A scalar constitutive law is obtained for dense granular flows, both in the inertial regime where the grain inertia dominates, and in the viscous regime. Considering a pair of grains rather than a single grain, the classical arguments yield a constitutive law that exhibits a flow threshold expressed as a finite effective friction at flow onset. The value of the threshold is not predicted. The resulting law seems to be compatible with existing data, provided the saturation at high velocity (collisional regime) is added empirically. The law is not exactly the same in both regimes, which seems to indicate that there is no "universal" law.
A scalar constitutive law was recently obtained for dense granular flows from a two-grain argument, both in the inertial regime (grain inertia) and in the viscous regime. As the resulting law is not exactly the same in both regimes, we here provide an expression for the crossover between both regimes.
Frictional constitutive law for very slow vertical withdrawing of a thin rod from a granular bed is experimentally studied. Using a very precise creep meter, geometry-dependent granular frictional constitutive law is particularly examined. In some previous works, a dimensionless number $I=\dotγD_g/\sqrt{p/ρ_g}$ has been used to characterize granular frictional constitutive laws, where $\dotγ$, $D_g$, $p$, and $ρ_g$ are the shear strain rate, grain diameter, confining pressure, and bulk density of granular bed, respectively. It has been considered that granular frictional constitutive law expre…
We numerically investigate the rheological properties of jammed frictionless granular materials under an oscillatory shear in terms of our simulation of the distinct element method. It is demonstrated that the constitutive relation between the shear stress and the shear strain of grains strongly depends on the amplitude and the frequency of the oscillatory shear. For a small amplitude region, the granular material behaves as a visco-elastic material characterized by the Kelvin-Voigt model, while it behaves as a yield stress liquid for a large amplitude region. We find that the rheology of grai…
A continuum description of granular flows would be of considerable help in predicting natural geophysical hazards or in designing industrial processes. However, the constitutive equations for dry granular flows, which govern how the material moves under shear, are still a matter of debate. One difficulty is that grains can behave like a solid (in a sand pile), a liquid (when poured from a silo) or a gas (when strongly agitated). For the two extreme regimes, constitutive equations have been proposed based on kinetic theory for collisional rapid flows, and soil mechanics for slow plastic flows. …
Multi-phase flows encountered in nature or in industry, exhibit non trivial rheological properties, that can be understood better thanks to model materials and appropriate rheometers. Here, we use model unsaturated granular materials: assemblies of frictional spherical particles bonded by a small quantity of a wetting liquid, over a rough inclined plane. Our results show steady uniform flows for a wide range of parameters (the inclination angle and the mass flow-rate). A theoretical model, based on the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion extended to inertial flows: $τ$ = $τ$c + $μ$(I)P, in which $τ$c…
We numerically and theoretically study macroscopic properties of dense, sheared granular materials. In this process we first introduce an invariance in Newton's equations, explain how it leads to Bagnold's scaling, and discuss how it relates to the dynamics of granular temperature. Next we implement numerical simulations of granular materials in two different geometries-- simple shear and flow down an incline-- and show that measurements can be extrapolated from one geometry to the other. Then we observe non-affine rearrangements of clusters of grains in response to shear strain and show that …
A recent theory for stress transmission in isostatic granular and cellular systems predicts a constitutive equation that couples the stress field to the local microstructure. The theory could not be applied to macroscopic systems because the constitutive equation becomes trivial upon straightforward coarse-graining. This problem is resolved here for arbitrary planar structures. The solution is based on the observation that staggered order makes it possible to couple the stress to a reduced geometric tensor that can be coarse-grained. The method proposed here makes it possible to apply this ide…
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 relationship between local stresses exists, which would be imposed by the local structure of the granular assembly only in general. On the contrary, it is demonstrated that these results are controlled by the boundary conditions themselves and that a tiny change of them may lead to strong variations in the incrememental stress relation; furthermore, in other cases, …
A constitutive model is presented for brittle granular materials based on a recent reformulation of the breakage mechanics theory. Compared with previous breakage mechanics-based models, the proposed model is improved to capture strain softening towards the critical state following the peak stress observed in dense specimens under shearing, and simultaneous evolution of breakage and dilation. Considering the competition between dilation and particle breakage allows the model to capture breakage-induced reduction in dilatancy and peak strength as confining pressure increases. The influence of t…
Discrete particle simulations are used to study the shear rheology of dense, stabilized, frictional particulate suspensions in a viscous liquid, toward development of a constitutive model for steady shear flows at arbitrary stress. These suspensions undergo increasingly strong continuous shear thickening (CST) as solid volume fraction $ϕ$ increases above a critical volume fraction, and discontinuous shear thickening (DST) is observed for a range of $ϕ$. When studied at controlled stress, the DST behavior is associated with non-monotonic flow curves of the steady-state stress as a function of s…
In order to understand the nature of friction in closely-packed granular materials, a discrete element simulation on granular layers subjected to isobaric plain shear is performed. It is found that the friction coefficient increases as the power of the shear rate, the exponent of which does not depend on the material constants. Using a nondimensional parameter that is known as the inertial number, the power-law can be cast in a generalized form so that the friction coefficients at different confining pressures collapse on the same curve. We show that the volume fraction also obeys a power-law.
