Related papers: Perturbation-induced granular fluidization as a mo…

In some recent experiments on entangled polymers of stress growth in startup of fast shear flows an undershoot in the shear stress is observed following the overshoot, i.e., before approaching the steady state. Whereas tumbling of the…

We report on a cellular pattern which spontaneously forms at the surface of a thin layer of a cohesive granular material submitted to in-plane stretching. We present a simple model in which the mechanism responsible of the instability is…

A granular instability driven by gravity is studied experimentally and numerically. The instability arises as grains fall in a closed Hele-Shaw cell where a layer of dense granular material is positioned above a layer of air. The initially…

We consider a sheared granular system experiencing intermittent dynamics of stick-slip type via discrete element simulations. The considered setup consists of a two-dimensional system of soft frictional particles sandwiched between solid…

The statistical-physical study of granular matter is essential to understand, from a fundamental point of view, the many different phenomena emerging in these classical many-body systems. Under rapid-flow conditions, granular materials…

In many plasma systems, introducing a small background shear flow is enough to stabilize the system linearly. The nonlinear dynamics are much less sensitive to sheared flows than the average linear growthrates, and very small amplitude…

In subduction zones, seismic slip at shallow crustal depths can lead to the generation of tsunamis. Large slip displacements during tsunamogenic earthquakes are attributed to the low coseismic shear strength of the fluid-saturated and…

Faults are complex systems embedded in an evolving medium fractured by seismic ruptures. This off-fault damage zone is shown to be thermo-hydro-mechano-chemically coupled to the main fault plane by a growing number of studies. Yet,…

Catastrophic events in Nature can be often triggered by small perturbations, with "remote triggering" of earthquakes being an important example. Here we present a mechanism for the giant amplification of small perturbations that is expected…

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of memory effects in vibration-induced compaction of granular materials. In particular, the response of the system to an abrupt change in shaking intensity is measured. At short times…

Hydraulic stimulation of geothermal reservoirs in low-permeability basement and crystalline igneous rock can enhance permeability by reactivation and shear dilation of existing fractures. The process is characterized by interaction between…

The Marginally Rigid State is a candidate paradigm for what makes granular material a state of matter distinct from both liquid and solid. Coordination number is identified as a discriminating characteristic, and for rough-surfaced…

A basic problem in the science of realistic granular matter is the plethora of heuristic models of the stress field in the absence of a first-principles theory. Such a theory is formulated here, based on the idea that static granular…

In submerged sandy slopes, soil is frequently eroded as a combination of two main mechanisms: breaching, which refers to the retrogressive failure of a steep slope forming a turbidity current, and, instantaneous sliding wedges, known as…

We consider a system of granular particles, modeled by two dimensional frictional elastic disks, that is exposed to externally applied time-dependent shear stress in a planar Couette geometry. We concentrate on the external forcing that…

The short-term memory effects recently observed in vibration-induced compaction of granular materials are studied. It is shown that they can be explained by means of quite plausible hypothesis about the mesoscopic description of the…

The response of an oscillating granular damper to an initial perturbation is studied using experiments performed in microgravity and granular dynamics mulations. High-speed video and image processing techniques are used to extract…

The local and global dynamics of a sheared granular medium are studied in a model experiment as a function of several macroscopic parameters. We observe that by changing the shear rate or the loading stiffness, the system crackles, with…

Computational modeling of faulting processes is an essential tool for understanding earthquake mechanics but remains challenging due to the structural and material complexities of fault zones. The phase-field method has recently enabled…

Stress patterns in static granular media exhibit unusual features when compared to either liquids or elastic solids. Qualitatively, we attribute these features to the presence of `stress paths', whose geometry depends on the construction…