Fire-ant columns

We study fire-ant columns, an active version of passive granular columns, and find that, despite the inherent activity of the ants and their natural tendency to rearrange, the ants develop force-chain structures that help support the weight of the column. Hence, the apparent mass at the bottom of the column saturates with added mass in a Janssen-like fashion, reminiscent of what is seen in passive-grain columns in wide containers. Activity-induced rearrangements within the column, however, lead to changes in the force-chain structure that slightly reduce the supportive nature of the force-chains, and fluctuations in the apparent mass that scale like the law of large numbers. We capture the experimental findings in simulations based on Janssen’s model but that include a fluctuating friction force with the walls to incorporate activity and affect the force-chain structure of the ant column.