Related papers: Granular matter instability: A structural rigidity…
The phase diagram of nuclear matter is quite rich - it shows such phenomena as phase-transitions, formation of condensates, clustering, etc. From the analysis of the spinodal instability, one can learn about the region of liquid-gas…
Jamming occurs when objects like grains are packed tightly together (e.g. grain silos). It is highly cooperative and can lead to phenomena like earthquakes, traffic jams, etc. In this Letter we point out the paramount importance of the…
When an amorphous material is strained beyond the point of yielding it enters a state of continual reconfiguration via dissipative, avalanche-like slip events that relieve built-up local stress. However, how the statistics of such events…
When a mixture of two kinds of grains differing in size and shape is poured in a vertical two-dimensional cell, the mixture spontaneously stratifies in alternating layers of small and large grains, whenever the large grains are more faceted…
A growing or compressed thin elastic sheet adhered to a rigid substrate can exhibit a buckling instability, forming an inward hump. Our study shows that the strip morphology depends on the delicate balance between the compression energy and…
The confining pressure $P$ is perhaps the most important parameter controlling the properties of granular matter. Strongly compressed granular media are, in many respects, simple solids in which elastic perturbations travel as ordinary…
The stress response of a granular assembly subject to different changes of boundary conditions is studied experimentally in order to define the stress propagation characteristics. These results demonstrate that no simple and single…
The stress profile and reorientation of grains, in response to a point force applied to a preloaded two dimensional granular system, are calculated in the context of a continuum theory that incorporates the texture of the packing. When high…
The existence of a very special ratcheting regime has recently been reported in a granular packing subjected to cyclic loading \cite{alonso04}. In this state, the system accumulates a small permanent deformation after each cycle. After a…
Isostatic networks are minimally rigid and therefore have, generically, nonzero elastic moduli. Regular isostatic networks have finite moduli in the limit of large sizes. However, numerical simulations show that all elastic moduli of…
Random packings of granular chains are presented as a model polymer system to investigate the contribution of entanglements to strain-stiffening in the absence of Brownian motion. The chain packings are sheared in triaxial compression…
We show that the yielding transition in granular media displays second-order critical-point scaling behavior. We carry out discrete element simulations in the low inertial number limit for frictionless, purely repulsive spherical grains…
Shocks in granular media, such as vertically oscillated beds, have been shown to develop instabilities. Similar jet formation has been observed in explosively dispersed granular media. Our previous work addressed this instability by…
We develop a framework for stress response in two dimensional granular media, with and without friction, that respects vector force balance at the microscopic level. We introduce local gauge degrees of freedom that determine the response of…
Granular crystallisation is an important phenomenon whereby ordered packing structures form in granular matter under vibration. However, compared with the well-developed principles of crystallisation at the atomic scale, crystallisation in…
The rigidity of elastic networks depends sensitively on their internal connectivity and the nature of the interactions between constituents. Particles interacting via central forces undergo a zero-temperature rigidity-percolation transition…
Under shear, a system of particles changes its contact network and becomes unstable as it transitions between mechanically stable states. For hard spheres at zero pressure, contact breaking events necessarily generate an instability, but…
We characterize the force state of shear-loaded granular matter by relating the macroscopic stress to statistical properties of the force network. The purely repulsive nature of the interaction between grains naturally provides an upper…
Complex systems having metastable elements often demonstrate nearly log-time relaxations and a kind of aging: repeated stimuli weaken the system's relaxational response. Granular matter is known to exhibit a wealth of such behaviors, for…
The loading of a granular material induces anisotropies of the particle arrangement (fabric) and of the material's strength, incremental stiffness, and permeability. Thirteen measures of fabric anisotropy are developed, which are arranged…