Entropy maximization in the force network ensemble for granular solids

A long-standing issue in the area of granular media is the tail of the force distribution, in particular, whether this is exponential, Gaussian, or even some other form. Here we resolve the issue for the case of the force network ensemble in two dimensions. We demonstrate that conservation of the total area of a reciprocal tiling, a direct consequence of local force balance, is crucial for predicting the local stress distribution. Maximizing entropy while conserving the tiling area and total pressure leads to a distribution of local pressures with a generically Gaussian tail that is in excellent agreement with numerics, both with and without friction and for two different contact networks.     

颗粒体系中力分布的标量力网系综模型

建立了便于解析计算的标量力网系综模型研究颗粒体系中的力分布问题.所提出的Laplace变换法有效地解决了复杂约束条件下概率密度函数的积分问题,并给出体系中层数较少时极限分布的表达式.发现一般情况下极限分布为多项式与指数函数的乘积,力分布在接近平均力处取最大值,大于平均力时呈指数减小. 关键词： 静态颗粒体系 力空间 力网系综     

Evolution of percolating force chains in compressed granular media

The evolution of effective force chains percolating through a compressed granular system is investigated. We compressed an ensemble of spherical particles monitoring the macroscopic constitutive behavior and the acoustic signals emitted by microscopic rearrangements of particles. We applied the continuous damage model of fiber bundles to describe the evolution of the array of force chains. The model provides a nonlinear constitutive behavior in good quantitative agreement with the experimental results. The amplitude distribution of acoustic signals was found experimentally to follow a power law of an exponent delta=1.15+/-0.05, which is in good agreement with the analytic solution of the model.     

Force network ensemble: a new approach to static granular matter

An ensemble approach for force distributions in static granular packings is developed. This framework is based on the separation of packing and force scales, together with an a priori flat measure in the force phase space under the constraints that the contact forces are repulsive and balance on every particle. We show how the formalism yields realistic results, both for disordered and regular triangular "snooker ball" configurations, and obtain a shear-induced unjamming transition of the type proposed recently for athermal media.     

Numerical simulation of two-dimensional granular shearing flows and the friction force of a moving slab on the granular media

This paper studies some interesting features of two-dimensional granular shearing flow by using molecular dynamic approach for a specific granular system.The obtained results show that the probability distribution function of velocities of particles is Gaussian at the central part,but diverts from Gaussian distribution nearby the wall.The macroscopic stress along the vertical direction has large fluctuation around a constant value,the non-zero average velocity occurs mainly near the moving wall,which forms a shearing zone.In the shearing movement,the volume of the granular material behaves in a random manner.The equivalent friction coefficient between moving slab and granular material correlates with the moving speed at low velocity,and approaches constant as the velocity is large enough.     

Fluctuations in granular media

Dense slowly evolving or static granular materials exhibit strong force fluctuations even though the spatial disorder of the grains is relatively weak. Typically, forces are carried preferentially along a network of "force chains." These consist of linearly aligned grains with larger-than-average force. A growing body of work has explored the nature of these fluctuations. We first briefly review recent work concerning stress fluctuations. We then focus on a series of experiments in both two- and three-dimension [(2D) and (3D)] to characterize force fluctuations in slowly sheared systems. Both sets of experiments show strong temporal fluctuations in the local stress/force; the length scales of these fluctuations extend up to 10(2) grains. In 2D, we use photoelastic disks that permit visualization of the internal force structure. From this we can make comparisons to recent models and calculations that predict the distributions of forces. Typically, these models indicate that the distributions should fall off exponentially at large force. We find in the experiments that the force distributions change systematically as we change the mean packing fraction, gamma. For gamma's typical of dense packings of nondeformable grains, we see distributions that are consistent with an exponential decrease at large forces. For both lower and higher gamma, the observed force distributions appear to differ from this prediction, with a more Gaussian distribution at larger gamma and perhaps a power law at lower gamma. For high gamma, the distributions differ from this prediction because the grains begin to deform, allowing more grains to carry the applied force, and causing the distributions to have a local maximum at nonzero force. It is less clear why the distributions differ from the models at lower gamma. An exploration in gamma has led to the discovery of an interesting continuous or "critical" transition (the strengthening/softening transition) in which the mean stress is the order parameter, and the mean packing fraction, gamma, must be adjusted to a value gamma(c) to reach the "critical point." We also follow the motion of individual disks and obtain detailed statistical information on the kinematics, including velocities and particle rotations or spin. Distributions for the azimuthal velocity, V(theta), and spin, S, of the particles are nearly rate invariant, which is consistent with conventional wisdom. Near gamma(c), the grain motion becomes intermittent causing the mean velocity of grains to slow down. Also, the length of stress chains grows as gamma-->gamma(c). The 3D experiments show statistical rate invariance for the stress in the sense that when the power spectra and spectral frequencies of the stress time series are appropriately scaled by the shear rate, Omega, all spectra collapse onto a single curve for given particle and sample sizes. The frequency dependence of the spectra can be characterized by two different power laws, P proportional, variant omega(-alpha), in the high and low frequency regimes: alpha approximately 2 at high omega; alpha<2 at low omega. The force distributions computed from the 3D stress time series are at least qualitatively consistent with exponential fall-off at large stresses. (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics.     

Scattering of solitary waves from interfaces in granular media

The scattering of nonlinear solitary waves from an interface is numerically studied in detail. The interface is created by joining two one-dimensional chains of spherical beads of different radii (masses). Beads are assumed to be in Hertzian contact, without static precompression, and to have identical mechanical properties. In addition to previous findings, it is observed that in both cases, when a solitary wave travels from the light to the heavy system and vice versa, secondary multipulse structures are generated at the interface, being backscattered and forward scattered, respectively.     

