What would a beach look like in a different universe? How would sand flow in 4 or 5 dimensions? At the crossroad of mathematics, physics, and engineering, this talk will develop the numerical and technological tools required to answer those questions. Following the Discrete Element Method, widely used to simulate
particulate materials in physics and engineering, the higher dimensional equations of motion for rigid bodies will be solved. Specific properties of granular packing and flow will be extracted, and compared with well-established results in two and three dimensions. As higher dimensional simulations are challenging to visualise, we will also present complementary visualisation methods based on virtual reality technology, which are crucial to develop a good understanding of the overall behaviour of higher dimensional granular media.
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