We report experimental measurements of particle dynamics on slowly sheared granular matter in a three-dimensional (3D) Couette cell. A closely-packed ensemble of transparent spherical beads is confined by an external pressure and filled with fluid to match both the density and refractive index of the beads. This allows us to track tracer particles embedded in the system and obtain three-dimensional trajectories as a function of time. We study the PDF of the vertical and radial displacements, finding Gaussian and exponential distributions, respectively. For slow shear rates, the mean-square fluctuations in all three directions are found to be dependent only on the angular displacement of the Couette cell. Both the diffusivity and mobility of tracer particles are proportional to the shear rate, giving rise to a constant effective temperature, characteristic of the jammed system.
We investigate the dynamics and rheological properties of a circular colloidal cluster that is continuously sheared by magnetic and optical torques in a two-dimensional (2D) Taylor-Couette geometry. By varying the two driving fields, we obtain the system flow diagram and report the velocity profiles along the colloidal structure. We then use the inner magnetic trimer as a microrheometer, and observe continuous thinning of all particle layers followed by thickening of the third one above a threshold field. Experimental data are supported by Brownian dynamics simulations. Our approach gives a un…
We study dense and highly polydisperse emulsions at droplet volume fractions ϕ>= 0.65. We apply oscillatory shear and observe droplet motion using confocal microscopy. The presence of droplets with sizes several times the mean size dramatically changes the motion of smaller droplets. Both affine and nonaffine droplet motions are observed, with the more nonaffine motion exhibited by the smaller droplets which are pushed around by the larger droplets. Droplet motions are correlated over length scales from one to four times the mean droplet diameter, with larger length scales corresponding to hig…
We experimentally investigate particle migration in a non-Brownian suspension sheared in a Taylor-Couette configuration and in the limit of vanishing Reynolds number. Highly resolved index-matching techniques are used to measure the local particulate volume fraction. In this wide-gap Taylor-Couette configuration, we find that for a large range of bulk volume fraction, $ϕ_b \in [20\% - 50\%]$, the fully developed concentration profiles are well predicted by the suspension balance model of Nott \& Brady (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 275, 1994, pp. 157-199). Moreover, we provide systematic measurements o…
We show that the shear rate at a fixed shear stress in a micellar gel in a jammed state exhibits large fluctuations, showing positive and negative values, with the mean shear rate being positive. The resulting probability distribution functions (PDF's) of the global power flux to the system vary from Gaussian to non-Gaussian, depending on the driving stress and in all cases show similar symmetry properties as predicted by Gallavotti-Cohen steady state fluctuation relation. The fluctuation relation allows us to determine an effective temperature related to the structural constraints of the jamm…
Athermal disordered systems can exhibit a remarkable response to an applied oscillatory shear: after a relatively few shearing cycles, the system falls into a configuration that had already been visited in a previous cycle. After this point the system repeats its dynamics periodically despite undergoing many particle rearrangements during each cycle. We study the behavior of orbits as we approach the jamming point in simulations of jammed particles subject to oscillatory shear at fixed pressure and zero temperature. As the pressure is lowered, we find that it becomes more common for the system…
It is well known that jammed soft materials will flow if sheared above their yield stress - think mayonnaise spread on bread - but a complete microscopic description of this seemingly sim- ple process has yet to emerge. What remains elusive is a microscopic framework that explains the macroscopic flow, derived from a 3-D spatially resolved analysis of the dynamics of the droplets or particles that compose the soft material. By combining confocal-rheology experiments on compressed emulsions and numerical simulations, we unravel that the primary microscopic mechanisms for flow are strongly influ…
We numerically study the distributions of global pressure that are found in ensembles of statically jammed and quasistatically sheared systems of bidisperse, frictionless, disks at fixed packing fraction $ϕ$ in two dimensions. We use these distributions to address the question of how pressure increases as $ϕ$ increases above the jamming point $ϕ_J$, $p\sim |ϕ- ϕ_J|^y$. For statically jammed ensembles, our results are consistent with the exponent $y$ being simply related to the power law of the interparticle soft-core interaction. For sheared systems, however, the value of $y$ is consistent wit…
