araujo88/avalanche

Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile avalanche model

avalanche

Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld Sandpile Model

The code on this folder aim to model the sandpile avalanche model as presented by Bak, Tang and Wiesenfeld (1988). The user is required to enter three parameters: the size of the matrix (which represents a 2D plane), the number of grains which will be randomly distributed along the matrix and the time interval between them. The program computes each iteration and, if a condition for avalanche is met (which is the rule that a single element from the matrix cannot contain more than 4 grains), the four grains are distributed to the adjacent elements, remaining 1 grain. The aim of this simulation is to show how simple systems evolve into chaotic configurations. The output can be visualized in Paraview (www.paraview.org).

Reference: Bak, Per, Chao Tang, and Kurt Wiesenfeld. "Self-organized criticality." Physical review A 38.1 (1988): 364.

Requirements

Paraview (https://www.paraview.org/) is required for data visualization.

Compilation and running

Compilation:

make clean

make all

To run the program, 4 arguments are needed: matrix size, total number of grains, grain printing interval and type of simulation (0 for grain at center point or 1 for grain at random point).

Examples

Grain at center point

./avalanche 50 5000 5 0

This command will run the program with matrix size of 50, 5000 total number of grains (5000 iterations), matrix output every 5 grain interval and grain always placed at the center point at each iteration. A video with this example can be found on the /examples folder.

Video snapshot at the end of the simulation

Grain at random point

./avalanche 50 10000 5 1

This command will run the program with matrix size of 50, 5000 total number of grains (5000 iterations), matrix output every 5 grain interval and grain always placed at a random point at each iteration. A video with this example can be found on the /examples folder.

Video snapshot at the end of the simulation

Data visualization

For visualization of the program output, run the following command:

paraview output/

In Paraview, choose "open files" and then select the generated .vtk files.