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020007 (2010)
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The author of [1] writes an interesting and criti- system out of mechanical equilibrium, and induces
cal review on the effect of temperature in a granular motion. Using different words, one may say that
pile. First, it is shown the effect of temperature in ordered structures respond in an affine way to par-
several experiments. Then, it is shown how the ticle swelling, while disordered structures are char-
compaction experiments, originally done by shak- acterized by a non–affine response.
ing granular material, can equally be performed by This picture, which is also valid for frictionless
thermal cycling. particles, becomes more involved in the presence
To a first approximation, one may expect that at of friction. In fact, one should consider that the
the particle level the only effect of a temperature microscopic origin of friction is in the asperities of
variation is a small particle volume change. If this the surfaces; the shearing of the frictional contacts
is the case, in a thermal cycle the volume fraction induced by the thermal cycle, may cause them to
of the system changes, and a thermal cycle could be break. In a series of thermal cycles, contacts re-
seen as a compression cycle. This analogy suggests peatedly break, allowing the system to compact.
that the initial and final states of a cycle differ be- One may also speculate that, apart from the the
cause of the disorder of the system. To understand temperature variation which controls the relative
this point, it is convenient to first consider the ef- volume change of the particles, an important con-
fect of a particle expansion cycle in a crystalline trol parameter in thermal cycles is the absolute
structure of spherical balls. In this structure, all value of the temperature. In fact, the height of
inter–particle forces are equal in magnitude, and the asperities is expected to decrease as particles
the net force acting on each particle is zero. On become bigger.
inflating the particles, all forces increase exactly by The role of friction in granular materials has been
the same amount, and the net force acting on each extensively investigated in the literature (see, for
particle never changes. Accordingly, particles keep instance, the paper by Song et al. [5] and a recent
their position and no motion occurs. Conversely, review [4]), and we have recently proposed a jam-
in the presence of disorder, the inter–particle forces ming phase diagram in a three dimensional space,
are different and vary by different amounts on in- where the axes are volume fraction, shear stress
flating the particles. Particle swelling drives the and friction coefficient [2]. In this line of research,
∗ E-mail:
the results of Ref. [1] are of particular interest; in
coniglio@na.infn.it
fact, relating friction to temperature may allow to
1 experimentally tune the friction coefficient and to
Dip.to di Scienze Fisiche, Universitá di Napoli “Federico
II” and CNR–SPIN, Naples, Italy validate different proposed theoretical scenarios.
2 CNR–SPIN, Universitá di Napoli “Federico II”, Monte
We take the occasion to present a speculative pic-
S. Angelo Via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy. ture regarding the role of friction in sheared granu-
lar systems, making an analogy between frictional
020007-1
Papers in Physics, vol. 2, art. 020007 (2010) / A. Coniglio et al.
Figure 1 illustrates a typical pressure versus vol- indicate states with a finite/infinite lifetime, respectively.
020007-2
Papers in Physics, vol. 2, art. 020007 (2010) / A. Coniglio et al.
020007-3