2011/02/28 by Mark Herrera, Shane McCarthy, Steven Slotterback +3 · 37 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Artificial intelligence #Breakage #Component (thermodynamics) #Computer science #Contact dynamics #Dynamics (music) #Flow (mathematics) #Fracture (geology) #Geology #Geotechnical engineering #Giant component #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Granular material #Landslides and related hazards #Mechanics #Network model #Particle (ecology) #Path (computing) #Physics #Random graph #Shear (geology) #Simulation #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #Statistical physics #Theoretical computer science #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.83.061303
published in Physical Review E 83(6), 061303 (American Physical Society) · 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E
arxiv created 2011/06/27 · openalex publication_date 2011/06/27 · arxiv updated 2012/08/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Capturing the dynamics of granular flows at intermediate length scales can often be difficult. We propose studying the dynamics of contact networks as a new tool to study fracture at intermediate scales. Using experimental three-dimensional flow fields with particle-scale resolution, we calculate the time evolving broken-links network and find that a giant component of this network is formed as shear is applied to this system. We implement a model of link breakages where the probability of a link breaking is proportional to the average rate of longitudinal strain (elongation) in the direction of the edge and find that the model demonstrates qualitative agreement with the data when studying the onset of the giant component. We note, however, that the broken-links network formed in the model is less clustered than our experimental observations, indicating that the model reflects less localized breakage events and does not fully capture the dynamics of the granular flow.