Numeric Modeling of Granular Asteroid Growth
Abstract
It is believed that planetesimals and asteroids are created by the constructive collisions of smaller objects, loosely bound under the effect of self-gravity and/or contact forces. However, the internal dynamics of these collisions and whether they trigger growth or fragmentation are poorly understood. Prior research in the topic has established regimes for the results of constructive collisions of particles under contact forces, but neglects gravity, a critical component once particles are no longer touching, and force chains, an uneven distribution of force inherent to granular materials. We run simulations binary collisions of clusters of particles modeled as hard spheres. Our simulations take into account self-gravity, dissipation of energy, friction, and use a potential function for overlapping particles to study force chains. We present here the collision outcome for clusters with variable masses, particle counts, velocities, and impact parameter. We compare our results to other models and simulations, and find that the collisions remain constructive at higher energies than classically predicted.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22335102B