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Updated: Sep 7, 2025

Stress Distribution During Cold Compression of Rocks and Mineral Aggregates Using Synchrotron-based X-Ray Diffraction
Published on: May 20, 2018
Microstructural Origin of Propagating Compaction Patterns in Porous Media
Lars Blatny1, Paul Berclaz1, François Guillard2
1School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Porous rocks, foams, cereals, and snow display a diverse set of common compaction patterns, including propagating or stationary bands. Although this commonality across distinct media has been widely noted, the patterns' origin remains debated-current models employ empirical laws for material-specific processes. Here, using a generic model of inelastic structured porous geometries, we show that the previously observed patterns can be attributed to a universal process of pore collapse. Furthermore, the pattern diversity can be mapped in a phase space of only two dimensionless numbers describing material strength and loading rate.
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