title: Onset of irreversibility in cyclic shear of granular packings.
abstract: We investigate the onset of irreversibility in a dense granular medium subjected to cyclic shear in a split-bottom geometry. To probe the micro- and mesoscale, we image bead trajectories in three dimensions throughout a series of shear strain oscillations. Although beads lose and regain contact with neighbors during a cycle, the global topology of the contact network exhibits reversible properties for low oscillation amplitudes. With increasing reversal amplitude, a transition to an irreversible diffusive regime occurs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, and IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. scsumd@umd.edu
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Slotterback
authors.forename: Mitch
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mailman
authors.forename: Krisztian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ronaszegi
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Hecke
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Girvan
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Losert
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011312:Pressure; D033081:Shear Strength; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids