The prediction of flow profiles of slowly sheared granular materials is a major geophysical and industrial challenge. Understanding the role of gravity is particularly important for future planetary exploration in varying gravitational environments. Using the principle of minimization of energy dissipation, and combining experiments and variational analysis, we disentangle the contributions of the gravitational acceleration, confining pressure, and layer thickness on shear strain localization induced by moving fault boundaries at the bottom of a granular layer. The flow profile is independent of the gravity for geometries with a free top surface. However, under a confining pressure or if the sheared layer withstands the weight of the upper layers, increasing gravity promotes the transition from closed shear zones buried in the bulk to open ones that intersect the top surface. We show that the center position and width of the shear zone and the axial angular velocity at the top surface follow universal scaling laws when properly scaled by the gravity, applied pressure, and layer thickness. Our finding that the flow profiles lie on a universal master curve opens the possibility to predict the quasistatic shear flow of granular materials in varying gravitational environments.

• Received 15 May 2021
• Revised 10 October 2021
• Accepted 9 December 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.278003