Geologically Active – Williams et al.

(eds)
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60034-7

Source of low friction in fragmenting granular shear flow

Andrea Deganutti
Consiglio Nazionale delle Recherche, IRPI Institute, Padova, Italy

Tim Davies
Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Mauri McSaveney
GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

ABSTRACT: We report laboratory experiments and numerical simulations thereof which

show similar reductions in frictional resistance when fragmentation occurs in dry comminut-
ing granular shear flow, in the absence of any mechanism for reducing friction except that of
grain comminution. These results, together with the ubiquitous occurrence of comminution
in association with low-friction geological phenomena, suggest that fragmentation is both
a sufficient and a necessary condition for low friction in granular shear. In the numerical
simulations a low damping factor was required to generate realistic results. This indicates that
most of the fracture surface energy utilised in comminution is recycled to the system as free
energy, in agreement with experimental data.

1 InTroduction

Granular shear flow characterizes many geodynamic processes; we focus in particular on

those that involve rock failure. Under sufficiently high stresses and strain rates, grain commi-
nution is a ubiquitous feature of granular flow because brittle rock shear always involves the
presence of comminuting grains that form a “gouge” layer (Scholz, 2002) in the shear zones
of faults and blockslides, or a basally-concentrated fine-grained stratum in debris avalanches.
However, in spite of the ubiquity of comminution during fault rupture and rock slope failures,
recent studies continue to treat the granular flow involved as non-comminuting (e.g. Collins
and Melosh, 2003; Daub et al., 2008); and while a number of studies have described the
kinematic effects of grain comminution in laboratories, in the field and in numerical simula-
tions (e.g. Abe and Mair, 2005; Mair and Abe; 2008), only very recently have the dynamic
implications of the energy transformations involved in grain comminution been considered
(Deganutti, 2008; McSaveney and Davies, 2009; Davies and McSaveney, 2009).
It has long been recognised that many high-stress rock shear phenomena appear to involve
anomalously low rock-on-rock friction; whereas low-stress laboratory and field data invari-
ably return apparent friction coefficients in the range of 0.6–0.85 (Byerlee, 1978), the behav-
iour of large rock avalanches, large blockslides and large-scale faults commonly implies
apparent friction coefficients of 0.1 or less. Numerous explanations of this peculiarity have
been proposed, involving pore-water overpressures, rock melting, low-friction silica gel or
talc, and presence of saturated substrates (e.g. Sornette, 1999; Boulton et al., 2009).
Herein we show that dynamic rock fragmentation offers a simple and commonly-applicable
explanation for high-stress low-friction behaviour. We first describe an annular cone-and plate
rheometer that we have used to shear granular coal, and show that anomalously low frictional
resistance to shear occurs in the absence of all of the previously-proposed low-friction mecha-
nisms; the only mechanism present able to explain the behaviour recorded is that of dynamic
fragmentation. This result is supported by a two-dimensional discrete element simulation,

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which reproduces the experimental data well with low dynamic damping corresponding to
low energy loss in fragmentation. Again, the only mechanism present able to explain the low
frictional resistance is the energy recycled by the fragmentation of composite grains.

2 laboratory apparatus

We used a cylindrical cone and plate rheometer (Fig. 1). It comprises a 300 mm outside diam-
eter, 50 mm wide steel annulus with a cone-shaped sloping (9º) floor that rotates (together
with the inner and outer walls) relative to a stationary cover plate or lid, which is free to move
vertically. A vertical load is applied to the lid and recorded by a load cell. The lid comprises
three concentric rings, the middle of which measures the torque transmitted from the rotat-
ing base by the shearing granular sample in the annular volume. The rotational speed was

Figure 1. Rheometer cross-section.

Figure 2. Underside of sample space lid showing three concentric annuli (the centre of which is used
to measure torque) and roughness elements. Arrows show grease-filled clearances.

