Quasistatic rheology and the origins of strain

Features of rheological laws applied to solid-like granular materials are recalled and confronted to microscopic approaches via discrete numerical simulations. We give examples of model systems with very similar equilibrium stress transport properties—the much-studied force chains and force distribution—but qualitatively different strain responses to stress increments. Results on the stability of elastoplastic contact networks lead to the definition of two different rheological regimes, according to whether a macroscopic fragility property (propensity to rearrange under arbitrary small stress increments in the thermodynamic limit) applies. Possible consequences are discussed. To cite this article: J.-N. Roux, G. Combe, C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 131–140.     

Flow Characteristics of Granular Bulk Materials

The paper discusses the interest in conventional triaxial tests widely used in soil mechanics for a better understanding of both the mechanical behaviour and flow characteristics of granular bulk materials. It proposes a rheological characterization of granular foodstuffs on diverse types of stress path using a conventional triaxial cell. The characteristic state concept, defining the disaggregation threshold of the granular structure, is found to be suitable and even indispensible for examining the mechanical behaviour and the flowability of stored bulk materials. The experimental results readily suggest, as an indicator of the arching effect, a rheological index that characterizes the particle interlocking breakdown and hence the flowability of the stored materials. In addition, this study offers a realistic physical meaning for parameters in use in constitutive models (yield conditions and flow rules) when describing granular flow in various hopper geometries. The case of silos equipped with vibrating hoppers necessitates additionally the study of the rheological behaviour of materials under cyclic and vibratory loadings in order to analyse the processes of densification or disaggregation conditioning the flowability of the stored materials during emptying operations.     

A brief review of “granular elasticity”

Although granular materials are predominantly plastic, preparation-dependent, anisotropic under shear, and incrementally nonlinear, their static stress distribution is well accounted for, in the whole range up to the point of failure, by an isotropic, nonlinear and carefully tailored elasticity theory termed GE, for "granular elasticity". Its usefulness, limits, and the understanding behind it are reviewed, and some contentious questions (e.g. what is the elastic reference state, how to measure the elastic displacement) discussed.     

Avalanche behavior in yield stress fluids

We show that, above a critical stress, typical yield stress fluids (gels and clay suspensions) and soft glassy materials (colloidal glasses) start flowing abruptly and subsequently accelerate, leading to avalanches that are remarkably similar to those of granular materials. Rheometrical tests reveal that this is associated with a bifurcation in rheological behavior: for small stresses, the viscosity increases in time; the material eventually stops flowing. For slightly larger stresses the viscosity decreases continuously in time; the flow accelerates. Thus the viscosity jumps discontinuously to infinity at the critical stress. We propose a simple physical model capable of reproducing these effects.     

Rheology of dense granular mixtures: boundary pressures

Models for dense sheared granular materials indicate that their rheological properties depend on particle size, but the representative size for mixtures is not obvious. Here, we computationally study pressure on a boundary due to sheared granular mixtures to determine its dependence on particle size distribution. We find that the pressure does not depend monotonically on average particle size. Instead it has an additional dependence on a measure of the effective free volume per particle we adapt from an expression for packing of monosized particles near the jammed state.     

Shear stress fluctuations in the granular liquid and solid phases

We report on experimentally observed shear stress fluctuations in both granular solid and fluid states, showing that they are non-Gaussian at low shear rates, reflecting the predominance of correlated structures (force chains) in the solidlike phase, which also exhibit finite rigidity to shear. Peaks in the rigidity and the stress distribution's skewness indicate that a change to the force-bearing mechanism occurs at the transition to fluid behavior, which, it is shown, can be predicted from the behavior of the stress at lower shear rates. In the fluid state stress is Gaussian distributed, suggesting that the central limit theorem holds. The fiber bundle model with random load sharing effectively reproduces the stress distribution at the yield point and also exhibits the exponential stress distribution anticipated from extant work on stress propagation in granular materials.     

Effective Nonlinear Response of the Nonlinear Random Mixed Composites

A simple self-consistent mean-field theory is used to study the nonlinear composites consisting of linear and strongly nonlinear materials or strongly nonlinear materials with different nonlinear exponents. The effective nonlinear response obtained is compared with simulation data. Good agreement is found. Meanwhile, we study the effect of granular shapes (depolarization factor g) in different external applied fields on the nonlinear response of nonlinear random composites. It is found that the factor g affects the effective nonlinear response greatly in certain conditions.     