By minimizing the enthalpy of packings of frictionless particles, we obtain jammed solids at desired pressures and hence investigate the jamming transition with and without shear. Typical scaling relations of the jamming transition are recovered in both cases. In contrast to systems without shear, shear-driven jamming transition occurs at a higher packing fraction and the jammed solids are more rigid with an anisotropic force network. Furthermore, by introducing the macro-friction coefficient, we propose an explanation of the packing fraction gap between sheared and non-sheared systems at fixe…
We present an experimental study of the flow dynamics of a lamellar phase sheared in the Couette geometry. High-frequency ultrasonic pulses at 36 MHz are used to measure time-resolved velocity profiles. Oscillations of the viscosity occur in the vicinity of a shear-induced transition between a high-viscosity disordered fluid and a low-viscosity ordered fluid. The phase coexistence shows up as shear bands on the velocity profiles. We show that the dynamics of the rheological data result from two different processes: (i) fluctuations of slip velocities at the two walls and (ii) flow dynamics in …
We describe an optical fiber based interferometer to measure velocity profiles in sheared complex fluids using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). After a review of the theoretical problem of DLS under shear, a detailed description of the setup is given. We outline the various experimental difficulties induced by refraction when using a Couette cell. We also show that homodyne DLS is not well suited to measure quantitative velocity profiles in narrow-gap Couette geometries. On the other hand, the heterodyne technique allows us to determine the velocity field inside the gap of a Couette cell. All t…
Diverging correlation lengths on either side of the jamming transition are used to formulate a rheological model of granular shear flow, based on the propagation of stress through force chain networks. The model predicts three distinct flow regimes, characterized by the shear rate dependence of the stress tensor, that have been observed in both simulations and experiments. The boundaries separating the flow regimes are quantitatively determined and testable. In the limit of jammed granular solids, the model predicts the observed anomalous scaling of the shear modulus and a new relation for the…
We investigate the inelastic hard disk gas sheared by two parallel bumpy walls (Couette-flow). In our molecular dynamic simulations we found a sensitivity to the asymmetries of the initial condition of the particle places and velocities and an asymmetric stationary state, where the deviation from (anti)symmetric hydrodynamic fields is stronger as the normal restitution coefficient decreases. For the better understanding of this sensitivity we carried out a linear stability analysis of the former kinetic theoretical solution [Jenkins and Richman: J. Fluid. Mech. {\bf 171} (1986)] and found it t…
We simulate a densely jammed, athermal assembly of repulsive soft particles immersed in a solvent. Starting from an initial condition corresponding to a quench from a high temperature, we find non-trivial slow dynamics driven by a gradual release of stored elastic energy, with the root mean squared particle speed decaying as a power law in time with a fractional exponent. This decay is accompanied by the presence within the assembly of spatially localised and temporally intermittent `hot-spots' of non-affine deformation, connected by long-ranged swirls in the velocity field, reminiscent of the…
We present results from a series of experiments on a granular medium sheared in a Couette geometry and show that their statistical properties can be computed in a quantitative way from the assumption that the resultant from the set of forces acting in the system performs a Brownian motion. The same assumption has been utilised, with success, to describe other phenomena, such as the Barkhausen effect in ferromagnets, and so the scheme suggests itself as a more general description of a wider class of driven instabilities.
We report the results of three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of sheared granular system in a Couette geometry.\cite{movies} The simulations use realistic boundary conditions that may be expected in physical experiments. For a range of boundary properties we report velocity and density profiles, as well as forces on the boundaries. In particular, we find that the results for the velocity profiles throughout the shearing cell depend strongly on the interaction of the system particles with the physical boundaries. Even frictional boundaries can allow for significant slippage of the p…
The particle dynamics and shear forces of granular matter in a Couette geometry are determined experimentally. The normalized tangential velocity $V(y)$ declines strongly with distance $y$ from the moving wall, independent of the shear rate and of the shear dynamics. Local RMS velocity fluctuations $δV(y)$ scale with the local velocity gradient to the power $0.4 \pm 0.05$. These results agree with a locally Newtonian, continuum model, where the granular medium is assumed to behave as a liquid with a local temperature $δV(y)^2$ and density dependent viscosity.
