At present, DEMBody is not fully open source. It is distributed on a case-by-case basis to academic users in the planetary science community, strictly for non-commercial use. Scientists interested in using or developing DEMBody may apply to use DEMBody by emailing the developer or using this web form.
The application form requests the following information:
Ongoing access to DEMBody is contingent on the following terms:
Failure to comply with any of these terms will result in withdrawal of DEMBody access. Applicants will be asked to agree to these terms and conditions on submission of the application form.
Large-scale granular dynamics solver for rubble-pile asteroids
All users of DEMBody are kindly asked to acknowledge the developers of DEMBody in any publication (peer-reviewed or otherwise) as a courtesy for the time and effort spent developing and supporting DEMBody. The Key developer, Bin Cheng, should be named in person.
In this work we use the three-dimensional N-body numerical code DEMBody (Cheng et al., 2017; Cheng et al., 2021), which encompasses an implementation of the Soft-Sphere Discrete Element Method (SSDEM) to handle mechanical contacts within constituent rocks. In this code, the interaction between any two grains is driven by the Hertzian normal force, the Mindlin–Deresiewicz tangential force, the elastic-plastic rotational torques, and the van der Waals cohesive force. More recent improvements include a polyhedron contact model (Cheng et al., 2019), irregular particle representations (Cheng et al., 2023) and shear periodic boundary conditions (Cheng et al., 2023).
Where specific modifications have been made by developers for the User's application, it may also be appropriate for an DEMBody developer to be named as co-author of any publication resulting from the use of DEMBody. Please discuss such matters with the developer that has helped you with your application.
1. Cheng, B., Yu, Y., & Baoyin, H. Asteroid surface impact sampling: dependence of the cavity morphology and collected mass on projectile shape, Scientific Reports, 2017, doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10681-8 ↩
2. Cheng, B., Yu, Y., Asphaug, E., Michel, P., Richardson, D. C., Hirabayashi, M., Yoshikawa, M., & Baoyin, H. Reconstructing the formation history of top-shaped asteroids from the surface boulder distribution, Nature Astronomy, 2020, doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01226-7 ↩
3. Cheng, B., Yu, Y., & Baoyin, H. Numerical simulations of the controlled motion of a hopping asteroid lander on the regolith surface, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2019, doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz633 ↩
4. Cheng, B., Yu, Y., Asphaug, E., Michel, P., Richardson, D. C., Hirabayashi, M., Yoshikawa, M., & Baoyin, H. Reconstructing the formation history of top-shaped asteroids from the surface boulder distribution, Nature Astronomy, 2020, doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01226-7 ↩
5. Cheng, B., Asphaug, E., Ballouz, R., Yu, Y., & Baoyin, H. Numerical Simulations of Drainage Grooves in Response to Extensional Fracturing: Testing the Phobos Groove Formation Model, Planetary Science Journal, 2022, doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01226-7 ↩