Numerical simulations of two-dimensional granular flows under uniform shear and external body torque were performed in order to extract the constitutive equations for the system. The outcome of the numerical simulations is analyzed on the basis of the micropolar fluid model. Uniform mean shear field and mean spin field, which is not subordinate to the vorticity field, are realized in the simulations. The estimates of stresses based on kinetic theory by Lun [Lun, J. Fluid Mech., 1991, 233, 539] are in good agreement with the simulation results for a low area fraction $ν=0.1$ but the agreement b…
We report on a numerical study of the shear flow of a simple two-dimensional model of a granular material under controlled normal stress between two parallel smooth, frictional walls, moving with opposite velocities $\pm$V . Discrete simulations, which are carried out with the contact dynamics method in dense assemblies of disks, reveal that, unlike rough walls made of strands of particles, smooth ones can lead to shear strain localization in the boundary layer. Specifically, we observe, for decreasing V, first a fluid-like regime (A), in which the whole granular layer is sheared, with a homog…
Although the gravity dependence of granular friction is crucial to understand various natural phenomena, its precise characterization is difficult. We propose a method to characterize granular friction under various gravity (body force) conditions controlled by centrifugal force; specifically, the deformation of a rotated granular pile was measured. To understand the mechanics governing the observed nontrivial deformation of this pile, we introduced an analytic model considering local force balance. The excellent agreement between the experimental data and theoretical model suggests that the d…
We present theoretical predictions of granular flow in a conical hopper based on a continuum theory employing a recently-developed constitutive model with microstructure evolution by Sun and Sundaresan [1]. The model is developed for strain rate-independent granular flows. The closures for the pressure and the macroscopic friction coefficient are linked to microstructure through evolution equations for the coordination number and fabric. The material constants in the model are functions of particle-level properties. A salient prediction is the variable stress ratio along the flow direction, in…
We report a transition from a disordered state to an ordered state in the flow of nearly mono-disperse granular matter flowing in an inclined channel with a bumpy base, in discrete element method simulations. For low particle-sidewall friction coefficients, the particles are disordered and the Bagnold velocity profile is obtained. However, for high sidewall friction, an ordered state is obtained, characterized by a layering of the particles and hexagonal packing of the particles in each layer. The extent of ordering, quantified by the local bond-orientational order parameter, varies in the cro…
The transition between shear-flowing and shear-arrested states of frictional granular matter is studied using constant-stress discrete element simulations. By subjecting a dilute system of frictional grains to a constant external shear stress and pressure, friction-dependent critical shear stress and density are clearly identified with both exhibiting a crossover between low and high friction. The critical shear stress bifurcates two nonequilibrium steady states: (i) steady state shear flow characterized by a constant deformation rate, and (ii) shear arrest characterized by temporally decaying…
We experimentally examined the history dependence of the rotation-induced granular deformation. As an initial state, we prepared a quasi-two-dimensional granular pile whose apex is at the rotational axis and its initial inclination is at the angle of repose. The rotation rate was increased from $0$ to $620$~(rpm) and then decreased back to $0$. During the rotation, deformation of the rotated granular pile was captured by a camera. From the acquired image data, granular friction coefficient $μ$ was measured as a function of the ratio between centrifugal force and gravity, $Γ$. To systematically…
We report a joint experimental and theoretical investigation of cyclic training of amorphous frictional granular assemblies, with special attention to memory formation and retention. Measures of dissipation and compactification are introduced, culminating with a proposed scaling law for the reducing dissipation and increasing memory. This scaling law is expected to be universal, insensitive to the details of the elastic and frictional interactions between the granules.
Herein, we numerically study the rheology of a two-dimensional frictional granular system confined by constant pressure under oscillatory shear. Several scaling laws for the storage and loss moduli against the scaled strain amplitude have been found. The scaling laws in plastic regime for large strain amplitude can be understood by the angular distributions of the contact force. The scaling exponents are estimated by considering the physical mechanism.
