2008/03/06 by Brian P. Tighe, Adrianne R. T. van Eerd, A.R.T. van Eerd +1
Engineering · Environmental Science · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Landslides and related hazards #Material Dynamics and Properties #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.238001
4 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2008/03/06 · openalex publication_date 2008/06/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
A long-standing issue in the area of granular media is the tail of the force distribution, in particular, whether this is exponential, Gaussian, or even some other form. Here we resolve the issue for the case of the force network ensemble in two dimensions. We demonstrate that conservation of the total area of a reciprocal tiling, a direct consequence of local force balance, is crucial for predicting the local stress distribution. Maximizing entropy while conserving the tiling area and total pressure leads to a distribution of local pressures with a generically Gaussian tail that is in excellent agreement with numerics, both with and without friction and for two different contact networks.