down ($`p_{up}=0`$) until the box is filled. The two basic Monte Carlo moves (the spin flip and particle hopping) are done in random order.

An important quantity to characterise grains packing after such a random insertion, is the bulk density distribution, $`P(\rho )`$. Such a quantity is shown in Fig.1 for the IFLG and the Tetris. The data for IFLG concern a lattice box of size $`100\times 100`$ and for Tetris a box $`120\times 1000`$ and are averaged over 50000 configurations (the IFLG size is smaller since we have also to average over the $`ϵ_{ij}`$).

The density where $`P(\rho )`$ has its maximum practically corresponds to the average loose packing density of the system $`\rho _{lp}`$ ($`\rho _{lp}0.739`$ in the IFLG and $`\rho _{lp}0.751`$ in the Tetris ), whose precise location depends on the model and its linear sizes (for instance, boundary effects can change it). In Fig.1 the logarithm of $`\sigma P(\rho )`$ is plotted as a function of $`(\rho \rho _{lp})/\sigma `$ for both data sets ($`\sigma `$ is the density mean square deviation, $`\sigma 0.002`$ in the IFLG and $`\sigma 0.004`$ in the Tetris). This way to plot $`P(\rho )`$ allows a direct comparison between the two different distributions. Furthermore, it easily outlines deviations from a Gaussian behaviour. Actually, after the above data rescaling, a Gaussian variable must have a normalised univariate zero mean Gauss distribution function (with no adjustable parameters):

$$P(x)=\frac{\mathrm{exp}(x^2/2)}{(2\pi )^{1/2}}$$
(3)   
This function is the full line in Fig.1. Apparently, the data for the IFLG model (squares) seem to reasonably follow such a Gaussian shape, a fact which well compares with experimental data from Ref..

The Tetris case, is more controversial from our simulations. Data from a $`100\times 100`$ sized system seem to follow the Gaussian distribution found for the IFLG. They are not plotted in Fig.1 for sake of clarity. In Fig.1 are shown, instead, Tetris data (circles) for the above cited largest system size (about $`10^5`$ grains) we could simulate (their statistics is even better than the one for the smaller system). Interestingly, in this case $`P(\rho )`$ is not Gaussian. For density values below $`\rho _{lp}`$, $`P(\rho )`$ rapidly falls off while above $`\rho _{lp}`$ it surprisingly shows an almost exponential tail (see Fig.1). In Fig.1, we also plot the overall fit obtained by using a Gumbel-like function:

$$P(x)=P_0\{\mathrm{exp}[a(b+x)e^{a(b+x)}]\}^m$$
(4)   
where $`P_037`$, $`a0.5`$, $`b0.2`$ and $`m4.5`$. The above Gumbel-like distribution is interesting for its relations to extreme values statistics , but it is difficult to state whether such an approximate three parameters fit ($`P_0`$ is fixed by the normalisation) plays an important role in the present context. It should be said, however, that experimentally a non Gaussian $`P(\rho )`$ is usually found after long “tapping” of the system . A finite amount of CPU time has not allowed us to go that far. Further theoretical and experimental work must be devoted to understand the present results.

## IV Compaction in presence of grains attractive interactions

After having described the properties of the starting random loose packed configuration (for other details see ), in this Section we start discussing the phenomenon of compaction. This plays an important role in understanding grains dynamics since it clearly shows the basic mechanisms underlying dynamical processes in gently shaken granular media subject to gravity .

Referring to recent experiments on compaction dynamics, here we study the phenomenon of density increase due to tapping. In real experiments a “tap” is the shaking of a container filled with grains by pulsed vibrations of given duration and amplitude . In our MC simulations, in each single tap we apply vibrations of a given amplitude $`x_0`$ to particles for a given, short, duration $`\tau `$ (i.e., for $`t[0,\tau ]`$ we fix $`x(t)=x_0=const.`$) . Then the system is let to find a stationary state for a time $`t_{repose}`$ in which $`x(t)=0`$ ($`t_{repose}`$ is chosen to be much longer than any relaxation times in absence of shaking ). After each tap we measure the static bulk density of the system $`\rho (t_n)`$ ($`t_n`$ is the $`n`$-th tap number). For this Monte Carlo experiment with the IFLG model we considered a system of size $`30\times 60`$, averaged over $`32`$ different $`ϵ_{ij}`$ configurations, and fix $`\tau =32`$. We refer to Ref. for further details on the MC dynamics.

