<i>Granular Matter: An Interdisciplinary Approach</i>

Abstract

Powders have been studied extensively because they arise in a wide variety of fields, ranging from soil mechanics to the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. Only recently, however, with the deepening understanding of fractals, chaos, l/f noise and self-organization, has it been useful to study the mechanical properties of powders from a fundamental physical perspective. This book collects articles by some of the foremost researchers in the field, including chapters on: the role of entropy in the specification of a powder; discrete mechanics; computer simulations of granular materials; pattern formation and complexity in granular flow; avalanches in real sand piles; micromechanical models of failure; mixing and segregation in particle flows; and hard-sphere colloidal suspensions.