16,704 research outputs found
The Statistical Physics of Athermal Materials
At the core of equilibrium statistical mechanics lies the notion of
statistical ensembles: a collection of microstates, each occurring with a given
a priori probability that depends only on a few macroscopic parameters such as
temperature, pressure, volume, and energy. In this review article, we discuss
recent advances in establishing statistical ensembles for athermal materials.
The broad class of granular and particulate materials is immune from the
effects of thermal fluctuations because the constituents are macroscopic. In
addition, interactions between grains are frictional and dissipative, which
invalidates the fundamental postulates of equilibrium statistical mechanics.
However, granular materials exhibit distributions of microscopic quantities
that are reproducible and often depend on only a few macroscopic parameters. We
explore the history of statistical ensemble ideas in the context of granular
materials, clarify the nature of such ensembles and their foundational
principles, highlight advances in testing key ideas, and discuss applications
of ensembles to analyze the collective behavior of granular materials
Continuum modelling and simulation of granular flows through their many phases
We propose and numerically implement a constitutive framework for granular
media that allows the material to traverse through its many common phases
during the flow process. When dense, the material is treated as a pressure
sensitive elasto-viscoplastic solid obeying a yield criterion and a plastic
flow rule given by the inertial rheology of granular materials. When
the free volume exceeds a critical level, the material is deemed to separate
and is treated as disconnected, stress-free media. A Material Point Method
(MPM) procedure is written for the simulation of this model and many
demonstrations are provided in different geometries. By using the MPM
framework, extremely large strains and nonlinear deformations, which are common
in granular flows, are representable. The method is verified numerically and
its physical predictions are validated against known results
Continuum theory of partially fluidized granular flows
A continuum theory of partially fluidized granular flows is developed. The
theory is based on a combination of the equations for the flow velocity and
shear stresses coupled with the order parameter equation which describes the
transition between flowing and static components of the granular system. We
apply this theory to several important granular problems: avalanche flow in
deep and shallow inclined layers, rotating drums and shear granular flows
between two plates. We carry out quantitative comparisons between the theory
and experiment.Comment: 28 pages, 23 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
- …