Work

Structural aging of a cohesive and amorphous granular solid under cyclic loading

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We investigate how cyclic loading evolves the structure and deformation behavior of a granular raft composed of particles floating at an air-oil interface. The raft has a disordered particle packing structure and is cohesive due to capillary interactions between particles. Under uniaxial cyclic loading with a small strain amplitude, the raft's packing structure experiences an aging process characterized by logarithmically increasing packing fraction and decreasing structural heterogeneity. The observed structural change is due to particle dynamics that are organized around morphologically evolving voids in the raft. The raft is then subjected to quasi-static tension or compression tests until failure. In comparison with non-aged rafts, the rafts that experienced cyclic loading show a higher strength, higher stiffness, and lower ductility, along with qualitatively different features, such as a stress overshoot in the loading curve.

Source: Soft Matter

DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00108d

Authors: William Hobson-Rhoades, Douglas J. Durian, Yue Fan, Hongyi Xiao

Institutions: University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania

Language: English

Topic: Material Dynamics and Properties

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Science Foundation

Awards: Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Controlling Elastoplastic Deformation in Amorphous Solids: Leveraging Many-Body Particle Interactions for Energy Landscape and Dissipation Modulation