No Arabic abstract
Biots theory predicts the wave velocities of a saturated poroelastic granular medium from the elastic properties, density and geometry of its dry solid matrix and the pore fluid, neglecting the interaction between constituent particles and local flow. However, when the frequencies become high and the wavelengths comparable with particle size, the details of the microstructure start to play an important role. Here, a novel hydro-micromechanical numerical model is proposed by coupling the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with the discrete element method (DEM. The model allows to investigate the details of the particle-fluid interaction during propagation of elastic waves While the DEM is tracking the translational and rotational motion of each solid particle, the LBM can resolve the pore-scale hydrodynamics. Solid and fluid phases are two-way coupled through momentum exchange. The coupling scheme is benchmarked with the terminal velocity of a single sphere settling in a fluid. To mimic a pressure wave entering a saturated granular medium, an oscillating pressure boundary condition on the fluid is implemented and benchmarked with one-dimensional wave equations. Using a face centered cubic structure, the effects of input waveforms and frequencies on the dispersion relations are investigated. Finally, the wave velocities at various effective confining pressures predicted by the numerical model are compared with with Biots analytical solution, and a very good agreement is found. In addition to the pressure and shear waves, slow compressional waves are observed in the simulations, as predicted by Biots theory.
The coupled mechanics of fluid-filled granular media controls the behavior of many natural systems such as saturated soils, fault gouge, and landslides. The grain motion and the fluid pressure influence each other: It is well established that when the fluid pressure rises, the shear resistance of fluid-filled granular systems decreases, and as a result catastrophic events such as soil liquefaction, earthquakes, and accelerating landslides may be triggered. Alternatively, when the pore pressure drops, the shear resistance of these systems increases. Despite the great importance of the coupled mechanics of grains-fluid systems, the basic physics that controls this coupling is far from understood. We developed a new multi-scaled model based on the discrete element method, coupled with a continuum model of fluid pressure, to explore this dynamical system. The model was shown recently to capture essential feedbacks between porosity changes arising from rearrangement of grains, and local pressure variations due to changing pore configurations. We report here new results from numerical experiments of a continuously shearing layer of circular two-dimensional grains, trapped between two parallel rough boundaries. The experiments use a fixed confining stress on the boundary walls, and a constant velocity applied to one of the boundaries, as if this system was the interior of a sliding geological fault filled with fault gouge. In addition, we control the layer permeability and the drainage boundary conditions. This paper presents modeling results showing that the localization of shear (into a narrow shear band within the shearing layer) is strongly affected by the presence of fluids. While in dry granular layers there is no preferred position for the onset of localization, drained systems tend to localize shear on their boundary. We propose a scaling argument to describe the pressure deviations in a shear band, and use that to predict the allowable positions of shear localizations as a function of the fault and gouge properties.
We study a simple model of periodic contraction and extension of large intruders in a granular bed to understand the mechanism for swimming in an otherwise solid media. Using an event-driven simulation, we find optimal conditions that idealized swimmers must use to critically fluidize a sand bed so that it is rigid enough to support a load when needed, but fluid enough to permit motion with minimal resistance. Swimmers - or other intruders - that agitate the bed too rapidly produce large voids that prevent traction from being achieved, while swimmers that move too slowly cannot travel before the bed re-solidifies around them i.e., the swimmers locally probe the fundamental time-scale in a granular packing.
Shear banding and stick-slip instabilities have been long observed in sheared granular materials. Yet, their microscopic underpinnings, interdependencies and variability under different loading conditions have not been fully explored. Here, we use a non-equilibrium thermodynamics model, the Shear Transformation Zone theory, to investigate the dynamics of strain localization and its connection to stability of sliding in sheared, dry, granular materials. We consider frictional and frictionless grains as well as presence and absence of acoustic vibrations. Our results suggest that at low and intermediate strain rates, persistent shear bands develop only in the absence of vibrations. Vibrations tend to fluidize the granular network and de-localize slip at these rates. Stick-slip is only observed for frictional grains and it is confined to the shear band. At high strain rates, stick-slip disappears and the different systems exhibit similar stress-slip response. Changing the vibration intensity, duration or time of application alters the system response and may cause long-lasting rheological changes. We analyse these observations in terms of possible transitions between rate strengthening and rate weakening response facilitated by a competition between shear induced dilation and vibration induced compaction. We discuss the implications of our results on dynamic triggering, quiescence and strength evolution in gouge filled fault zones.
The granular Leidenfrost effect (B. Meerson et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 91}, 024301 (2003), P. Eshuis et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 95}, 258001 (2005)) is the levitation of a mass of granular matter when a wall below the grains is vibrated giving rise to a hot granular gas below the cluster. We find by simulation that for a range of parameters the system is bistable: the levitated cluster can occasionally break and give rise to two clusters and a hot granular gas above and below. We use techniques from the theory of rare events to compute the mean transition time for breaking to occur. This requires the introduction of a two-component reaction coordinate.
We study experimentally the particle velocity fluctuations in an electrostatically driven dilute granular gas. The experimentally obtained velocity distribution functions have strong deviations from Maxwellian form in a wide range of parameters. We have found that the tails of the distribution functions are consistent with a stretched exponential law with typical exponents of the order 3/2. Molecular dynamic simulations shows qualitative agreement with experimental data. Our results suggest that this non-Gaussian behavior is typical for most inelastic gases with both short and long range interactions.