Granular matter

This is an introductory course into some aspects of the physics of granular materials. Three theoretical questions are looked into more detail corresponding to the 3 h of the course: I present some statistical models to describe the shape of a heap under impact and present a way to calculate the angle of repose from the first principle. The second part contains the theoretical framework of a hydrodynamic description of fluid sand and the calculation of transport properties using kinetic gas theory. Cooling and clustering are given as example and counter-example. The last part focusses on packings and in particular on lattice models for compaction dynamics.