Bond-number-controlled durability of cohesive granular materials under repeated vibration

Abstract

Cohesive granular materials derive their mechanical stability not only from the strength of individual interparticle bonds but also from the number of bonds forming the load-bearing network. However, these two effects are difficult to separate experimentally because conventional control parameters, such as liquid content, generally alter both simultaneously. Here, we use a mixed granular system composed of cohesive and noncohesive grains to control the cohesive bond number while keeping the bond strength approximately unchanged. We investigate the failure lifetime under repeated vibration and find that the number of cycles to failure, $N_f$, depends strongly on the mixing ratio $\alpha$. In a mean-field picture of random mixing, the fraction of cohesive contacts scales as ${\alpha }^2$, and $N_f$ increases approximately exponentially with ${\alpha }^2$. By contrast, although the lifetime tends to decrease with increasing vibration intensity $G$, its dependence on $G$ is comparatively weak over the present experimental range. Remarkably, although the Young's modulus is nearly independent of $\alpha$ above the rigidity threshold, the lifetime continues to increase strongly with $\alpha$. This demonstrates that mechanical rigidity and durability against repeated perturbations exhibit distinct dependences on the cohesive network. These results identify bond number as a key control parameter for the durability of cohesive granular materials.

preprint, 4 figures. Revised Figs. 3 and 4 and the corresponding analysis. The revised manuscript emphasizes the strong nonlinear dependence of the failure lifetime on the cohesive-contact fraction, while the dependence on vibration intensity is found to be comparatively weak over the present experimental range