Collective Effects and Pattern Formation for Directional Locking of Disks Moving Through Obstacle Arrays

Abstract

We examine directional locking effects in an assembly of disks driven through a square array of obstacles as the angle of drive rotates from zero to ninety degrees. For increasing disk densities, the system exhibits a series of different dynamic patterns along certain locking directions, including one-dimensional or multiple row chain phases and density modulated phases. For non-locking driving directions, the disks form disordered patterns or clusters. When the obstacles are small or far apart, a large number of locking phases appear; however, as the number of disks increases, the number of possible locking phases drops due to the increasing frequency of collisions between the disks and obstacles. For dense arrays or large obstacles, we find an increased clogging effect in which immobile and moving disks coexist.