Strain localisation in granular media

This paper discusses strain localisation in granular media by presenting experimental, full-field analysis of mechanical tests on sand, both at a continuum level, as well as at the grain scale. At the continuum level, the development of structures of localised strain can be studied. Even at this scale, the characteristic size of the phenomena observed is in the order of a few grains. In the second part of this paper, therefore, the development of shear bands within specimen of different sands is studied at the level of the individual grains, measuring grains kinematics with x-ray tomography. The link between grain angularity and grain rotation within shear bands is shown, allowing a grain-scale explanation of the difference in macroscopic residual stresses for materials with different grain shapes. Finally, rarely described precursors of localisation, emerging well before the stress peak are observed and commented.     

Modeling force transmission in granular materials

The probability density function of contact forces in granular materials has been extensively studied and modeled as an outstanding signature of granular microstructure. Arguing that particle environments play a fundamental role in force transmission, we analyze the effects of steric constraints with respect to force balance condition and show that each force may be considered as resulting from a balance between lower and larger forces in proportions that mainly depend on steric effects. This idea leads to a general model that predicts an analytical expression of force density with a single free parameter. This expression fits well our simulation data and generically predicts the exponential fall-off of strong forces, a small peak below the mean force and the non-zero probability of vanishingly small forces.     

Drag induced lift in granular media

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulation reveal that a submerged intruder dragged horizontally at a constant velocity within a granular medium experiences a lift force whose sign and magnitude depend on the intruder shape. Comparing the stress on a flat plate at varied inclination angle with the local surface stress on the intruders at regions with the same orientation demonstrates that intruder lift forces are well approximated as the sum of contributions from flat-plate elements. The plate stress is deduced from the force balance on the flowing media near the plate.     

Impact craters in loose granular media

The craters formed by the impact of steel balls with a loose sand bed are experimentally studied. Both crater size and morphology depend strongly on the impact angle. Two scaling laws, corresponding to length and width, respectively, are proposed.     

Velocity statistics in excited granular media

We present an experimental study of velocity statistics for a partial layer of inelastic colliding beads driven by a vertically oscillating boundary. Over a wide range of parameters (accelerations 3-8 times the gravitational acceleration), the probability distribution P(v) deviates measurably from a Gaussian for the two horizontal velocity components. It can be described by P(v) approximately exp(-mid R:v/v(c)mid R:(1.5)), in agreement with a recent theory. The characteristic velocity v(c) is proportional to the peak velocity of the boundary. The granular temperature, defined as the mean square particle velocity, varies with particle density and exhibits a maximum at intermediate densities. On the other hand, for free cooling in the absence of excitation, we find an exponential velocity distribution. Finally, we examine the sharing of energy between particles of different mass. The more massive particles are found to have greater kinetic energy. (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics.     

运动物体在颗粒物质中的动力学过程及最大穿透深度仿真研究

利用离散元法仿真了运动物体在颗粒物质中的三维动力学过程, 仿真采用周期边界条件, 并考虑了重力、接触力、阻尼力、摩擦力的影响. 将仿真结果和相关的三维实验结果进行了对比, 两者符合较好. 仿真结果表明穿透深度与运动物体的冲击速度、运动物体质量、颗粒介质床的密度均有关系. 运动物体质量越大, 速度越快, 则穿透越深, 而且穿透深度和质量呈线性关系. 仿真过程较为真实地再现了小颗粒的飞溅现象. 关键词： 颗粒物质 动力学过程 仿真 离散元法     

Compaction and force propagation in granular packings

Motivated by experimental results in granular media, and some recently proposed scalar force models for these materials, some aspects of packing properties and their force distributions are studied in a frustrated Ising lattice gas.     

Physics of humid granular media

A very small amount of liquid added or condensed from a vapor in a granular heap can induce dramatic changes of its static properties. In this paper we review recent advances in humid granular media. We discuss the first approaches for describing the cohesion forces acting between spherical rough beads, and their effect on the maximum avalanche angle of a granular heap. We also discuss the time dependency of these cohesive forces leading to ageing effects in the properties of the medium. To cite this article: L. Bocquet et al., C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 207–215.     

Interrupted shear of granular media

The response of a granular material during a stop-and-go shear experiment is investigated using an annular shear cell and silicagel powders of different particle sizes. The experimental results are examined on the basis of the Dieterich-Rice-Ruina model for solid friction. In addition to making this analogy with solid friction, we describe a new instability that is observed when restarting shear, where the powder bed is found to slip and compact for short hold times but only dilates for long hold times. The minimum hold time to restore a non-slip behaviour has been investigated for different size particles and normal loadings. The observed dependencies show analogies between this behaviour and the sliding rearrangements seen above the stick-slip threshold.     

Dilatancy and friction in sheared granular media

We introduce a simple model to describe the frictional properties of granular media under shear. We model the friction force in terms of the horizontal velocity and the vertical position z of the slider, interpreting z as a constitutive variable characterizing the contact. Dilatancy is shown to play an essential role in the dynamics, inducing a stick-slip instability at low velocity. We compute the phase diagram, analyze numerically the model for a wide range of parameters and compare our results with experiments on dry and wet granular media, obtaining a good agreement. In particular, we reproduce the hysteretic velocity dependence of the frictional force. Received 16 November 1999