paper

Shock Waves in Weakly Compressed Granular Media

arXiv:1304.6392 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.218003

Abstract

We experimentally probe nonlinear wave propagation in weakly compressed granular media, and observe a crossover from quasi-linear sound waves at low impact, to shock waves at high impact. We show that this crossover grows with the confining pressure , whereas the shock wave speed is independent of --- two hallmarks of granular shocks predicted recently. The shocks exhibit powerlaw attenuation, which we model with a logarithmic law implying that local dissipation is weak. We show that elastic and potential energy balance in the leading part of the shocks.

7 pages, 8 figures

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