1141 Catalina Drive, PMB #270
Livermore, CA 94550

[This site is still (occasionally) under construction 9 April 2009]

Recent Simulation:



Grainflow Dynamics "Simulation of cohesive powder flow in a rotating drum, " 200 micron particles each particle represented as a small clusters of 8 smaller (100-micron) spheres in a cubical geometry. Cohesive pull-off force set to ~1% of theoretical van der Waals force for 200mJ/m^2 surface energy. Periodic boundaries along axis. Colors are for visualization convenience only. (July 2008). [click on title or figure above to download Quick-Time mov (~14Mb)]


Grainflow Dynamics "Simulation of cohesive powder flow in a rotating drum under Lunar gravity conditions, " (July 2008). [click on title or figure above to download Quick-Time mov (~14Mb)]


Grainflow Dynamics "Simulation of weak powder flow in a rotating drum, " 200 micron particles each particle represented as a small clusters of 8 smaller (100-micron) spheres in a cubical geometry. Weak pull-off force set to ~0.1% of theoretical van der Waals force for 200mJ/m^2 surface energy. Periodic boundaries along axis. Colors are for visualization convenience only. (July 2008). [click on title or figure above to download Quick-Time mov (~14Mb)]


Grainflow Dynamics "Simulation of weakly-cohesive powder flow in a rotating drum under Lunar gravity conditions, " (July 2008). [click on title or figure above to download Quick-Time mov (~14Mb)]



Grainflow Dynamics "Simulation of very cohesive powder flow in co-axial rotating drums, " 600 micron particles each particle represented as a small clusters of 8 smaller (300-micron) spheres in a cubical geometry. Cohesive pull-off force set to 25e-6N, approximately equal to theoretical van der Waals force for 18mJ/m^2 surface energy. Periodic boundaries along axis. Colors are for visualization convenience only. (April 2009). [click on title or figure above to download Quick-Time mov (~20Mb)]

Selected Publications:



Walton, O.R. "Dust-Off 2005 a.k.a. 'Dunes Bury' USA," Grainflow Dynamics informal report, NASA contract NNM05AA88C, Oct 2005. [click on title or figure above to download pdf (~650Kb)]


Walton, O.R., C.P. De Moor, and K.S. Gill "Effects of gravity on cohesive behavior of fine powders: implications for processing Lunar regolith," Preprint: Granular Matter (to appear 2007) [click on title or any figure above to download pdf (~930Kb)]



Walton, Otis R., "Potential discrete element simulation applications ranging from airborne fines to pellet beds," SAE 2004 Transactions J. Aerospace paper 2004-01-2329 [click on title or any figure above to download pdf (~413Kb)]



Walton, O.R., and R.L. Braun, "Simulation of Rotary-Drum and Repose Tests for Frictional Spheres and Rigid Sphere Clusters," Joint DOE/NSF Workshop on Flow of Particulates and Fluids Sept. 29 - Oct. 1, 1993, Ithaca, NY [click on title or figure above to download pdf (~4Mb)]


Walton, O.R., "Numerical simulation of inclined chute flows of monodisperse, inelastic, frictional spheres," Mechanics of Materials 16 (1993) 239-247. [click on title or figure above for pdf (~600Kb)]


Walton, O.R. "Chapter 25: Numerical Simulation of Inelastic Frictional Particle-Particle-Interactions," Particulate Two-Phase Flow M.C. Roco, ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993, Stoneham, MA [click on title or figure above to download pdf (~5.4Mb)]


[click on figure above for large mpg file (~90MB) of simulation from NEPTIS-1 of small spheres flowing through an fcc array of large spheres]


Walton, O.R., "Simulation of Gravity Flow and Packing of Spheres," Nisshin Eng. Powder Tech. Int'l Seminar (NEPTIS-1) Osaka, Japan (1993). [click on title or figure above for pdf (~7.4Mb)]


Walton, O.R., D.M. Maddix, T.R. Butkovich, and F.E. Heuze "Redirection of Dynamic Compressive Waves in Materials with Nearly Orthogonal and Random Joint Sets," AMD Vol. 117 p65-73, Recent Advances in Mechanics of Structured Continua M. Massoudi and K.R. Rajagopal, ed., ASME, 1991 [click on title or figure above to download pdf (~660Kb)]