Strength and failure of cemented granular matter

Cemented granular materials (CGMs) consist of densely packed solid particles and a pore-filling solid matrix sticking to the particles. We use a sub-particle lattice discretization method to investigate the particle-scale origins of strength and failure properties of CGMs. We show that jamming of the particles leads to highly inhomogeneous stress fields. The stress probability density functions are increasingly wider for a decreasing matrix volume fraction, the stresses being more and more concentrated in the interparticle contact zones with an exponential distribution as in cohesionless granular media. Under uniaxial loading, pronounced asymmetry can occur between tension and compression both in strength and in the initial stiffness as a result of the presence of bare contacts (with no matrix interposed) between the particles. Damage growth is analyzed by considering the evolution of stiffness degradation and the number of broken bonds in the particle phase. A brutal degradation appears in tension as a consequence of brittle fracture in contrast to the more progressive nature of damage growth in compression. We also carry out a detailed parametric study in order to assess the combined influence of the matrix volume fraction and particle-matrix adherence. Three regimes of crack propagation can be distinguished corresponding to no particle damage, particle abrasion and particle fragmentation, respectively. We find that particle damage scales well with the relative toughness of the particle-matrix interface with respect to the particle toughness. This relative toughness is a function of both matrix volume fraction and particle-matrix adherence and it appears therefore to be the unique control parameter governing transition from soft to hard behavior.     

Hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon magnetic anomaly: Constituent quark loops and QCD effects

The hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment can be estimated by computing constituent quark loops. Such an estimate is very sensitive to the numerical values of the constituent quark masses. These can be fixed by computing the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon magnetic anomaly within the same model. In this Letter, we demonstrate the stability of this framework against first-order perturbative QCD corrections.     

Additive decomposition of shear strength in cohesive granular media from grain-scale interactions

We study cemented granular media by introducing cohesive bonding (sliding or rolling friction and tensile strength) between grains in the framework of the contact dynamics method. We find that, for a wide range of bond parameters, the macroscopic angle of friction at the peak state can be split into three distinct terms of collisional, frictional and dilational origins. Remarkably, the macroscopic tensile strength depends only on the bond tensile strength, and the friction angle at the peak state is proportional to the dilatancy angle which varies linearly with sliding friction.     

Short-time dynamics of a packing of polyhedral grains under horizontal vibrations

We analyze the dynamics of a 3D granular packing composed of particles of irregular polyhedral shape confined inside a rectangular box with a retaining wall subjected to horizontal harmonic forcing. The simulations are performed by means of the contact dynamics method for a broad set of loading parameters. We explore the vibrational dynamics of the packing, the evolution of solid fraction and the scaling of dynamics with the loading parameters. We show that the motion of the retaining wall is strongly anharmonic as a result of jamming and grain rearrangements. It is found that the mean particle displacement scales with inverse square of frequency, the inverse of the force amplitude and the square of gravity. The short-time compaction rate grows in proportion to frequency up to a characteristic frequency, corresponding to collective particle rearrangements between equilibrium states, and then it declines in inverse proportion to frequency.