https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02258-y
Review
Granular statistical mechanics – a personal perspective
1 ESE, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Gonville and Caius College, Trinity St., Cambridge CB2 1TA, UK
College of Science, National Univ. of Defence Technology, Changsha 410073, China
2 Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
a e-mail: rbb11@cam.ac.uk
Received: 27 May 2014
Revised: 18 August 2014
Published online: 24 October 2014
The science of granular matter has expanded from an activity for specialised engineering applications to a fundamental field in its own right. This has been accompanied by an explosion of research and literature, which cannot be reviewed in one paper. A key to progress in this field is the formulation of a statistical mechanical formalism that could help develop equations of state and constitutive relations. This paper aims at reviewing some milestones in this direction. An essential basic step toward the development of any static and quasi-static theory of granular matter is a systematic and useful method to quantify the grain-scale structure and we start with a review of such a method. We then review and discuss the ongoing attempt to construct a statistical mechanical theory of granular systems. Along the way, we will clarify a number of misconceptions in the field, as well as highlight several outstanding problems.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2014
