Numerical simulations of granular dynamics II: Particle dynamics in a shaken granular material

► Direct comparison of numerical simulation with laboratory experiment is performed. ► The new adaptation of the parallel N-body hard-sphere code pkdgrav is used. ► Pkdgrav is capable of simulating the motion of a densely packed, driven granular system. ► We investigate how self-gravity and external gravity affect collective particle motion. ► The technique can simulate conditions relevant to planetary science yet unreachable by experiments.