Context. The early planetesimal growth proceeds through a sequence of sticking collisions of dust agglomerates. Very uncertain is still the relative velocity regime in which growth rather than destruction can take place. The outcome of a collision depends on the bulk properties of the porous dust agglomerates. Aims. Continuum models of dust agglomerates require a set of material parameters that are often difficult to obtain from laboratory experiments. Here, we aim at determining those parameters from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Our goal is to improve on the existing model that describe the interaction of individual monomers. Methods. We use a molecular dynamics approach featuring a detailed micro-physical model of the interaction of spherical grains. The model includes normal forces, rolling, twisting and sliding between the dust grains. We present a new treatment of wall-particle interaction that allows us to perform customized simulations that directly correspond to laboratory experiments. Results. We find that the existing interaction model by Dominik & Tielens leads to a too soft compressive strength behavior for uniand omni-directional compression. Upon making the rolling and sliding coefficients stiffer we find excellent agreement in both cases. Additionally, we find that the compressive strength curve depends on the velocity with which the sample is compressed. Conclusions. The modified interaction strengths between two individual dust grains will lead to a different behavior of the whole dust agglomerate. This will influences the sticking probabilities and hence the growth of planetesimals. The new parameter set might possibly lead to an enhanced sticking as more energy can be stored in the system before breakup.

Context. Bouncing collisions of dust aggregates within the protoplanetary disk may have a significant impact on the growth process of planetesimals. Yet, the conditions that result in bouncing are not very well understood. Existing simulations studying the bouncing behavior used aggregates with an artificial, very regular internal structure. Aims. Here, we study the bouncing behavior of sub-mm dust aggregates that are constructed applying different sample preparation methods. We analyze how the internal structure of the aggregate alters the collisional outcome and we determine the influence of aggregate size, porosity, collision velocity, and impact parameter. Methods. We use molecular dynamics simulations where the individual aggregates are treated as spheres that are made up of several hundred thousand individual monomers. The simulations are run on graphic cards (GPUs). Results. Statistical bulk properties and thus bouncing behavior of sub-mm dust aggregates depend heavily on the preparation method. In particular, there is no unique relation between the average volume filling factor and the coordination number of the aggregate. Realistic aggregates bounce only if their volume filling factor exceeds 0.5 and collision velocities are below 0.1 ms −1 . Conclusions. For dust particles in the protoplanetary nebula we suggest that the bouncing barrier may not be such a strong handicap in the growth phase of dust agglomerates, at least in the size range of ≈100 µm.

Aims. The aim of this work is to gain a deeper insight into how much different aggregate types are affected by erosion. Especially, it is important to study the influence of the velocity of the impacting projectiles. We also want to provide models for dust growth in protoplanetary disks with simple recipes to account for erosion effects. Methods. To study the erosion of dust aggregates we employed a molecular dynamics approach that features a detailed micro-physical model of the interaction of spherical grains. For the first time, the model has been extended by introducing a new visco-elastic damping force, which requires a proper calibration. Afterwards, different sample generation methods were used to cover a wide range of aggregate types.Results. The visco-elastic damping force introduced in this work turns out to be crucial to reproduce results obtained from laboratory experiments. After proper calibration, we find that erosion occurs for impact velocities of 5 ms −1 and above. Though fractal aggregates as formed during the first growth phase are most susceptible to erosion, we observe erosion of aggregates with rather compact surfaces as well. Conclusions. We find that bombarding a larger target aggregate with small projectiles results in erosion for impact velocities as low as a few ms −1 . More compact aggregates suffer less from erosion. With increasing projectile size the transition from accretion to erosion is shifted to higher velocities. This allows larger bodies to grow through high velocity collisions with smaller aggregates.

We performed micro-gravity collision experiments in our laboratory drop-tower using 5-cm-sized dust agglomerates with volume filling factors of 0.3 and 0.4, respectively. This work is an extension of our previous experiments reported in Beitz et al. (2011) to aggregates of more than one order of magnitude higher masses. The dust aggregates consisted of micrometer-sized silica particles and were macroscopically homogeneous. We measured the coefficient of restitution for collision velocities ranging from 1 cm s −1 to 0.5 m s −1 , and determined the fragmentation velocity. For low velocities, the coefficient of restitution decreases with increasing impact velocity, in contrast to findings by Beitz et al. (2011). At higher velocities, the value of the coefficient of restitution becomes constant, before the aggregates break at the onset of fragmentation. We interpret the qualitative change in the coefficient of restitution as the transition from a solid-body-dominated to a granular-medium-dominated behavior. We complement our experiments by molecular dynamics simulations of porous aggregates and obtain a reasonable match to the experimental data. We discuss the importance of our experiments for protoplanetary disks, debris disks, and planetary rings. The work is an extensional study to previous work of our group and gives a new insight in the velocity dependency of the coefficient of restitution due to improved measurements, better statistics and a theoretical approach.

Context. Within the sequential accretion scenario of planet formation, planets are built up through a sequence of sticking collisions. The outcome of collisions between porous dust aggregates is very important for the growth from very small dust particles to planetesimals. In this work we determine the necessary material properties of dust aggregates as a function of porosity. Aims. Continuum models such as SPH that are capable of simulating collisions of macroscopic dust aggregates require a set of material parameters. Some of them, such as the tensile and shear strength, are difficult to obtain from laboratory experiments. The aim of this work is to determine these parameters from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Methods. We simulated the behavior of porous dust aggregates using a detailed micro-physical model of the interaction of spherical grains that includes adhesion forces, rolling, twisting, and sliding. Using different methods of preparing the samples, we studied the strength behavior of our samples with varying porosity and coordination number of the material. Results. For the tensile strength, we can reproduce data from laboratory experiments very well. For the shear strength, there are no experimental data available. The results from our simulations differ significantly from previous theoretical models, which indicates that the latter might not be sufficient to describe porous dust aggregates. Conclusions. We have provided the functional behavior of tensile and shear strength of porous dust aggregates as a function of the porosity, which can be directly applied to continuum simulations of these objects in planet formation scenarios.