Numerical determination of the material properties of porous dust cakes

Abstract

The formation of planetesimals requires the growth of dust particles through collisions. Micron-sized particles must grow by many orders of magnitude in mass. In order to understand and model the processes during this growth, the mechanical properties, and the interaction cross sections of aggregates with surrounding gas must be well understood. Recent advances in experimental (laboratory) studies now provide the background for pushing numerical aggregate models onto a new level. We present the calibration of a previously tested model of aggregate dynamics. We use plastic deformation of surface asperities as the physical model to bring critical velocities for sticking into accordance with experimental results. The modified code is then used to compute compression strength and the velocity of sound in the aggregate at different densities. We compare these predictions with experimental results and conclude that the new code is capable of studying the properties of small aggregates.

Accepted for publication in A&A

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Erosion and the limits to planetesimal growth
• The Physics of Protoplanetesimal Dust Agglomerates. IV. Towards a Dynamical Collision Model
• Tensile Strength of Porous Dust Aggregates
• Compression Behaviour of Porous Dust Agglomerates
• Formulating Compressive Strength of Dust Aggregates from Low to High Volume Filling Factors with Numerical Simulations
• The rotational disruption of porous dust aggregates from ab-initio kinematic calculations