We describe experiments that probe the evolution of shear jammed states, occurring for packing fractions $ϕ_S \leq ϕ\leq ϕ_J$, for frictional granular disks, where above $ϕ_J$ there are no stress-free static states. We use a novel shear apparatus that avoids the formation of inhomogeneities known as shear bands. This fixed $ϕ$ system exhibits coupling between the shear strain, $γ$, and the pressure, $P$, which we characterize by the `Reynolds pressure', and a `Reynolds coefficient', $R(ϕ) = (\partial ^2 P/\partial γ^2)/2$. $R$ depends only on $ϕ$, and diverges as $R \sim (ϕ_c - ϕ)^α$, where $ϕ…
Using an athermal quasistatic simulation protocol, we study the distribution of free volumes in sheared hard-particle packings close to, but below, the random-close packing threshold. We show that under shear, and independent of volume fraction, the free volumes develop features similar to close-packed systems -- particles self-organize in a manner as to mimick the isotropically jammed state. We compare athermally sheared packings with thermalized packings and show that thermalization leads to an erasure of these structural features. The temporal evolution, in particular the opening-up and the…
We study the jamming phase diagram of sheared granular material using a novel Couette shear set-up with multi-ring bottom. The set-up uses small basal friction forces to apply a volume-conserving linear shear with no shear band to a granular system composed of frictional photoelastic discs. The set-up can generate arbitrarily large shear strain due to its circular geometry, and the shear direction can be reversed, allowing us to measure a feature that distinguishes shear-jammed from fragile states. We report systematic measurements of the stress, strain and contact network structure at phase b…
We present extensive computational results for the effective temperature, defined by the fluctuation-dissipation relation between the mean square displacement and the average displacement of grains, under the action of a weak, external perturbation, of a sheared, bi-disperse granular packing of compressible spheres. We study the dependence of this parameter on the shear rate and volume fractions, the type of particle and the observable in the fluctuation-dissipation relation. We find the same temperature for different tracer particles in the system. The temperature becomes independent on the s…
Measurements of average velocity profiles in a bubble raft subjected to slow, steady-shear demonstrate the coexistence between a flowing state and a jammed state similar to that observed for three-dimensional foams and emulsions [Coussot {\it et al,}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 88}, 218301 (2002)]. For sufficiently slow shear, the flow is generated by nonlinear topological rearrangements. We report on the connection between this short-time motion of the bubbles and the long-time averages. We find that velocity profiles for individual rearrangement events fluctuate, but a smooth, average velocity is…
We re-analyse experiments on a foam sheared in a two-dimensional Couette geometry [Debregeas <i>et al.</i>, Phys. Rev. Lett. <b>87</b>, 178305 (2001)]. We characterise the bubble deformation by a texture tensor. Our measurements are local in time: they show two regimes, one transient and one stationary. They provide both the average and fluctuations of the anisotropy. Measurements are also local in space: they show that both the deformation and the elastic contribution to the stress field do not localise, varying smoothly across the shear gap. We can thus describe the foam as a continuous medi…
Much recent effort has focused on glassy and jamming properties of spherical particles. Very little is known about such phenomena for non-spherical particles, and we take a first step by studying ellipses. We find important differences between the dynamical and structural properties of disks and two-dimensional ellipses subject to continuous Couette shear. In particular, ellipses show slow dynamical evolution, without a counterpart in disks, in the mean velocity, local density, orientational order, and local stress. starting from an unjammed state, ellipses can first jam under shear, and then …
As dense granular materials are sheared, a shear band and an anisotropic force network form. The approach to steady state behavior depends on the history of the packing and the existing force and contact network. We present experiments on shearing of dense granular matter in a 2D Couette geometry in which we probe the history and evolution of shear bands by measuring particle trajectories and stresses during transients. We find that when shearing is stopped and restarted in the same direction, steady state behavior is immediately reached, in agreement with the typical assumption that the syste…
