Experimental Test of the Edwards Volume Ensemble for Tapped Granular Packings

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Experimental Test of the Edwards Volume Ensemble for Tapped Granular Packings

Ye Yuan, Yi Xing, Jie Zheng, Zhifeng Li, Houfei Yuan, Shuyang Zhang, Zhikun Zeng, Chengjie Xia, Hua Tong, Walter Kob, Jie Zhang, and Yujie Wang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 018002 – Published 28 June 2021

See Viewpoint: Statistical Mechanics Built on Sand

Abstract

Using x-ray tomography, we experimentally investigate granular packings subject to mechanical tapping for three types of beads with different friction coefficients. We validate the Edwards volume ensemble in these three-dimensional granular systems and establish a granular version of thermodynamic zeroth law. Within the Edwards framework, we also explicitly clarify how friction influences granular statistical mechanics by modifying the density of states, which allows us to determine the entropy as a function of packing fraction and friction. Additionally, we obtain a granular jamming phase diagram based on geometric coordination number and packing fraction.

Received 12 March 2021
Accepted 14 May 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.018002

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Granular packing Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics

Granular materials

X-ray techniques

Polymers & Soft MatterStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Viewpoint

Statistical Mechanics Built on Sand

Published 28 June 2021

The results of new experiments validate the idea that there exists a statistical mechanics framework for granular materials.

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Authors & Affiliations

Ye Yuan ¹, Yi Xing¹, Jie Zheng¹, Zhifeng Li¹, Houfei Yuan¹, Shuyang Zhang¹, Zhikun Zeng ¹, Chengjie Xia², Hua Tong^1,3, Walter Kob ^1,4, Jie Zhang^1,5, and Yujie Wang ^1,6,*

¹School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
²School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
³Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
⁴Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, UMR 5521, University of Montpellier and CNRS, 34095 Montpellier, France
⁵Institute of Natural Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
⁶Materials Genome Initiative Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

^*Corresponding author. yujiewang@sjtu.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 1 — 2 July 2021

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