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Low-speed oblique impact behavior on granular media across gravitational conditions: The role of cohesion

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Granular impacts are central to interpreting the surface response and mechanical properties of small planetary bodies. While recent studies have characterized low-speed impacts and postimpact dynamics, the combined influence of cohesion and gravity on impact outcomes remains poorly understood, particularly in microgravity environments relevant to rubble-pile asteroids. In this work, we employ the discrete element method (DEM) and a revised analytical dynamic resistive force theory (DRFT) to model the effect of cohesion on the impact behavior of cohesive granular media across a wide range of gravitational conditions. We construct behavior maps that classify the postimpact state as a function of Froude number, Bond number, and impact angle. We then quantify how impact behavior evolves as cohesive strength increases. Our DEM results show that cohesion strongly modifies the behavior at low-gravity, increasing ricochet and roll-out behaviors. Stronger cohesive forces also suppress the dependency of the impact behavior on the impact angle. Although a revised cohesive DRFT formulation predicts a collapse of behavior based on Froude and Bond number scaling, our DEM results show trajectories that do not conform to these predictions. This indicates that cohesion interacts with friction-mediated quasistatic resistance in a non-trivial manner not captured by our current form of the theory. Our results demonstrate that the interplay between gravity-induced confinement and cohesive bonding controls impact response, and that simple Froude–Bond scaling is insufficient to fully capture this dependence. New dimensionless groups and constitutive forms are needed to account for cohesion-dependent frictional forces in low-gravity granular environments.
DOI: 10.1122/8.0001080
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4417429879
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