Selecting contact particles in dynamics granular mechanics systems

Dynamic granular mechanics systems are problems with variable connectivity between the particles. This property makes it difficult for rigourous analysis since it implies reformulation of the problem each time the connectivity changes. In this paper an improved procedure for selecting contact particles is considered for large granular mechanics applications (≃104 particles). The method for the selecting uses a connectivity table. The main claimed advantage of the method is simplicity since it uncouples the system of particle in subsystems. It is shown, for example, that for N particles system, the classic method of selecting requires (N(N+1))/2 operations compared to N for the new approach.