Title: Experimental investigation of diffusion in a cyclic sheared granular system

Author (Poster): Andreea Panaitescu, Clark University

Abstract:

Andreea Panaitescu and Arshad Kudrolli Department of Physics, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610 We investigated the dynamical properties of a three dimensional granular packing submitted to cyclic shear deformations using a refractive index matching method. Previous studies have been reported in two dimensional systems or in small three dimensional systems where the boundary effects could not be decoupled. Measurements were made in a region away from the side walls in a system which exhibits bulk shear. Each particle position was identified and tracked over many shear cycles and the probability distributions of particle displacements and particle self-diffusion were determined. We observed that the granular packing evolves in time towards a more compact configuration and that the granular shear flow exhibits a "memory" like property, depending on the prior shear direction. A quantitative analysis of three dimensional particles dynamics induced by the applied shear will be presented.

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