Related papers: Earthquake dynamics constrained from laboratory ex…
We introduce a shear experiment that quantitatively reproduces the main laws of seismicity. By continuously and slowly shearing a compressed monolayer of disks in a ring-like geometry, our system delivers events of frictional failures with…
Fault zones mature through the accumulation of earthquakes and the wearing of contact asperities at multiple scales. This study examines how wear-induced gouge production affects the evolution of fault seismicity, focusing on earthquake…
Seismogenic plate boundaries are presumed to behave in a similar manner to a densely packed granular medium, where fault and blocks systems rapidly rearrange the distribution of forces within themselves, as particles do in slowly sheared…
We present an experimental investigation on the rheological behavior of model granular media made of nearly elastic spherical particles. The experiments are performed in a cylindrical Couette geometry and the experimental device is placed…
The flow of dense suspensions, glasses, and granular materials is heavily influenced by frictional interactions between constituent particles. However, neither hydrodynamics nor friction has successfully explained the full range of flow…
Frictional instabilities in fluid saturated granular materials underlie natural hazards, including submarine landslides and earthquake initiation. Experiments show distinct failure behaviors under subaerial and subaqueous conditions due to…
A dynamic earthquake source process is modeled by assuming interaction among frictional heat, fluid pressure, and inelastic porosity. In particular, fluid pressure increase due to frictional heating (thermal pressurization effect) and fluid…
In the standard rebound theory of earthquakes, elastic deformation energy is progressively stored in the crust until a threshold is reached at which it is suddenly released in an earthquake. We review three important paradoxes, the strain…
Our understanding of earthquakes is based on the theory of plate tectonics. Earthquake dynamics is the study of the interactions of plates (solid disjoint parts of the lithosphere) which produce seismic activity. Over the last about fifty…
Fault-zone fluids control effective normal stress and fault strength. While most earthquake models assume a fixed pore fluid pressure distribution, geologists have documented fault valving behavior, that is, cyclic changes in pressure and…
We review the present status of our research and understanding regarding the dynamics and the statistical properties of earthquakes, mainly from a statistical physical viewpoint. Emphasis is put both on the physics of friction and fracture,…
Oscillatory shear tests are widely used in rheology to characterize the linear and non-linear mechanical response of complex fluids, including the yielding transition. There is an increasing urge to acquire detailed knowledge of the…
Understanding how granular materials behave in low gravity is crucial for planetary science and space exploration. It can also help us understand granular phenomena usually hidden by gravity. On Earth, gravity dominates granular behavior,…
We report results of 3D Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations aiming at investigating the role of the boundary vibration in inducing frictional weakening in sheared granular layers. We study the role of different vibration amplitudes…
Although our existing one-dimensional (1D) model provides a successful quantitative description of rupture events, a 1D description is somewhat limited. We therefore derive a two-dimensional (2D) model which allows us to investigate…
Traditional models of slow slip events (SSEs) often oversimplify fault geometry, yet imaging studies show that real subduction faults are segmented and complex. We investigate how fault interactions influence slip behavior using 3D…
The number of earthquakes as a function of magnitude decays as a power law. This trend is usually justified using spring-block models, where slips with the appropriate global statistics have been numerically observed. However, prominent…
We use numerical simulations to demonstrate a local rheology for sheared, vibrated granular flows. We consider a granular assembly that is subjected to simple shear and harmonic vibration at the boundary. This configuration allows us to…
Sheared granular layers undergoing stick slip behavior are broadly employed to study the physics and dynamics of earthquakes. Here, a two dimensional implementation of the combined finite discrete element method (FDEM), which merges the…
The rheology of cohesive granular materials, under a constant pressure condition, is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Depending on the shear rate, pressure, and interparticle cohesiveness, the system exhibits four distinctive…