How does dry sand become rigid?

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:00:00 -0500

This activity developed new tools, and borrowed from disparate areas of science, to provide a descriptive framework for a phenomenon of significant fundamental and practical importance: the onset of rigidity of a granular system under sheer stress. The identification of shear jamming with structures in the space of forces opens the way for significant further progress, to explain precisely how the non-uniform structures emerge in specific systems. Furthermore, the IGERT grant and this project in particular has provided excellent training for Brandeis graduate students, combining deep theoretical and mathematical insights, interdisciplinary modes of thinking, and direct contact with experimental data.