Pattern Formation in Granular Materials (Springer Tracts in Modern Physics)

Rating:
Summary: Between a Rock and a Hard Place!
Review: The study of the behavior of granular materials is thousands of years old. And the behavior of granular materials affects each of us every day. From foodstuffs to pharmaceuticals to the substrates our houses rest on and our vehicles travel over. Yet it is only in the past decade or so that computers have become large enough to try to solve the multibody physics problems that underlie granular materials behavior. The technology is wrestling with old testing methods that tell us how to measure behavior but not why, and sophisticated theories that few of us who need to know if and how the 'why' changes the 'how' can quickly grasp. The Ristow book is translated from German. The translation is excellent. Ristow's approach is dispassionate and straightforward, without burdening the first-time reader with huge quantities of theory. Yet he summarizes quite succinctly the computer methods currently in vogue. It is a short, terse book that seems to cover the major thoughts regarding granular material behavior, including the "pile" experiments and the "rotating drum" experiments. A sound piece of work that will undoubtedly need to be updated in five year or less.