title: Granular dynamics during impact.
abstract: We study the impact of a projectile onto a bed of 3 mm grains immersed in an index-matched fluid. We vary the amount of prestrain on the sample, strengthening the force chains within the system. We find this affects only the prefactor of the linear depth-dependent term in the stopping force. We propose a simple model to account for the strain dependence of this term, owing to increased pressure in the pile. Interestingly, we find that the presence of the fluid does not affect the impact dynamics, suggesting that dynamic friction is not a factor. Using a laser sheet scanning technique to visualize internal grain motion, we measure the trajectory of each grain throughout an impact. Microscopically, our results indicate that weaker initial force chains result in more irreversible, plastic rearrangements, suggesting static friction between grains does play a substantial role in the energy dissipation.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors.forename: K N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Nordstrom
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harrington
authors.affiliation: Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Losert