ABSTRACT
The statistics of grain displacements probability distribution function (pdf) during the shear of a granular medium displays an unusual dependence with the shear increment upscaling as recently evinced (see "experimental validation of a nonextensive scaling law in confined granular media"). Basically, the pdf of grain displacements has clear nonextensive (q-Gaussian) features at small scales, but approaches to Gaussian characteristics at large shear window scales-the granulence effect. Here, we extend this analysis studying a larger system (more grains considered in the experimental setup), which exhibits a severe shear band fault during the macroscopic straining. We calculate the pdf of grain displacements and the dependency of the q-statistics with the shear increment. This analysis has shown a singular behavior of q at large scales, displaying a non-monotonic dependence with the shear increment. By means of an independent image analysis, we demonstrate that this singular non-monotonicity could be associated with the emergence of a shear band within the confined system. We show that the exact point where the q-value inverts its tendency coincides with the emergence of a giant percolation cluster along the system, caused by the shear band. We believe that this original approach using Statistical Mechanics tools to identify shear bands can be a very useful piece to solve the complex puzzle of the rheology of dense granular systems.
ABSTRACT
In this Letter, we address the relationship between the statistical fluctuations of grain displacements for a full quasistatic plane shear experiment, and the corresponding anomalous diffusion exponent α. We experimentally validate a particular case of the Tsallis-Bukman scaling law, α=2/(3-q), where q is obtained by fitting the probability density function (PDF) of the displacement fluctuations with a q-Gaussian distribution, and the diffusion exponent is measured independently during the experiment. Applying an original technique, we are able to evince a transition from an anomalous diffusion regime to a Brownian behavior as a function of the length of the strain window used to calculate the displacements of the grains. The outstanding conformity of fitting curves to a massive amount of experimental data shows a clear broadening of the fluctuation PDFs as the length of the strain window decreases, and an increment in the value of the diffusion exponent-anomalous diffusion. Regardless of the size of the strain window considered in the measurements, we show that the Tsallis-Bukman scaling law remains valid, which is the first experimental verification of this relationship for a classical system at different diffusion regimes. We also note that the spatial correlations show marked similarities to the turbulence in fluids, a promising indication that this type of analysis can be used to explore the origins of the macroscopic friction in confined granular materials.