Yielding and flow in adhesive and nonadhesive concentrated emulsions

The nonlinear rheological response of soft glassy materials is addressed experimentally by focusing on concentrated emulsions where interdroplet attraction is tuned through varying the surfactant content. Velocity profiles are recorded using ultrasonic velocimetry simultaneously to global rheological data in the Couette geometry. Our data show that nonadhesive and adhesive emulsions have radically different flow behaviors in the vicinity of yielding: while the flow remains homogeneous in the nonadhesive emulsion and the Herschel-Bulkley model for a yield stress fluid describes the data very accurately, the adhesive system displays shear localization and does not follow a simple constitutive equation, suggesting that the mechanisms involved in yielding transitions are not universal.     

Experimental study of nonlinear acoustic effects in a granular medium

Results of a series of experimental studies of nonlinear acoustic effects in a granular medium are presented. Different effects observed in the experiments simultaneously testify that the nonlinearity of granular media is governed by the weakest intergrain contacts. The behavior of the observed dependences suggests that the distribution function of contact forces strongly increases in the range of forces much smaller than the mean force value, which is inaccessible for conventional experimental measuring techniques. For shear waves in a granular medium, the effects of demodulation and second harmonic generation with conversion to longitudinal waves are studied. These effects are caused by the nonlinear dilatancy of the medium, i.e., by the nonlinear law of its volume variation in the shear stress field. With the use of shear waves of different polarizations, the anisotropy of the nonlinearity of the medium is demonstrated. The observation of the cross-modulation effect shows that the nonlinearity-induced modulation components of the probe wave are much more sensitive to weak nonstationary perturbations of the medium, as compared to the linearly propagating fundamental harmonic. The nonlinear effects under study offer promise for diagnostic applications in laboratory measurements and in seismic monitoring systems.     

Couette颗粒系统中静态应力和侧压力系数的非线性弹性理论分析

经典弹性理论能否适用于静态颗粒物质是颗粒物理的一个基本问题.报道了非线性颗粒弹性方程对环柱几何(或称Couette几何)状样品中应力分布的计算结果.由于这些结果大都可在今后用实验直接测量,因而可将它们用于进一步判断这些弹性方程对颗粒材料的适用性以及澄清这个基本问题.另外,这些结果还可用于分析计算工程中的侧压力系数. 关键词： 颗粒物质 侧压力系数 非线性弹性理论     

颗粒介质弹性的弛豫

颗粒介质是复杂的多体相互作用体系, 其弹性源自内部的力链结构, 弹性能量处在亚稳态, 具有复杂的弛豫行为. 在常规作用下, 颗粒介质往往呈现明显的弹性弛豫. 应力松弛是应变恒定时应力的衰减现象, 弹性弛豫是应力松弛的主要原因. 在前期工作基础上, 从弹性势能面和双颗粒温度热力学角度分析了弹性弛豫的机理, 量化了弹性应力演化不可逆过程; 基于双颗粒温度热力学计算得到了弹性能、颗粒温度和应力的演化, 其中应力松弛的计算结果与实验结果基本一致, 讨论了颗粒温度初值和输运系数的影响. 指出, 开展力链结构及其动力学研究是揭示宏观弹性弛豫机理的关键.     

Jamming, yielding, and rheology of weakly vibrated granular media

We establish that the rheological curve of dry granular media is nonmonotonic, both in the presence and absence of external mechanical agitations. In the presence of weak vibrations, the nonmonotonic flow curves govern a hysteretic transition between slow but steady and fast, inertial flows. In the absence of vibrations, the nonmonotonic flow curve governs the yielding behavior of granular media. Finally, we show that nonmonotonic flow curves can be seen in at least two different flow geometries and for several granular materials.     

Cellular Model with Improved Decoupling Approximation in Random Nonlinear Composite

Cellular model with improved decoupling approximation is proposed to study the effective nonlinear response in random nonlinear granular materials. The results are compared with numerical simulations on random nonlinear resistor networks, a good agreement is obtained.     

通道宽度对二维粗糙边界斜面颗粒流的影响

在此之前已经报道了二维斜面颗粒流在通道中的分布规律以及二维斜面粗糙边界附近的颗粒 流量密度（ξ=ρ·ν）分布.本文则主要研究通道宽度W对边界附近颗粒流量密度(ξ=ρ· ν)分布的影响.结果表明，颗粒流量密度随通道宽度的变化（ξ W）存在一临界通道宽度W c.在本实验条件下临界通道宽度Wc=70d.当通道宽度小于临界宽度Wc时 ，通道中距边界20d—30d区间内的相对颗粒流量密度随斜面倾斜角的变化可描述为ξ∝( sinθ)α，α是与通道宽度W有关的参数，其数值在032至085之间. 关键词： 二维颗粒流 颗粒物质 颗粒流量密度     

