title: Shock waves in weakly compressed granular media.
abstract: We experimentally probe nonlinear wave propagation in weakly compressed granular media and observe a crossover from quasilinear sound waves at low impact to shock waves at high impact. We show that this crossover impact grows with the confining pressure P0, whereas the shock wave speed is independent of P0-two hallmarks of granular shocks predicted recently. The shocks exhibit surprising power law attenuation, which we model with a logarithmic law implying that shock dissipation is weak and qualitatively different from other granular dissipation mechanisms. We show that elastic and potential energy balance in the leading part of the shocks.
authors: Kamerling Onnes Lab, Universiteit Leiden, Postbus 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: Siet
authors: S
authors: van den Wildenberg
authors: Rogier
authors: R
authors: van Loo
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: van Hecke