2002/12/08 by Joshua E. S. Socolar, Socolar, Joshua E. S.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Mineral Processing and Grinding #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Tunneling and Rock Mechanics #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0212162
17 pages, 6 figures, dcds-B.cls; Minor corrections to version 2, but including an important factor of 2; Submitted to Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems B for special issue honoring David Schaeffer
openalex publication_date 2002/12/08 · arxiv created 2003/01/23 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A fundamental property of any material is its response to a localized stress applied at a boundary. For granular materials consisting of hard, cohesionless particles, not even the general form of the stress response is known. Directed force chain networks (DFCNs) provide a theoretical framework for addressing this issue, and analysis of simplified DFCN models reveal both rich mathematical structure and surprising properties. We review some basic elements of DFCN models and present a class of homogeneous solutions for cases in which force chains are restricted to lie on a discrete set of directions.