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Geological implication of grain-size segregation in dense granular matter
To the current common belief, grain size segregation in granular matter requires sufficient porosity. Therefore, grain size segregation found in a natural fault gouge could imply elevated fluid pressure and the reduced normal stress on fault, possibly caused by the frictional heat during an earthqua...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society Publishing
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6282402/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30478202 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0390 |
Sumario: | To the current common belief, grain size segregation in granular matter requires sufficient porosity. Therefore, grain size segregation found in a natural fault gouge could imply elevated fluid pressure and the reduced normal stress on fault, possibly caused by the frictional heat during an earthquake. To clarify whether fluidization is essential to grain size segregation, we conduct numerical simulation on a simple model of fault gouge in a plane shear geometry under constant volume condition: the volume fraction is fixed at 0.6, at which the granular system possesses yield stress. We observe apparent grain size segregation at this volume fraction, meaning that grain size segregation alone does not imply fluidization of granular matter. We also show that segregation is driven by the nonlinear velocity profile, and that the gravity is not essential to segregation. The physical condition tested here may be relevant to earthquake faults: the normal stress of 1 MPa, the sliding velocity of 1 m s(−1), and the duration of 0.1 s. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Statistical physics of fracture and earthquakes’. |
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