Stress transmission through textured granular packings

We propose a theoretical approach aimed to describe the stress transmission through granular pilings. According to our framework, the stress transmission obeys a diffusive process in random isotropic packings, while it follows a local convection-diffusion equation in textured packings characterized by an anisotropic distribution of the contact orientations. In the latter case, the direction of the convection depends on the angular distribution function of the contact orientations. Our theoretical approach agrees with both experimental and numerical recent evidences, and moreover, succeeds in capturing the role of the pile preparing history.