We use numerical simulations to study the flow of athermal, frictionless, soft-core two dimensional spherocylinders driven by a uniform steady-state simple shear applied at a fixed volume and a fixed finite strain rate $\dotγ$. Energy dissipation is via a viscous drag with respect to a uniformly sheared host fluid, giving a simple model for flow in a non-Brownian suspension with Newtonian rheology. We study the resulting spatial structure of the sheared system, and compute correlation functions of the velocity, the particle density, the nematic order parameter, and the particle angular velocity. Correlations of density, nematic order, and angular velocity are shown to be short ranged both below and above jamming. We compare a system of size-bidisperse particles with a system of size-monodisperse particles, and argue how differences in spatial order as the packing increases leads to differences in the global nematic order parameter. We consider the effect of shearing on initially well ordered configurations, and show that in many cases the shearing acts to destroy the order, leading to the same steady-state ensemble as found when starting from random initial configurations.
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the steady shear flow of dense assemblies of anisotropic spherocylindrical particles of varying aspect ratios. Comparing frictionless and frictional particles we discuss the specific role of frictional inter-particle forces for the rheological properties of the system. In the frictional system we evidence a shear-thickening regime, similar to that for spherical particles. Furthermore, friction suppresses alignment of the spherocylinders along the flow direction. Finally, the jamming density in frictional systems is rather insensitive to variations…
We present simulation results on the properties of packings of frictionless spherocylindrical particles. Starting from a random distribution of particles in space, a packing is produced by minimizing the potential energy of inter-particle contacts until a force-equilibrated state is reached. For different particle aspect ratios $α=10\ldots 40$, we calculate contacts $z$, pressure as well as bulk and shear modulus. Most important is the fraction $f_0$ of spherocylinders with contacts at both ends as it governs the jamming threshold $z_c(f_0)=8+2f_0$. These results highlight the important role o…
We simulate numerically the compression driven jamming of athermal, frictionless, soft-core spherocylinders in two dimensions, for a range of particle aspect ratios $α$. We find the critical packing fraction $ϕ_J(α)$ for the jamming transition, and the average number of contacts per particle $z_J(α)$ at jamming. We find that both are nonmonotonic, with a peak at $α\approx 1$. We find that configurations at the compression driven jamming point are always hypostatic for all $α$, with $z_J<z_\mathrm{iso}=2d_f=6$ the isostatic value. We show that, for moderately elongated spherocylinders, there is…
We study numerically a system of athermal, overdamped, frictionless spheres, as in a non-Brownian suspension, in two and three dimensions. Compressing the system isotropically at a fixed rate $\dotε$, we investigate the critical behavior at the jamming transition. The finite compression rate introduces a control timescale, which allows one to probe the critical timescale associated with jamming. As was found previously for steady-state shear-driven jamming, we find for compression-driven jamming that pressure obeys a critical scaling relation as a function of packing fraction $ϕ$ and compressi…
We use numerical simulations to study the shear-driven steady-state flow of athermal, frictionless, overdamped, two dimensional cross-shaped particles of varying aspect ratios, and make comparison with the behavior of rod-shaped and staple-shaped particles. We find that the extent of non-convexity of the particle shape plays an important role in determining both the value of the jamming packing fraction as well as the rotational motion and orientational ordering of the particles.