To describe experimental observations about grain density relaxation under a sequence of taps a logarithmic law was proposed in Ref. : $`\rho (t_n)=\rho _{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Delta }\rho _{\mathrm{}}/[1+B\mathrm{ln}(t_n/\tau _1+1)]`$. This law has proved to be satisfied very well by relaxation data in the present IFLG model as shown in Ref., which can be excellently rescaled with experimental data.

The results from IFLG and Tetris are surprisingly similar , but the asymptotic density $`\rho _{\mathrm{}}`$ in the Tetris is numerically indistinguishable from 1, thus almost independent on $`x_0`$, a fact in contrast with both IFLG and experimental results from Knight et al. .

In order to have a full comparison of our models with a variety of experimental results and to understand the effects of small perturbations on the grain interaction potential on the general compaction scenario, we also dealt with the compaction of systems whose neighbouring grains feel a finite attraction. This is the case, for instance, in presence of grains with interstitial fluids, which may generally affect the system properties . Thus, we turn on $`K_2`$ in our Hamiltonian eq.(2).

The results of density compaction of interacting attractive grains are shown in Fig.2. The presence of a finite $`K_2`$ doesn’t alter the general logarithmically slow features of the dynamics in the considered range $`K_2/g\mathrm{\Gamma }[0,8]`$, but interesting new phenomena appear. Fig.2 concerns the case of the Tetris: the figure shows, for reference, the density compaction, $`\rho (t_n)`$, of a system without inter-grains attraction (circles) during a sequence of MC taps as those described above; it shows moreover the compaction of other two systems with finite inter-grains attractions, $`K_2`$: the interaction strengths are expressed as $`K_2=5`$ (squares) and $`K_2=8`$ (triangles) in units of $`g\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, which is the relevant physical energy scale. One can see that two seemingly opposite behaviours are present: the grains attraction makes the relaxation much slower also if the long times value of density is higher the higher is $`K_2`$. For $`K_2=8g\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, some overall qualitative change in the density relaxation curve is also appreciable.

### A Evolution by “jumps” and “persistence times”

The density evolution curves shown in Fig.2 are obtained as an average over many taps sequences and for such a reason they look regular. However, the shape of the curve $`\rho (t_n)`$ in each single run is interesting in itself since it is highly irregular and its evolution determined by sudden changes. Actually, during several consecutive “taps” the systems seems frozen in the same state, then, after a new tap, abruptly its bulk density jumps to a new value (which only on average is higher that the previous). During such seemingly “dead” time intervals the system persists in the same state, with a given bulk density. We call “persistence times”, $`t_p`$, the duration of these intervals.

Persistence times have an interesting distribution, $`P(t_p)`$, which depends on the system density $`\rho `$. In order to increase the accuracy, data plotted in Fig.3 are values obtained after averaging in a given density interval. At low densities (close to $`\rho _{lp}`$), $`P(t_p)`$ certainly has exponential shape:

$$P(t_p)e^{t_p/t_p^0}$$
(5)   
In the interval, $`0.735<\rho <0.745`$, we find $`t_p^00.40`$. In a higher densities interval $`0.745<\rho <0.755`$, $`P(t_p)`$ seems to becomes broader (see Fig.3). It is extremely difficult to collect sufficiently clean data for high values of $`t_p`$ in the high density region (due to the required very long CPU times) in order to investigate such a “broadening” of the $`P(t_p)`$. An exponential fit (with $`t_p^00.42`$) is still possible . These results are plotted in Fig.3, where we show data for the IFLG (size $`30\times 60`$) recorded during sequences of taps with $`x_0=0.0001`$ ($`K_2=0`$). Similar behaviours of $`P(t_p)`$ are observed in the region $`x_0[10^4,10^1]`$, showing that not only the overall properties of the dynamics do not change in such a “shaking” interval.

We discuss below, from a microscopical point of view, how density changes are made possible by the local reorganisation of the structure of grains clusters.

## V Domains of grains in the pack

Exploiting the microscopic character of our models, we have access to the details of the above compaction process and we explore the grains packing structure.

In our lattice systems we can define a “cluster” of grains as a set of nearest neighbouring particles. Due to grains shapes incompatibilities, empty sites can be present in the lattice pack. For instance in the Tetris, clusters can be pictorially described to be mainly thick “vertical” clumps separated by almost linear sequences of holes. Actually, the above definition of “clusters” must be refined to be applicable to a real granular medium, but on a lattice it is the most natural.