Flow, ordering, and jamming of sheared granular suspensions

We study the rheological properties of a granular suspension subject to constant shear stress by constant volume molecular dynamics simulations. We derive the system "flow diagram" in the volume fraction or stress plane (phi, F): at low phi the flow is disordered, with the viscosity obeying a Bagnold-like scaling only at small F and diverging as the jamming point is approached; if the shear stress is strong enough, at higher phi an ordered flow regime is found, the order-disorder transition being marked by a sharp drop of the viscosity. A broad jamming region is also observed where, in analogy with the glassy region of thermal systems, slow dynamics followed by kinetic arrest occurs when the ordering transition is prevented.     

Embedded nanocrystallites prepared by ion implantation

Nanocrystallites embedded in substrates (granular materials) prepared by ion implantation have many unusual properties in comparison with bulk materials. Features are found such as high magnetic coercivity, size effect of the effective magnetic moment per atom, dependence of the interface magnetic hyperfine field on the Co concentration, nonlinear photoluminescence as well as charge transfer. We show that CEMS and emission Mössbauer spectroscopy are powerful tools for studying these granular systems.     

Rheology of a dilute suspension of vesicles

From the hydrodynamical equations of vesicle dynamics under shear flow, we extract a rheological law for a dilute suspension. This is made analytically in the small excess area limit. In contrast to droplets and capsules, the rheological law (written in the comoving frame) is nonlinear even to the first leading order. We exploit it by evaluating the effective viscosity eta(eff) and the normal stress differences N1 and N2. We make a link between rheology and microscopic dynamics. For example, eta(eff) is found to exhibit a cusp singularity at the tumbling threshold, while N(1,2) undergoes a collapse.     

Modelling surface rheology of complex interfaces with extended irreversible thermodynamics

The rheological properties of the interfaces in complex multiphase systems often play a crucial role in the dynamic behavior of these systems. For example, these properties affect the dynamics of emulsions, of dispersions of vesicles, of biological fluids, or of free surface flows. In the past three to four decades a vast amount of literature has been produced dealing with the rheological properties of interfaces stabilized by low molecular weight surfactants, proteins, (bio)polymers, lipids, colloidal particles, and various mixtures of these surface active components. The data of these surface rheological experiments are often analyzed with ad hoc generalizations of rheological models used for the analysis of rheological properties of bulk phases. The validity of these generalizations is in general not discussed. Here we show how the extended irreversible thermodynamics (EIT) formalism can be used to generate a wide range of thermodynamically admissible constitutive models for the surface stress tensor, which not only encompass currently used constitutive models, but also suggest several new ones, particularly useful for modelling the nonlinear response of interfaces.     

二维晶格颗粒堆积中侧壁的压力分布与转向系数

颗粒物质是大量颗粒聚集在一起的软凝聚态物质, 其微观结构与宏观力学性质的联系非常复杂. 本文用实验的方法观测了二维竖直晶格堆积颗粒, 在竖直方向外加正压力作用下其侧壁的受力分布情况, 根据实验结果详细讨论和分析了颗粒体系中正压力的转向行为. 实验结果表明: 在缓慢压缩颗粒体系的过程中, 正压力的变化呈现非线性和线性两段不同的规律; 对于确定堆积结构的颗粒体系, 竖直方向施加的正压力通过颗粒力链转向, 且水平方向不同堆积高度处所受压力值不同, 中部的压力大于顶部和底部的压力; 转向系数k的饱和值随堆积角θ 的增大而减小. 对颗粒堆的几何结构与受力情况进行分析, 给出了转向系数与堆积角之间的数学表达式, 理论值与实验值符合较好.     

二维颗粒堆积中压力问题的格点系统模型

为了便于从理论上探究粮仓效应产生的机理,处理筒仓中颗粒介质的应力分布等问题,将二维颗粒堆积简化为格点系统,并且以随机堆积为物理背景提出了一个由吸收系数p及侧向传递系数q决定的力传递模型.给出了矩阵形式的力传递方程,提出基于二阶差分方程的方法同时求解传递系数矩阵的特征值和特征向量,从理论上导出了一种典型情况下容器底部压力分布与顶部压力分布的关系式.对有效质量随总质量变化关系的理论分析表明,该模型可以给出与Janssen模型类似的结果.对无负载情况下的底部应力分布进行了理论计算,结果表明容器底部中央应力最大,离中央越远应力越小.运用数值计算讨论了p与q对容器底部压力随堆积高度变化曲线的影响.