We use numerical simulations to study the flow of a bidisperse mixture of athermal, frictionless, soft-core two dimensional spherocylinders driven in uniform steady state shear. Energy dissipation is via a viscous drag with respect to a uniformly sheared host fluid, giving a model for a non-Brownian suspension with a Newtonian rheology. We study pressure $p$ and deviatoric shear stress $σ$ as a function of packing fraction $ϕ$, strain rate $\dotγ$, and a parameter $α$ that measures the asphericity of the particles. We consider the anisotropy of the stress tensor, the macroscopic friction $μ=σ/…
We carry out numerical simulations to study the behavior of an athermal mixture of frictionless circular disks and elongated rods in two dimensions, under three different types of global linear deformation at a finite strain rate: (i) simple shearing, (ii) pure shearing, and (iii) isotropic compression. We find that the fluctuations induced by such deformations lead to depletion forces that cause rods to group in parallel oriented clusters for the cases of simple and pure shear, but not for isotropic compression. For simple shearing, we find that as the fraction of rods increases, this cluster…
Numerical simulations of soft-core frictionless disks in two dimensions are carried out to study behavior of a simple liquid as a function of thermal temperature $T$, packing fraction $ϕ$, and uniform applied shear strain rate $\dotγ$. Inferring the hard-core limit from our soft-core results, we find that it depends on the two parameters $ϕ$ and $T/\dotγ$. $T/\dotγ\to 0$ defines the athermal limit in which a shear driven jamming transition occurs at a well defined $ϕ_J$. $T/\dotγ\to\infty$ defines the thermalized limit where an equilibrium glass transition may take place at a $ϕ_G$. This concl…
We study the response to shear deformations of packings of long spherocylindrical particles that interact via frictional forces with friction coefficient $μ$. The packings are produced and deformed with the help of molecular dynamics simulations combined with minimization techniques performed on a GPU. We calculate the linear shear modulus $g_\infty$, which is orders of magnitude larger than the modulus $g_0$ in the corresponding frictionless system. The motion of the particles responsible for these large frictional forces is governed by and increases with the length $\ell$ of the spherocylind…
We carry our numerical simulations of athermally sheared, bidisperse, frictionless disks in two dimensions. From an appropriately defined velocity correlation function, we determine that there are two diverging length scales, $ξ$ and $\ell$, as the jamming transition is approached. We analyze our results using a critical scaling ansatz for the correlation function, and argue that the more divergent length $\ell$ is a consequence of a dangerous irrelevant scaling variable, and that it is $ξ$ which is the correlation length that determines the divergence of the system viscosity as jamming is app…
We use numerical simulations to study the flow of a bidisperse mixture of athermal, frictionless, soft-core two dimensional spherocylinders driven by a uniform steady-state simple shear applied at a fixed volume and a fixed finite strain rate $\dotγ$. Energy dissipation is via a viscous drag with respect to a uniformly sheared host fluid, giving a simple model for flow in a non-Brownian suspension with Newtonian rheology. Considering a range of packing fractions $ϕ$ and particle asphericities $α$ at small $\dotγ$, we study the angular rotation $\dotθ_i$ and the nematic orientational ordering $…
We numerically simulate the uniform athermal shearing of bidisperse, frictionless, two dimensional spherocylinders and three dimensional prolate ellipsoids. We focus on the orientational ordering of particles as an asphericity parameter $α\to 0$ and particles approach spherical. We find that the nematic order parameter $S_2$ is non-monotonic in the packing fraction $ϕ$, and that as $α\to 0$ $S_{2}$ stays finite at jamming and above. The approach to spherical particles thus appears to be singular. We also find that sheared particles continue to rotate above jamming, and that particle contacts p…
A new method is introduced to simulate jamming of polyhedral grains under controlled stress that incorporates global degrees of freedom through the metric tensor of a periodic cell containing grains. Jamming under hydrostatic/isotropic stress and athermal conditions leads to a precise definition of the ideal jamming point at zero shear stress. The structures of tetrahedra jammed hydrostatically exhibit less translational order and lower jamming-point density than previously described `maximally random jammed' hard tetrahedra. Under the same conditions, cubes jam with negligible nematic order. …
We report on numerical simulations of simple models of athermal, bidisperse, soft-core, massive disks in two dimensions, as a function of packing fraction $ϕ$, inelasticity of collisions as measured by a parameter $Q$, and applied uniform shear strain rate $\dotγ$. Our particles have contact interactions consisting of normally directed elastic repulsion and viscous dissipation, as well as tangentially directed viscous dissipation, but no inter-particle Coulombic friction. Mapping the phase diagram in the $(ϕ,Q)$ plane for small $\dotγ$, we find a sharp first-order rheological phase transition …