In the randomly prepared initial state are there typically very few clusters per unit length (in a $`30\times 60`$ sized lattice one has a total of 3-4 clusters, see Fig.4). By tapping, the number of clusters, $`N_{clust}`$, approximately logarithmically decreases with the taps index $`t_n`$ (see Fig.4). In the same time the larger cluster grows and the others shrink (see Fig.5). The data shown in Fig.4 and Fig.5 refer to tapping sequences with “amplitude” $`x_0=0.1`$, and analogous results were found for $`x_0=0.01`$.

The analysis of cluster properties reveals interesting facts about the compaction mechanisms and outlines a main difference between the compaction in IFLG and Tetris: it concerns the relative size of the few present clusters. In the IFLG the second largest cluster is, since the beginning, made of very few grains ($`O(1)`$); in the Tetris, the first and second largest clusters are instead, at the beginning, almost of the same order of magnitude.

During the taps sequence, in the Tetris the largest cluster grows at expense of the smaller ones. As shown in Fig.5, after $`10^3`$ taps, a $`1\%`$ increase of the bulk density, $`\rho (t_n)`$, is in direct correspondence with a $`1\%`$ increase in the largest cluster mass, $`S_M(t_n)`$. This mechanism strictly recalls ordered domains growth in spinodal decomposition . As a matter of fact, the Tetris is a “kinetically constrained” antiferromagnet and our clusters explicitly correspond to the definition of the “Fisher droplets” in the system . In the IFLG, on the contrary the growth of the largest cluster is extremely weak (see Fig.5) since the other few clusters size is already of the order of very few grains: now a $`2\%`$ increase in the bulk density corresponds to only a $`0.1\%`$ increase in the largest cluster mass. In the latter case the compaction of the system is, thus, mainly due to the “expulsion” of holes from the largest cluster and the consequent optimisation of grains spatial arrangement.

In the present perspective the basic mechanisms of domains growth under gravity in the IFLG and Tetris seem to be very different. To understand what scenario is closer to reality, if any of the present, an experimental investigation of this kind of properties would be very important.

The description of compaction with a diffusion equation with a density dependent non linear diffusion coefficient was proposed in Ref.s . It resembles analogous behaviours found close to the glass transition in glass formers .

## VI Conclusions

Summarising, the central body of the present paper has dealt with the dynamical behaviours of two frustrated lattice gas models (the IFLG and Tetris) introduced to describe gently vibrated granular media . These microscopic models are characterised by a gravity driven diffusive dynamics where the basic ingredient is the presence of geometric frustration in particles rearrangement. Interestingly, although granular media are non-thermal dissipative systems, the present models can be casted in the Hamiltonian formalism of standard lattice gases of Statistical Mechanics in presence of an effective temperature (different from zero during shaking).

To characterise the grains packing structure we have recorded the loose packing density distribution function, $`P(\rho )`$, which in the case of the IFLG well compares with experimental results. More interesting, but also more controversial is the non Gaussian $`P(\rho )`$ recorded in the Tetris.

Also in presence of attractive surface grains interactions, the models exhibit a slow compaction when subject to gentle shaking in presence of gravity, a compaction extremely close to what is experimentally observed in granular packs . During such a process, the dynamics becomes slower and slower since grains self-diffusivity decreases with density . At high densities the system approaches a structural arrest at a “jamming” transition point, where self-diffusivity becomes zero, a fact very similar to the “freezing transition” in glass formers . Interestingly in the IFLG, the structural arrest due to self-diffusivity suppression coincides with a spin glass transition .

The microscopic nature of the models allows the study of the properties of their internal packing structure, as grains clusters, which give a deeper understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying compaction. The study of “grains clusters” shows that in the IFLG model compaction originates from the reduction of the number of holes in the only present large cluster by optimisation of grains spatial arrangement; in the Tetris, instead, compaction stems from the growth of the largest cluster mass itself at expense of the smaller ones, as in spinodal decomposition. Actually, this result points towards the necessity of a better understanding of the real long time dependence of compaction in the Tetris and IFLG.

Many of the results presented here are still waiting for an important experimental verification.

Work partially supported by the TMR Network Contract ERBFMRXCT980183 and MURST-PRIN 97.