title: Catastrophic regime in the discharge of a granular pile.
abstract: We present a molecular-dynamics study of discharges in a granular pile evincing a catastrophic regime depending on the outlet size. The avalanche size distribution function suggests a phase transition where the height of the remaining pile is taken as the order parameter. Our results indicate that there is a critical outlet size beyond which discharges become catastrophic and the initial pile is split in two minor piles. As the system size increases, finite-size analysis indicates that the critical orifice width converges to a finite value.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Caixa Postal 702, 30161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: C F M
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Magalhães
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.forename: A P F
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Atman