Particles, contacts, bulk behavior

Granular matter consists of discrete “particles”. These can be separate sand-grains, agglomerates (made of many primary particles), or solid materials like rock, composites, or metal-alloys—all with particulate inhomogeneous, possibly anisotropic micro-structure. Particles can be as small as nano-meters (atomic clusters, domains, and aerosols), micro-meters (fine powders like TiO2, flour, starch, and cement) or millimetres (grains like coffee, food-powders, corn, sand, gravel, pills). Generally, we may distinguish between granular (d>100μm), fine ...