Molecular-dynamics force models for better control of energy dissipation in numerical simulations of dense granular media.

We first describe the three-dimensional extension of the molecular-dynamics models for granular media simulations. We then discuss the known energy dissipation problem occurring when simulating dense granular media with the usual molecular-dynamics forces models. We finally propose a force model able to control the energy dissipation in the multiparticle contact situations typical to dense granular media, together with appropriate numerical results.