Mechanical behaviour of granular materials used in analogue modelling: insights from grain characterisation, ring-shear tests and analogue experiments

Abstract

The mechanical behaviour of several dry granular materials is investigated through ring-shear tests, grain characterisation, and simple analogue experiments analysed by X-ray computed tomography. An improved knowledge of granular materials is essential to determine their suitability as analogues for upper crustal rocks in experimental models and to compare analogue and numerical experiments. The ring-shear tests show that the granular materials have an elastic/frictional plastic behaviour with strain-hardening preceding failure at peak strength, followed by strain softening until a dynamic-stable value is reached. This is similar to the behaviour exhibited by experimentally deformed rocks. The physical characteristics of the grains determine the amount of diffuse deformation before failure, the percentage of strain softening and act on the thickness of the shear zones before broadening. Initial shear zone width in extensional and contractional experiments is between 11 and 16 times the mean grain size. The angle of internal friction defining one of the mechanical properties of granular materials and thus fault dip is not only related to physical characteristics of the grains and to the handling technique used (e.g. sieving or pouring), but also to the overburden and to the experimental setup used.