A granular system is a sistem composed by macroscopic particles (say: sand grains, rice seeds, etc.) that collide in an essentially inelastic way. Granular systems may be dry (i.e., in air) or wet (i.e., in water). If hydrodynamic forces play a major role, the systems is said to be fluidized.

Dry granular systems are very studied by physicists nowadays, since they are a fascinating world and also quite difficult to be handled either analytically or by computers. See the granular systems presentation.

Beyond physics, they play a fundamental role in many environmental topics: from morphogenesis of landscapes (e.g. river meandering and coastal evolution) to river transport, from terrain dynamics to filtration and percolation in porous media. See morfodinamica fluviale, modellizzazione trasporto solido and fluid flux and granular medium interaction.

Granular systems are a fascinating subject for experiments, and the setup is also quite cheap. See the Vibrated systems page.

For a general introduction, see http://www.granular.com/

Simulations of granular systems: http://dmawww.epfl.ch/roso.mosaic/dm/sigma.html

See also self organized criticality, Angle of repose

References: http://www.ica1.uni-stuttgart.de/~lui/REFS/references.html, http://www.granular.com/POWDER/papers_tag.html

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