Understanding the rheology of granular assemblies is important for natural and engineering systems, but the relationship between inter-particle friction (or microscopic friction) and macroscopic friction is still not well understood. In this study, using the the discrete element method (DEM) with spherical particles and realistic contact laws, we investigate the mechanics of granular systems with a wide range of inter-particle frictional coefficients and aim to establish a friction-dependent rheology for dry granular flows. The corresponding results show that increasing inter-particle friction…
Slow and dense granular flows often exhibit narrow shear bands, making them ill-suited for a continuum description. However, smooth granular flows have been shown to occur in specific geometries such as linear shear in the absence of gravity, slow inclined plane flows and, recently, flows in split-bottom Couette geometries. The wide shear regions in these systems should be amenable to a continuum description, and the theoretical challenge lies in finding constitutive relations between the internal stresses and the flow field. We propose a set of testable constitutive assumptions, including rat…
The purpose of this study is to propose a modified micromorphic continuum model for granular materials based on a micromechanics approach. In this model, Cauchy stress and the couple stress are symmetric conjugated with the symmetric strain and the symmetric curvature respectively, and the relative stress measures are asymmetric conjugated with the asymmetric relative strain measures. This modified micromorphic model considers a continuum material point as a granular volume element whose deformation behavior is influenced by the translation and the rotation of particles. And this study propose…
The friction of a sliding plate on a thin immersed granular layer obeys Amonton-Coulomb law. We bring to the fore a large set of experimental results which indicate that, over a few decades of values, the effective dynamical friction-coefficient depends neither on the viscosity of the interstitial fluid nor on the size of beads in the sheared layer, which bears out the analogy with the solid-solid friction in a wide range of experimental parameters. We accurately determine the granular-layer dilatancy, which dependance on the grain size and slider velocity can be qualitatively accounted by con…
In this study, we numerically investigated the mechanical responses and trajectories of frictional granular particles under oscillatory shear in the reversible phase where particle trajectories form closed loops below the yielding point. When the friction coefficient is small, the storage modulus exhibits softening, and the loss modulus remains finite in the quasi-static limit. As the friction coefficient increases, the softening and residual loss modulus are suppressed. The storage and loss moduli satisfy scaling laws if they are plotted as functions of the areas of the loop trajectories divi…
We perform a novel analysis of the granular texture of a granular bed close to stability limit. Our analysis is based on a unique criterion of friction mobilisation in a simulated two-dimensional packing. In this way, we recover the bimodal character of granular texture, and the coexistence of weak and strong phases in the sense of distinct contacts populations. Moreover, we show the existence of a well-defined subset of contacts within the weak contact network. These contacts are characterized by their important friction, and form a highly coherent population in terms of fabric. They play an …
Particles in granular flows are often modeled as frictionless (smooth) inelastic spheres; however, there exist no frictionless grains, just as there are no elastic grains. Our molecular dynamics simulations reveal that friction is essential for realistic modeling of vertically oscillated granular layers: simulations of frictionless particles yield patterns with an onset at a container acceleration about 30% smaller than that observed in experiments and simulations with friction. More importantly, even though square and hexagonal patterns form for a wide range of the oscillation parameters in e…
We numerically study the effect of inter-particle friction coefficient on the response to cyclical pure shear of spherical particles in three dimensions. We focus on the rotations and translations of grains and look at the spatial distribution of these displacements as well as their probability distribution functions. We find that with increasing friction, the shear band becomes thinner and more pronounced. At low friction, the amplitude of particle rotations is homogeneously distributed in the system and is therefore mostly independent from both the affine and non-affine particle translations…
We study the joint probability distribution of normal and tangential frictional forces in jammed granular media, $P_μ(f_t, f_n)$, for various friction coefficient $μ$, especially when $μ= \infty$. A universal scaling law is found to collapse the data for $μ=0$ to $\infty$ demonstrating a link between force distribution $P_μ(f_t, f_n)$ and average coordination number, $z^μ_c$. The results determine $z_c^μ$ for a finite friction coefficient, extending the constraints counting argument of isostatic granular packing to finite frictional packings.
