General properties of sheared granular materials in a periodic Couette

Abstract

We present a selection of results from a sheared granular stick-slip experiment. We demonstrate a transition from thin to thick layers, and illustrate how external vibration might generate friction suppression. We relate these properties to shear velocity profiles obtained by video imaging of the apparatus. Finally we outline a simple Langevin model with injected noise which quantitatively reproduces the main behaviour observed, and discuss the critical properties of the apparatus

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