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Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Stress Distribution During Cold Compression of Rocks and Mineral Aggregates Using Synchrotron-based X-Ray Diffraction
Published on: May 20, 2018
Universal features of annealing and aging in compaction of granular piles
Paula A Gago1, Stefan Boettcher2
1Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BP, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
This paper links the nonequilibrium glassy relaxation behavior of otherwise athermal granular materials to those of thermally activated glasses. Thus, it demonstrates a much wider universality among complex glassy materials out of equilibrium. Our three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations, fully incorporating friction and inelastic collisions, are designed to reproduce experimental behavior of tapped granular piles. A simple theory based on a dynamics of records explains why the typical phenomenology of annealing and aging after a quench should extend to such granular matter, activated by taps, beyond the more familiar realm of polymers, colloids, and magnetic materials that all exhibit thermal fluctuations.
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