The shear flow of two-dimensional foams is probed as a function of shear rate and disorder. Disordered, bidisperse foams exhibit strongly shear rate dependent velocity profiles. This behavior is captured quantitatively in a simple model based on the balance of the time-averaged drag forces in the system, which are found to exhibit power-law scaling with the foam velocity and strain rate. Disord...

– We study the strain response to steady imposed stress in a spatially homogeneous, scalar model for shear thickening, in which the local rate of yielding Γ(l) of mesoscopic ‘elastic elements’ is not monotonic in the local strain l. Despite this, the macroscopic, steady-state flow curve (stress vs. strain rate) is monotonic. However, for a broad class of Γ(l), the response to steady stress is n...

The uniaxial compressive responses of silicone rubber (B452 and Sil8800) and pig skin have been measured over a wide range of strain rates (0.004–4000 s ). The uniaxial tensile response of the silicone rubbers was also measured at low strain rates. The high strain rate compression tests were performed using a split-Hopkinson pressure bar made from AZM magnesium alloy. High gain semi-conductor s...

We investigate the nucleation of ordered phases, their symmetries, and distributions in dense frictional hard sphere packings as a function of particle volume fraction ϕ, by imposing cyclic shear and constant applied pressure conditions. We show, with internal imaging, that the nucleating crystallites in the bulk consist of 10-60 spheres with hexagonal close packed (hcp) order and nonspherical ...

During severe impact conditions, brain tissue experiences a rapid and complex deformation, which can be seen as a mixture of compression, tension and shear. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) occurs in animals and humans when both the strains and strain rates exceed 10% and 10/s, respectively. Knowing the mechanical properties of brain tissue in shear at these strains and strain rates is thus of parti...

We test the elasticity of granular aggregates using increments of shear and volume strain in a numerical simulation. We find that the increment in volume strain is almost reversible, but the increment in shear strain is not. The strength of this irreversibility increases as the average number of contacts per particle (the coordination number) decreases. For increments of volume strain, an elast...

In situ x-ray diffraction has been used to measure the shear strain (and thus strength) of single crystal copper shocked to 100 GPa pressures at strain rates over two orders of magnitude higher than those achieved previously. For shocks in the [001] direction there is a significant associated shear strain, while shocks in the [111] direction give negligible shear strain. We infer, using molecul...

The inelastic response of Tennessee marble is modelled by an elastic plastic constitutive relation that includes pressure dependence of yield, strain-softening and inelastic volume strain (dilatancy). Data from 12 axisymmetric compression tests at con"ning pressures from 0 to 100 MPa are used to determine the dependence of the yield function and plastic potential, which are di!erent, on the "rs...