About this Research Topic

Background

Due to their wide range of application, granular media have received a lot of attention in many fields, such as soil mechanics, process engineering, mechanical engineering, material science and engineering and physics. Attempts to model these systems with classical continuum theory and standard numerical methods and design tools often fail, because of the material's discreteness and disorder at the microscopic scale. Therefore, it is necessary to employ a multi-scale approach which can link the discrete nature of granular systems to the continuum description. Both fundamental understanding and applications via design/operation of unit processes or plants thus require a multi-scale and multiphase approach which the discrete nature of the particles is of utmost relevance. The key aspects of multiscale methodologies are also wide ranging, classifiable into three parts: experiment (from element tests to applications for calibration and understanding), theory (theories for multiscale analysis, e.g. from discrete to continuum) and numerical implementation (numerical algorithms for multiscale models, the micro-macro transition or coarse graining, post-processing, analysis, visualization and optimization).

Understanding and predicting the response of granular-based systems in applications thus requires a detailed knowledge of the connection of basic building blocks and their interactions with the macroscale properties of the systems considered. Developing such connections requires better understanding of the relevant physical mechanisms on the scales that range from micro, to meso and macro. While significant progress has been reached during last decades on understanding relevant physical mechanisms, there is still much to be learned about these systems.

Despite many aspects of common interest in the field of granular materials, it has proven to be challenging to stimulate sustained interaction between different communities, e.g. geomechanics, physics, engineering, and applied mathematics. This Research Topic aims to bring together contributions of recent research on numerical, experimental, and theoretical approaches towards granular materials in view of exchanging recent advances.

We envision the Research Topic bringing together a multi-disciplinary group of researchers that will discuss a wide range of topics concerning the physics of dense  granular matter, including but not limited to new experiments considering dry and wet granular systems as well as suspensions,  discrete element method/molecular dynamics, simulations of granular materials, various methods developed recently to quantify the internal structure of granular systems, as well as new continuum and mesoscopic models bridging between static and flowing systems. We expect this issue will help to shape the research in this area in the future.

The subjects covered by this Research Topic include:
- Connecting theory, modeling and experiments
- Deformation and failure of granular assemblies
- Dilatancy and critical state of densely packed granular materials: statics and kinematics
- The dynamics of landslides, debris flows, and avalanches: theory and experiments
- Nonlocality and yield in granular materials
- Jamming and un-jamming transitions
- Patterns and clustering in dense granular materials
- From grains to composite materials, e.g., concrete or clay

Keywords: Granular Assemblies, Static, Creep, Numerical Modeling, Experiment Investigation, Theoretical Framework, Deformation and Failure, Force Network

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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