Invasion sandpile model

Abstract

Motivated by multiphase flow in reservoirs, we propose and study a two-species sandpile model in two dimensions. A pile of particles becomes unstable and topples if, at least one of the following two conditions is fulfilled: (1) the number of particles of one species in the pile exceeds a given threshold or (2) the total number of particles in the pile exceeds a second threshold. The latter mechanism leads to the invasion of one species through regions dominated by the other species. We studied numerically the statistics of the avalanches and identified two different regimes. For large avalanches the statistics is consistent with ordinary Bak–Tang–Weisenfeld model. Whereas, for small avalanches, we find a regime with different exponents. In particular, the fractal dimension of the external perimeter of avalanches is D f = 1.47 ± 0.02 and the exponent of their size distribution exponent is τ s = 0.95 ± 0.03, which are significantly different from D f = 1.25 ± 0.01 and τ s = 1.26 ± 0.04, observed for large avalanches.