Slow dynamics and strength recovery in unconsolidated granular earth materials: a mechanistic theory

Lieou, Charles Ka Cheong; Daub, Eric G.; Ecke, Robert E.; Johnson, Paul A.

doi:10.1002/2017JB014131

Title: Slow dynamics and strength recovery in unconsolidated granular earth materials: a mechanistic theory

Journal Article · Fri Sep 08 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014131· OSTI ID:1394978

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of Memphis, Memphis, TN (United States). Center for Earthquake Research and Information

Rock materials often display long-time relaxation, commonly termed aging or “slow dynamics”, after the cessation of acoustic perturbations. In this paper, we focus on unconsolidated rock materials and propose to explain such nonlinear relaxation through the Shear-Transformation-Zone (STZ) theory of granular media, adapted for small stresses and strains. The theory attributes the observed relaxation to the slow, irreversible change of positions of constituent grains, and posits that the aging process can be described in three stages: fast recovery before some characteristic time associated with the subset of local plastic events or grain rearrangements with a short time scale, log-linear recovery of the elastic modulus at intermediate times, and gradual turnover to equilibrium steady-state behavior at long times. Here we demonstrate good agreement with experiments on aging in granular materials such as simulated fault gouge after an external disturbance. These results may provide insights into observed modulus recovery after strong shaking in the near surface region of earthquake zones.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1394978

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-17-24249

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth, Vol. 122, Issue 10; ISSN 2169-9313

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 12 works

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Including Plastic Strain Into the Discrete Preisach‐Mayergoyz Space: Application to Granular Media Sajeva, A.; Capaccioli, S. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 124, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jb017833	journal	November 2019
Experimental Evidence of Correlations Between Conditioning and Relaxation in Hysteretic Elastic Media Scalerandi, M.; Mechri, C.; Bentahar, M. Physical Review Applied, Vol. 12, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.12.044002	journal	October 2019

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