Jammed states of frictional granular systems can be induced by shear strain at densities below the isostatic jamming density ($ϕ_c$). It remains unclear, however, how much friction affects this so-called shear-jamming. Friction appears in two ways in this type of experiment: friction between particles, and friction between particles and the base on which they rest. Here, we study how particle-bottom friction, or basal friction, affects shear jamming in quasi-two dimensional experiments. In order to study this issue experimentally, we apply simple shear to a disordered packing of photoelastic d…
The jamming transition is accompanied by a rich phenomenology, such as hysteresis or non-local effects, which is still not well understood. Here we experimentally investigate a model frictionless granular layer flowing down an inclined plane, as a way to disentangle generic collective effects from those arising from frictional interactions. We find that thin frictionless granular layers are devoid of hysteresis, yet the layer stability is increased as it gets thinner. Rheological laws obtained for different layer thicknesses can be collapsed into a unique master curve, supporting that non-loca…
We report numerical simulations on granular shear flows confined between two flat but frictional sidewalls. Novel regimes differing by their strain localization features are observed. They originate from the competition between dissipation at the sidewalls and dissipation in the bulk of the flow. The effective friction at sidewalls is characterized (effective friction coefficient and orientation of the friction force) for each regime, and its interdependence with slip and force fluctuations is pointed out. We propose a simple scaling law linking the slip velocity to the granular temperature in…
We investigate the effective friction encountered by a mass sliding on a granular layer as a function of bed thickness and boundary roughness conditions. The observed friction has minima for a small number of layers before it increases and saturates to a value which depends on the roughness of the sliding surface. We use an index-matched interstitial liquid to probe the internal motion of the grains with fluorescence imaging in a regime where the liquid has no significant effect on the measured friction. The shear profiles obtained as a function of depth show decrease in slip near the sliding …
The critical rheology of sheared frictional granular materials near jamming transition is numer- ically investigated. It is confirmed that there exist a true critical density which characterizes the onset of the yield stress, and two fictitious critical densities which characterize the scaling laws of rheological properties. We find the existence of a hysteresis loop between two of the critical densities for each friction coefficient. It is noteworthy that the critical scaling law for frictionless jamming transition seems to be still valid even for frictional jamming despite using fictitious c…
The shear modulus of jammed frictional granular materials with the harmonic repulsive interaction under an oscillatory shear is numerically investigated. It is confirmed that the storage modulus, the real part of the shear modulus, for frictional grains with sufficiently small strain amplitude $γ_0$ discontinuously emerges at the jamming transition point. The storage modulus for small $γ_0$ differs from that of frictionless grains even in the zero friction limit, while they are almost identical with each other for sufficiently large $γ_0$, where the transition becomes continuous. The stress-st…
Intuition tells us that a rolling or spinning sphere will eventually stop due to the presence of friction and other dissipative interactions. The resistance to rolling and spinning/twisting torque that stops a sphere also changes the microstructure of a granular packing of frictional spheres by increasing the number of constraints on the degrees of freedom of motion. We perform discrete element modeling simulations to construct sphere packings implementing a range of frictional constraints under a pressure-controlled protocol. Mechanically stable packings are achievable at volume fractions and…
We investigate the role of friction in compaction and segregation of granular materials by combining Edwards' thermodynamic hypothesis with a simple mechanical model and mean-field based geometrical calculations. Systems of single species with large friction coefficients are found to compact less. Binary mixtures of grains differing in frictional properties are found to segregate at high compactivities, in contrary to granular mixtures differing in size, which segregate at low compactivities. A phase diagram for segregation vs. friction coefficients of the two species is generated. Finally, th…
Cohesive granular media flowing down an inclined plane are studied by discrete element simulations. Previous work on cohesionless granular media demonstrated that within the steady flow regime where gravitational energy is balanced by dissipation arising from intergrain forces, the velocity profile in the flow direction scales with depth in a manner consistent with the predictions of Bagnold. Here we demonstrate that this Bagnold scaling does not hold for the analogous steady-flows in cohesive granular media. We develop a generalization of the Bagnold constitutive relation to account for our o…
We investigate the sliding of objects on an inclined granular surface close to the avalanche threshold. Our experiments show that the stability is driven by the surface deformations. Heavy objects generate footprint-like deformations which stabilize the objects on the slopes. Light objects do not disturb the sandy surfaces and are also stable. For intermediate weights, the deformations of the surface destabilize the objects and generate sliding. A characteristic pressure for which the solid friction is minimal is evidenced. Applications to the locomotion of devices and animals on sandy slopes …
