Bad Normals shows how to create a sand simulation using particles and point clouds in Blender.

This new tutorial from Bad Normals shares some techniques for creating an animation that features falling sand in Blender. 

While Blender doesn’t have a grains solver like Houdini or Maya, you can simulate sand using particles and the new point cloud features in Blender. The latest version of Blender lets you directly render point cloud objects as spheres.