Interaction of a granular flow with a rectangular obstacle

In this work we studied the cluster formation of particles flowing between two parallel plates hitting a rectangular obstacle. After a short time a cluster is formed on top of the obstacle. Quantification of the cluster formation, shows that the number of clusters decrease with time, whereas the mean and maximum cluster size grow during the simulation. Our results indicate that for the development of clusters the value of the restitution coefficient for particle–particle collisions is most important parameter for this formation process. We found that changes in the value of the restitution parameters for particle–obstacle and particle–wall did not show significant changes in the cluster development.