Turbulent-like fluctuations in quasistatic flow of granular media

Farhang Radjai (1) , S. Roux (2)

1 PMMG - Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Granulaires
2 SVI - Surface du Verre et Interfaces

We analyze particle velocity fluctuations in a simulated granular system subjected to homogeneous quasistatic shearing. We show that these fluctuations share the following scaling characteristics of fluid turbulence in spite of their different physical origins: 1) Scale-dependent probability distribution with non-Guassian broadening at small time scales; 2) Power-law spectrum, reflecting long-range correlations and the self-affine nature of the fluctuations; 3) Superdiffusion with respect to the mean background flow.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Farhang Radjai, S. Roux. Turbulent-like fluctuations in quasistatic flow of granular media. Physical Review Letters, 2002, 89, pp.064302. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.064302⟩. ⟨hal-00122057⟩