We analyze fluctuations of particle displacements and stresses in a sheared athermal suspension of elastic capsules (red blood cells). Upon variation of the volume fraction from the dilute up to the highly concentrated regime, our numerical simulations reveal different characteristic power-law regimes of the fluctuation variances and relaxation times. In the jammed phase and at high shear rates, anomalous scaling exponents are found that deviate from pure dimensional predictions. The observed behavior is rationalized via kinetic arguments and a dissipation balance model that takes into account…
In this work, we use flow visualization and rheometry techniques to study the dynamics and evolution of secondary flows in a model wormlike micellar solution sheared between concentric cylinders, i.e., in a Taylor-Couette (TC) cell. The wormlike micellar solution studied in this work contains cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium salicylate (NaSal). This system can be shear banding and highly elastic, non-shear banding and moderately elastic, or nearly Newtonian as the temperature is varied over a narrow range. The effect of elasticity on transitions and instabilities is probed by c…
Jamming is a common feature of out of equilibrium systems showing slow relaxation dynamics. Here we review our efforts in understanding jamming in granular materials using experiments and computer simulations. We first obtain an estimation of an effective temperature for a slowly sheared granular material very close to jamming. The measurement of the effective temperature is realized in the laboratory by slowly shearing a closely-packed ensemble of spherical beads confined by an external pressure in a Couette geometry. All the probe particles, independent of their characteristic features, equi…
When an amorphous solid is deformed cyclically, it may reach a steady state in which the paths of constituent particles trace out closed loops that repeat in each driving cycle. A remarkable variant has been noticed in simulations where the period of particle motions is a multiple of the period of driving, but the reasons for this behavior have remained unclear. Motivated by mesoscopic features of displacement fields in experiments on jammed solids, we propose and analyze a simple model of interacting soft spots -- locations where particles rearrange under stress and that resemble two-level sy…
Using velocity profile measurements based on dynamic light scattering and coupled to structural and rheological measurements in a Couette cell, we present evidences for a shear-banding scenario in the shear flow of the onion texture of a lyotropic lamellar phase. Time-averaged measurements clearly show the presence of structural shear-banding in the vicinity of a shear-induced transition, associated to the nucleation and growth of a highly sheared band in the flow. Our experiments also reveal the presence of slip at the walls of the Couette cell. Using a simple mechanical approach, we demonstr…
The impacts of granular jets for both frictional and frictionless grains in two dimensions are numerically investigated. A dense flow with a dead zone emerges during the impact. From our two-dimensional simulation, we evaluate the equations of state and the con- stitutive equations of the flow. The asymptotic divergences of pressure and shear stress similar to the situation near the jamming transition appear for the frictionless case, while their exponents are smaller than those of the sheared granular systems, and are close to the extrapolation from the kinetic theoretical regime. In a simila…
Dry granular materials such as sand, gravel, pills, or agricultural grains, can become rigid when compressed or sheared. At low density, one can distort the shape of a container of granular material without encountering any resistance. Under isotropic compression, the material will reach a certain {\it jamming} density and then resist further compression. {\em Shear jamming} occurs when resistance to shear emerges in a system at a density lower than the jamming density, and the elastic properties of such states have important implications for industrial and geophysical processes. We report on …
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 produces intermittent dynamics of stick-slip type. In this regime, the top wall remains almost at rest until the applied stress becomes sufficiently large, and then it slips. We focus on the evolution of the system as it approaches a slip event. Our main finding is that there are two distinct groups of measures describing system behavior before a slip event. Th…
We consider a model for driven particulate matter in which absorbing states can be reached both by particle isolation and by particle caging. The model predicts a non-equilibrium phase diagram in which analogues of hydrodynamic and elastic reversibility emerge at low and high volume fractions respectively, partially separated by a diffusive, non-absorbing region. We thus find a single phase boundary that spans the onset of chaos in sheared suspensions to the onset of yielding in jammed packings. This boundary has the properties of a non-equilibrium second order phase transition, leading us to …
