Anisotropic nonlinear elasticity in a spherical bead pack: influence of the fabric anisotropy

TL;DR

This study investigates how stress and fabric anisotropy affect wave velocities and elastic properties in granular bead packs, revealing limitations of existing models and the importance of contact interactions and preparation protocols.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence on anisotropic nonlinear elasticity in granular materials and highlights the role of contact friction and fabric anisotropy, challenging current effective medium theories.

Findings

Compressional waves are more sensitive to stress-induced anisotropy.

Shear waves are more sensitive to fabric anisotropy.

Removing friction reduces discrepancies with theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Stress-strain measurements and ultrasound propagation experiments in glass bead packs have been simultaneously conducted to characterize the stress-induced anisotropy under uniaxial loading. These measurements, realized respectively with finite and incremental deformations of the granular assembly, are analyzed within the framework of the effective medium theory based on the Hertz-Mindlin contact theory. Our work shows that both compressional and shear wave velocities and consequently the incremental elastic moduli agree fairly well with the effective medium model by Johnson et al. [J. Appl. Mech. 65, 380 (1998)], but the anisotropic stress ratio resulting from finite deformation does not at all. As indicated by numerical simulations, the discrepancy may arise from the fact that the model doesn't properly allow the grains to relax from the affine motion approximation. Here we find that the interaction nature at the grain contact could also play a crucial role for the relevant prediction by the model; indeed, such discrepancy can be significantly reduced if the frictional resistance between grains is removed. Another main experimental finding is the influence of the inherent anisotropy of granular packs, realized by different protocols of the sample preparation. Our results reveal that compressional waves are more sensitive to the stress-induced anisotropy, whereas the shear waves are more sensitive to the fabric anisotropy, not being accounted in analytical effective medium models.