Why Do Granular Materials Stiffen with Shear Rate? Test of Novel Stress-Based Statistics

Abstract

Recent experiments exhibit a rate dependence for granular shear such that the stress grows linearly in the logarithm of the shear rate, gamma. Assuming a generalized activated process mechanism, we show that these observations are consistent with a recent proposal for a stress-based statistical ensemble. By contrast, predictions for rate dependence using conventional energy-based statistical mechanics to describe activated processes, predicts a rate dependence of (ln(gamma))(1/2).

Locations

• Physical Review Letters - View
• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF
• PubMed - View
• DataCite API - View