Shear flow of frictional spheroids: Comparison between elongated and flattened particles

TL;DR

This study numerically explores how particle shape and friction influence the rheology of dense granular shear flows, revealing shape-dependent regimes, fluctuation behaviors, and anisotropic stress transmission.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of elongated and flattened particles, highlighting shape effects on dissipation, fluctuations, and fabric anisotropy in granular flows.

Findings

Oblate particles show extended sliding regimes.

Slightly aspherical particles exhibit non-monotonic behavior at low friction.

Flat particles develop stronger fabric anisotropy.

Abstract

The rheology of dense granular shear flows is influenced by friction and particle shape. We investigate numerically the impact of non-spherical particle geometries under shear on packing fraction, stress ratios, velocity fluctuations, force distribution, and dissipation mechanisms, for a wide range of inertial numbers, friction coefficients and aspect ratios. We obtain a regime diagram for the dissipation which shows that lentil-like (oblate) particles exhibit an extended sliding regime compared to rice-like (prolate) particles with the same degree of eccentricity. Additionally, we identify non-monotonic behaviour of slightly aspherical particles at low friction, linking it to their higher fluctuating rotational kinetic energy. We find that angular velocity fluctuations are generally reduced when particles align with the flow, except in highly frictional rolling regimes, where fluctuations collapse onto a power-law distribution and motion becomes less correlated. Moreover, for realistic friction coefficients power dissipation tends to concentrate along the major axis aligned with the flow, where slip events are more frequent. We also show that flat particles develop stronger fabric anisotropy than elongated ones, influencing macroscopic stress transmission. These findings provide new insights into the role of particle shape in granular mechanics, with implications for both industrial and geophysical applications.