Comparison of shear and compression jammed packings of frictional disks

• Published in: Granular matter 2019-11, Vol.21 (4), p.1-14, Article 109
• Main Authors: Xiong, Fansheng, Wang, Philip, Clark, Abram H., Bertrand, Thibault, Ouellette, Nicholas T., Shattuck, Mark D., O’Hern, Corey S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Computer simulation; Contact stresses; Discrete element method; Disks; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Engineering Thermodynamics; Experiments; Foundations; Geoengineering; Heat and Mass Transfer; Hydraulics; In Memoriam of Robert P. Behringer; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Jamming; late Editor in Chief of Granular Matter; Materials Science; Mechanical properties; Original Paper; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Predictions; Research methodology; Shear; Soft and Granular Matter; Variations
• ISSN: 1434-5021; 1434-7636
• DOI: 10.1007/s10035-019-0964-9

We compare the structural and mechanical properties of mechanically stable (MS) packings of frictional disks in two spatial dimensions (2D) generated with isotropic compression and simple shear protocols from discrete element modeling (DEM) simulations. We find that the average contact number and packing fraction at jamming onset are similar (with relative deviations < 0.5 % ) for MS packings generated via compression and shear. In contrast, the average stress anisotropy ⟨ Σ ^ xy ⟩ = 0 for MS packings generated via isotropic compression, whereas ⟨ Σ ^ xy ⟩ > 0 for MS packings generated via simple shear. To investigate the difference in the stress state of MS packings, we develop packing-generation protocols to first unjam the MS packings, remove the frictional contacts, and then rejam them. Using these protocols, we are able to obtain rejammed packings with nearly identical particle positions and stress anisotropy distributions compared to the original jammed packings. However, we find that when we directly compare the original jammed packings and rejammed ones, there are finite stress anisotropy deviations Δ Σ ^ xy . The deviations are smaller than the stress anisotropy fluctuations obtained by enumerating the force solutions within the null space of the contact networks generated via the DEM simulations. These results emphasize that even though the compression and shear jamming protocols generate packings with the same contact networks, there can be residual differences in the normal and tangential forces at each contact, and thus differences in the stress anisotropy.