We study jammed near-crystalline materials composed of frictionless spheres in three dimensions. We analyze the fluctuations in positions and forces produced by small polydispersity in particle sizes. We generalize a recently developed perturbation expansion about the crystalline ordered state to three dimensional systems. This allows us to exactly predict changes in positions and forces as a response to the changes in particle radii. We show that fluctuations in forces orthogonal to the lattice directions are highly constrained as compared to the fluctuations along lattice directions. Additio…
A mechanically-based structural optimization method is utilized to explore the phenomena of jamming for assemblies of frictionless Platonic solids. Systems of these regular convex polyhedra exhibit mechanically stable phases with density substantially less than optimal for a given shape, revealing that thermal motion is necessary to access high density phases. We confirm that the large system jamming threshold of $0.623 \pm 0.003$ for tetrahedra is consistent with experiments on tetrahedral dice. Also, the extremely short-ranged translational correlations of packed tetrahedra observed in exper…
We study relaxation and rheology of dense athermal suspensions of frictionless particles close below the jamming density. Our key quantity, the relaxation time---determined from the exponential decay of the energy after the shearing has suddenly been switched off---is argued to be a determining factor behind the algebraic divergence of various quantities as the jamming density is approached from below. We also define and measure the ``dissipation time'', which is obtained directly in shearing simulations and find that it behaves similarly to the relaxation time. Comparing shear viscosity with …
We consider the rheology of soft-core frictionless disks in two dimensions in the neighborhood of the athermal jamming transition. From numerical simulations of bidisperse, overdamped, particles, we argue that the divergence of the viscosity below jamming is characteristic of the hard-core limit, independent of the particular soft-core interaction. We develop a mapping from soft-core to hard-core particles that recovers all the critical behavior found in earlier scaling analyses. Using this mapping we derive a duality relation that gives the exponent of the non-linear Herschel-Bulkley rheology…
We numerically study a three dimensional system of athermal, overdamped, frictionless spheres, using a simplified model for a non-Brownian suspension. We compute the bulk viscosity under both uniaxial and isotropic compression as a means to address the question of whether stress-anisotropic and stress-isotropic jamming are in the same critical universality class. Carrying out a critical scaling analysis of the system pressure $p$, shear stress $σ$, and macroscopic friction $μ=σ/p$, as functions of particle packing fraction $ϕ$ and compression rate $\dotε$, we find good agreement for all critic…
We investigate criticality near the jamming transition in both quiescent systems and those under shear by considering the effect of mechanical training on the jamming transition and nonlinear rheology. We simulate frictionless soft particles undergoing athermal quasi-static shear using initial configurations trained with athermal quasi-static cyclic volume deformations. The jamming transition density of the initial configuration $φ_{\rm J0}$ is systematically altered by tuning the ``depth'' of mechanical training. We exert a steady shear on these configurations and observe either shear jamming…
We study the shear jamming of athermal frictionless soft spheres, and find that in the thermodynamic limit, a shear-jammed state exists with different elastic properties from the isotropically-jammed state. For example, shear-jammed states can have a non-zero residual shear stress in the thermodynamic limit that arises from long-range stress-stress correlations. As a result, the ratio of the shear and bulk moduli, which in isotropically-jammed systems vanishes as the jamming transition is approached from above, instead approaches a constant. Despite these striking differences, we argue that in…
We perform numerical simulations of athermal repulsive frictionless disks and spheres in two and three spatial dimensions undergoing cyclic quasi-static simple shear to investigate particle-scale reversible motion. We identify three classes of steady-state dynamics as a function of packing fraction ϕand maximum strain amplitude per cycle γ_{\rm max}. Point-reversible states, where particles do not collide and exactly retrace their intra-cycle trajectories, occur at low ϕand γ_{\rm max}. Particles in loop-reversible states undergo numerous collisions and execute complex trajectories, but return…
