title: Critical bottleneck size for jamless particle flows in two dimensions.
abstract: We propose a simple microscopic model for arching phenomena at bottlenecks. The dynamics of particles in front of a bottleneck is described by a one-dimensional stochastic cellular automaton on a semicircular geometry. The model reproduces oscillation phenomena due to the formation and collapsing of arches. It predicts the existence of a critical bottleneck size for continuous particle flows. The dependence of the jamming probability on the system size is approximated by the Gompertz function. The analytical results are in good agreement with simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Takumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishinari
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schadschneider