Scaling law for velocity of domino toppling motion in curved paths

Abstract

The arranged paths of dominoes have many shapes. The scaling law for the propagation speed of domino toppling has been extensively investigated. However, in all previous investigations the scaling law for the velocity of domino toppling motion in curved lines was not taken into account. In this study, the finite-element analysis (FEA) program ABAQUS was used to discuss the scaling law for the propagation speed of domino toppling motion in curved lines. It is shown that the domino propagation speed has a rising trend with increasing domino spacing in a straight line. It is also found that domino propagation speed is linearly proportional to the square root of domino separation. This research proved that the scaling law for the speed of domino toppling motion given by Sun [Scaling law for the propagation speed of domino toppling. AIP Adv. 2020;10(9):095124] is true. Moreover, the shape of domino arrangement paths has no influence on the scaling law for the propagation speed of dominoes, but can affect the coefficient of the scaling law for the velocity. Therefore, the amendatory function for the propagation speed of dominoes in curved lines was formulated by the FEA data. On one hand, the fitted amendatory function, φrevise{\varphi }_{{\rm{revise}}}, provides the simple method for a domino player to quickly estimate the propagation speed of dominoes in curved lines; on the other hand, it is the rationale for the study of the domino effect.

Keywords

• domino
• toppling motion
• scaling law
• velocity
• curved paths