Infinite Penetration of a Projectile into a Granular Medium

Abstract

An object falling in a fluid reaches a terminal velocity when the drag force and its weight are balanced. Contrastingly, an object impacting into a granular medium rapidly dissipates all its energy and comes to rest always at a shallow depth. Here we study, experimentally and theoretically, the penetration dynamics of a projectile in a very long silo filled with expanded polystyrene particles. We discovered that, above a critical mass, the projectile reaches a terminal velocity and, therefore, an endless penetration.