In this communication, we present a new lengthscale-based rheology for dense sheared particle suspensions as they transition from inertial- to viscous-dominated. We derive a lengthscale ratio using straightforward physics-based considerations for a particle subjected to pressure and drag forces. In doing so, we demonstrate that an appropriately chosen length-scale ratio intrinsically provides a consistent relationship between normal stress and system proximity to its ''jammed'' or solid-like state, even as a system transitions between inertial and viscous states, captured by a variable Stokes …
We present a detailed comparison of the rheological behaviour of sheared sediment beds in a pressure-driven, straight channel configuration based on data that was generated by means of fully coupled, grain-resolved direct numerical simulations and experimental measurements reviously published by Aussillous {\it et al.} (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 736, 2013, pp. 594-615). The highly-resolved simulation data allows to compute the stress balance of the suspension in the streamwise and vertical directions and the stress exchange between the fluid and particle phase, which is information needed to infer …
We investigate the role of gravity on convection in a dense granular shear flow. Using a microgravity modified Taylor-Couette shear cell under the conditions of parabolic flight microgravity, we demonstrate experimentally that secondary, convective-like flows in a sheared granular material are close to zero in microgravity and enhanced under high-gravity conditions, though the primary flow fields are unaffected by gravity. We suggest that gravity tunes the frictional particle-particle and particle-wall interactions, which have been proposed to drive the secondary flow. In addition, the degree …
Strain in sheared dense granular material is often localized in a narrow region called shear band. Recent experiments in a modified Couette cell provided localized shear flow in the bulk away from the confining walls. The non-trivial shape of the shear band was measured as the function of the cell geometry. First we present a geometric argument for narrow shear bands which connects the function of their surface position with the shape in the bulk. Assuming a simple dissipation mechanism we show that the principle of minimum dissipation of energy provides a good description of the shape functio…
It is widely recognized in particle technology that adhesive powders show a wide range of different bulk behavior due to the peculiarity of the particle interaction. We use Discrete Element simulations to investigate the effect of contact cohesion on the steady state of dense powders in a slowly sheared split-bottom Couette cell, which imposes a wide stable shear band. The intensity of cohesive forces can be quantified by the {\em granular Bond number} ($Bo$), namely the ratio between maximum attractive force and average force due to external compression. We find that the shear banding phenome…
We investigate the transient dynamics of a sheared suspension of neutrally buoyant particles under pressure-imposed conditions, subject to a sudden change in shear rate or external pressure. Discrete Element Method simulations show that, depending on the flow parameters (particle and system size, initial volume fraction), the early stress response of the suspension may strongly differ from the prediction of the Suspension Balance Model based on the steady-state rheology. We show that a two-phase model incorporating the Reynolds-like dilatancy law of Pailha & Pouliquen (2009), which prescribes …
School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；College of Physics, Chengdu University of Technology（成都理工大学物理学院）；Med-X Research Institute and School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学Med-X研究院与生物医学工程学院）；School of Physics, East China Normal University（华东师范大学物理系）；Jiangsu First-Imaging Medical Equipment Co., Ltd.（江苏首影医疗设备有限公司）；State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology（成都大学地质灾害防治与地质环境国家重点实验室）
We examine a two-dimensional system of sterically repulsive interacting disks where each particle runs in a random direction. This system is equivalent to a run-and-tumble dynamics system in the limit where the run time is infinite. At low densities, we find a strongly fluctuating state composed of transient clusters. Above a critical density that is well below the density at which non-active particles would crystallize, the system can organize into a drifting quiescent or frozen state where the fluctuations are lost and large crystallites form surrounded by a small density of individual parti…