Impact dynamics is measured for spherical and cylindrical projectiles of many different densities dropped onto a variety non-cohesive granular media. The results are analyzed in terms of the material-dependent scaling of the inertial and frictional drag contributions to the total stopping force. The inertial drag force scales similar to that in fluids, except that it depends on the internal friction coefficient. The frictional drag force scales as the square-root of the density of granular medium and projectile, and hence cannot be explained by the combination of granular hydrostatic pressure …
The {\em hydrodynamic} approach to a continuum mechanical description of granular behavior is reviewed and elucidated. By considering energy and momentum conservation simultaneously, the general formalism of {\em hydrodynamics} provides a systematic method to {derive} the structure of constitutive relations, including all gradient terms needed for nonuniform systems. An important input to arrive at different relations (say, for Newtonian fluid, solid and granular medium) is the energy, especially the number and types of its variables. Starting from a careful examination of the physics underlyi…
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 applied at various shear stress levels, for a granular layer in the stick-slip regime and in the steady-sliding regime. Results are reported in terms of friction drops and kinetic energy release associated with frictional weakening events. We find that larger vibration amplitude induces larger frictional weakening events. The results show evidence of a thresho…
We experimentally study the frictional behavior of a two-dimensional slider pulled slowly over a granular substrate comprised of photoelastic disks. The slider is vibrated at frequencies ranging from 0 to 30 Hz in a direction parallel to sliding. The applied vibrations have constant peak acceleration, which results in constant average friction levels. Surprisingly, we find that stick-slip behavior, where stress slowly builds up and is released in intermittent slips, is enhanced as the frequency of vibration is increased. Our results suggest that increasing the frequency of vibration may help t…
Simulation results are presented on the collapse of granular columns composed of rod-like particles. Columns can be stable and free-standing if either the friction coefficient is large enough, or the rods long enough. Destabilizing gravitational forces are counteracted by increased frictional forces between the rods. Different to columns made of spherical particles this is possible, because rod contacts can slide along the rod axes to generate the necessary "frictional cohesion".
This contribution reports on numerical simulations of 2D granular flows on erodible beds. The broad aim is to investigate whether simple flows of model granular matter exhibits spontaneous oscillatory motion in generic flow conditions, and in this case, whether the frictional properties of the contacts between grains may affect the existence or the characteristics of this oscillatory motion. The analysis of different series of simulations show that the flow develops an oscillatory motion with a well-defined frequency which increases like the inverse of the velocity's square root. We show that …
The interplay between Coulomb friction and random excitations is studied experimentally by means of a rotating probe in contact with a stationary granular gas. The granular material is independently fluidized by a vertical shaker, acting as a 'heat bath' for the Brownian-like motion of the probe. Two ball bearings supporting the probe exert nonlinear Coulomb friction upon it. The experimental velocity distribution of the probe, autocorrelation function, and power spectra are compared with the predictions of a linear Boltzmann equation with friction, which is known to simplify in two opposite l…
Critical behaviors of sheared dense and frictionless granular materials in the vicinity of the jamming transition are numerically investigated. From the extensive molecular dynamics simulation, we verify the validity of the scaling theory near the jamming transition proposed by Otsuki and Hayakawa (Prog. Theor. Phys., 121, 647 (2009)). We also clarify the critical behaviors of the shear viscosity and the pair correlation function based on both a phenomenology and the simulation.
The accurate and efficient modeling of granular flows and their interactions with external bodies is an open research problem. Continuum methods can be used to capture complexities neglected by terramechanics models without the computational expense of discrete element methods. Constitutive models and numerical solvers are the two primary aspects of the continuum methods. The viscoplastic size-dependent non-local granular fluidity (NGF) constitutive model has successfully provided a quantitative description of experimental flows in many different configurations in literature. This research dev…
The linear stability analysis of an uniform shear flow of granular materials is revisited using several cases of a Navier-Stokes'-level constitutive model in which we incorporate the global equation of states for pressure and thermal conductivity (which are accurate up-to the maximum packing density $ν_{m}$) and the shear viscosity is allowed to diverge at a density $ν_μ$ ($< ν_{m}$), with all other transport coefficients diverging at $ν_{m}$. It is shown that the emergence of shear-banding instabilities (for perturbations having no variation along the streamwise direction), that lead to shear…
Using cyclic shear to drive a two dimensional granular system, we determine the structural characteristics for different inter-particle friction coefficients. These characteristics are the result of a competition between mechanical stability and entropy, with the latter's effect increasing with friction. We show that a parameter-free maximum-entropy argument alone predicts an exponential cell order distribution, with excellent agreement with the experimental observation. We show that friction only tunes the mean cell order and, consequently, the exponential decay rate and the packing fraction.…
