Eur. Phys. J. E 6, 169-179 (2001)

Stress response function of a granular layer: Quantitative comparison between experiments and isotropic elasticity

D. Serero¹, G. Reydellet¹, P. Claudin¹, É. Clément¹ and D. Levine<sup>2

1</sup>  Laboratoire des Milieux Désordonnés et Hétérogènes (UMR 7603 du CNRS), 4 place Jussieu, case 86, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
²  Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Physics Department, 32000 Haifa, Israel

claudin@ccr.jussieu.fr

(Received 3 August 2001)

Abstract
We measured the vertical pressure response function of a layer of sand submitted to a localized normal force at its surface. We found that this response profile depends on the way the layer has been prepared: all profiles show a single centered peak whose width scales with the thickness of the layer, but a dense packing gives a wider peak than a loose one. We calculate the prediction of isotropic elastic theory in the presence of a bottom boundary and compare it to the data. We found that the theory gives the right scaling and the correct qualitative shape, but fails to really fit the data.

PACS
46.25.-y - Static elasticity.
45.70.Cc - Static sandpiles; granular compaction.
83.80.Fg - Granular solids.


© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2001