We numerically study the local stress distribution within athermal, isotropically stressed, mechanically stable, packings of bidisperse frictionless disks above the jamming transition in two dimensions. Considering the Fourier transform of the local stress, we find evidence for algebraically increasing fluctuations in both isotropic and anisotropic components of the stress tensor at small wavenumbers, contrary to recent theoretical predictions. Such increasing fluctuations imply a lack of self-averaging of the stress on large length scales. The crossover to these increasing fluctuations define…
We find that unjammed packings of frictionless particles with rather weak attraction can always be driven into solid-like states by shear. The structure of shear-driven solids evolves continuously with packing fraction from gel-like to jamming-like, but is almost independent of the shear stress. In contrast, both the density of vibrational states (DOVS) and force network evolve progressively with the shear stress. There exists a packing fraction independent shear stress $σ_c$, at which the shear-driven solids are isostatic and have a flattened DOVS. Solid-like states induced by a shear stress …
We carry out constant volume simulations of steady-state, shear driven flow in a simple model of athermal, bidisperse, soft-core, frictionless disks in two dimensions, using a dissipation law that gives rise to Bagnoldian rheology. Focusing on the small strain rate limit, we map out the rheological behavior as a function of particle packing fraction $ϕ$ and a parameter $Q$ that measures the elasticity of binary particle collisions. We find a $Q^*(ϕ)$ that marks the clear crossover from a region characteristic of strongly inelastic collisions, $Q<Q^*$, to a region characteristic of weakly inela…
The non-equilibrium transition from a fluid-like state to a disordered solid-like state, known as the jamming transition, occurs in a wide variety of physical systems, such as colloidal suspensions and molecular fluids, when the temperature is lowered or the density increased. Shear stress, as temperature, favors the fluid-like state, and must be also considered to define the system 'jamming phase diagram' [1-4]. Frictionless athermal systems [1], for instance, can be described by the zero temperature plane of the jamming diagram in the temperature, density, stress space. Here we consider the …
Packings of frictionless athermal particles that interact only when they overlap experience a jamming transition as a function of packing density. Such packings provide the foundation for the theory of jamming. This theory rests on the observation that, despite the multitude of disordered configurations, the mechanical response to linear order depends only on the distance to the transition. We investigate the validity and utility of such measurements that invoke the harmonic approximation and show that, despite particles coming in and out of contact, there is a well-defined linear regime in th…
At densities higher than the jamming transition for athermal, frictionless repulsive spheres we find two distinct length scales, both of which diverge as a power law as the transition is approached. The first, $ξ_{Z}$, is associated with the two-point correlation function for the number of contacts on two particles as a function of the particle separation. The second, $ξ_{f}$, is associated with contact-number fluctuations in subsystems of different sizes. On scales below $ξ_{f}$ the fluctuations are highly suppressed, similar to the phenomenon of hyperuniformity usually associated with densit…
We study the rheology of dense granular flows for frictionless spherocylinders by means of 3D numerical simulations. As in the case of spherical particles, the effective friction $μ$ is an increasing function of the inertial number $I$, and we systematically investigate the dependence of $μ$ on the particle aspect ratio $Q$, as well as that of the normal stress differences, the volume fraction and the coordination number. We show in particular that the quasi-static friction coefficient is non-monotonic with $Q$: from the spherical case $Q=1$, it first sharply increases, reaches a maximum aroun…
Discontinuous shear thickening (DST) observed in many dense athermal suspensions has proven difficult to understand and to reproduce by numerical simulation. By introducing a numerical scheme including both relevant hydrodynamic interactions and granularlike contacts, we show that contact friction is essential for having DST. Above a critical volume fraction, we observe the existence of two states: a low viscosity, contactless (hence, frictionless) state, and a high viscosity frictional shear jammed state. These two states are separated by a critical shear stress, associated with a critical sh…
Discontinuous shear-thickening in dense suspensions naturally emerges from the activation of frictional forces by shear flow in non-Brownian systems close to jamming. Yet, this physical picture is incomplete as most experiments study soft colloidal particles subject to thermal fluctuations. To characterise discontinuous shear-thickening in colloidal suspensions we use computer simulations to provide a complete description of the competition between athermal jamming, frictional forces, thermal motion, particle softness, and shear flow. We intentionally neglect hydrodynamics, electrostatics, lub…
