Geometry-mediated shear softening in dense ordered granular packings

Shearing a packing of solid granular grains can be difficult, especially when the solid fraction is high and the boundary confinement is strong. It was recently shown that embedding voids in grains can make a packing easier to shear when such voids make the grains auxetic. Here, we use finite element simulation to show that auxeticity is not a necessary condition even in a seemingly very constrained setting: shearing dense and ordered granular packings under a constant solid fraction. More specifically, by changing the geometry-but not the occupied area-of a void embedded in a grain, we are able to induce an apparent elastic anisotropy and softening of the grain under shear, which collectively leads to a significant reduction-up to 90%-of the apparent shear modulus of a packing of these grains. Complementary analysis shows that this reduction correlates well with a decrease in contact-force anisotropy, and is insensitive to system size and contact friction variation. Our results highlight how grain-scale geometry, mediated by multi-body contact mechanics, modulates macroscopic system-scale elasticity, providing a minimal design mechanism towards targeted collective mechanical properties of soft granular metamaterials.