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constant at 11.36 rad s−1, giving a velocity differential of 0.5 ms−1 vertically across the sample.
All sensors are linked to a data acquisition system, which records data at a rate of 33 Hz. The
geometry of the sample space assures a reasonably uniform shear rate and hence shear stress
in the column of material directly beneath the measuring annulus.
In order to exclude the fine dust generated by fragmentation from the small clearance gaps
between the measuring annulus and the other rings of the lid (arrowed in Fig. 2), the gaps
were filled with grease. To prevent the rock particles sliding against the sample container floor
and the lid, these were provided with roughness elements in the form of 4 mm diameter rivets,
about the same size as the initial coal grains (Fig. 2). The tests were carried out by putting the
rock sample (generally mono-sized coal particles) into the bowl, closing the lid, activating the
data acquisition system, starting the driving motor and applying the load to the lid. After
the test a sieve size analysis was taken on the sample to quantify the degree of fragmentation.

3 experimental data

We have carried out extensive tests on granular coal at relatively low direct stress (0.1–0.3
MPa) and strain rates (1–10 s−1). We chose coal because it was weak enough to be fragmented
at the normal stresses achievable in our machine, and is well-known to exhibit brittle failure
behaviour (e.g. Bieniawski, 1968). No high-temperature effects were noted in any of our tests.
Fragmentation was pervasive except at very low stresses; but very low-stress tests (29 kPa
direct stress) allowed us to determine a non-fragmenting friction angle of about 41º for the
coal (Fig. 3). Figure. 4 shows typical high-stress data from the rheometer, with a steady-state
friction angle of about 38º, distinctly lower than the non-fragmenting value. We noted that
while fragmentation was consistently greatest in the upper few millimetres of the sample,
fragmented material was present at all levels (Fig. 6).

Test 40 Coal 4–8 mm 29 kPa

y = 0.004x + 41.344
Friction angle degrees

50

45

40

35

30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time (sec)

Figure 3. Dynamic friction of non-fragmenting coal ø = 41.3°.

Coal fragmenting 125 kPa

50
Friction angle

45
degrees

40
35
30
0 2 4 6
Time (sec)

Figure 4. Dynamic friction of fragmenting coal ø = 38°.

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Figure 5. Sieve analyses of fragmented coal.

Figure 6. Fragmented coal sample. Fragmentation is pervasive but concentrated near the sample
upper surface.

4 numerical modelling

We also carried out discrete element modelling using the Itasca code PFC-2D, using break-
able clusters to represent the comminuting coal grains (Deganutti, 2008). A number of DEM
simulations have been carried out with fragmenting grain flows, e.g. to explore the effect of
grain crushing on grain-size distribution (Abe and Mair, 2005), but the effect of fragmenta-
tion on the system dynamics has not previously been simulated. Two- dimensional simulation
was chosen because using three dimensions necessarily involves vastly more grains and much
longer computation times. In the physical experiments described above, the volume of the
sample beneath the centre measuring annulus approximated 2-D flow; however the 3-D grains
were able to move in the cross-flow direction, so the use of PFC-2D is a distinct approxima-
tion. We represented the rheometer grain-flow as an infinitely thin-walled (2-dimensional)
vertical cylinder below the centre of the annular torque ring of the lid. The breakable coal
grains were represented by breakable clusters of varied sizes made up of elemental discs
(Fig. 7); the strength parameters of the coal were matched by the bond strengths within the
clusters. Normally a single test was run for 106 iterations corresponding to a real time of
about 1.6 seconds. With a PC it took on average 20 to 24 hours for a test simulation. The
duration of the numerical tests was chosen as a compromise between the expected signifi-
cance of a run and computation time. The test parameters developed are listed in Table 1.

5 numerical results

Many tests were performed with different boundary conditions and parameters (confin-
ing pressure, cluster dimensions etc.); among these, the damping coefficient proved to be
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Figure 7. PFC-2D Grain clusters and contact bonds.

Table 1. Parameters kept constant for all tests.

Parameters Value

Disk-disk friction 0.5

Wall-disk friction (no wall slip) 10.0
Disk density (tm-3) 1.5
Disk normal & shear stiffness (kNm-1) 105
Wall normal & shear stiffness (kNm-1) 105
Cluster bond normal strength (kN) 5.0
Cluster bond shear strength (kN) 3.75

crucial for the capability of the model to simulate the fragmentation process. The damp-
ing coefficient is a selectable variable in PFC-2 D; it represents the proportion of the free
energy generated by grain breakage that is not returned to the dynamics of the system. For
quasi-static conditions it is usually set to 0.7 (Hazzard et al., 2000).
We used a range of values, and found that the coal test results were best simulated with a
value of 0.05 (Figs. 8 & 9); that is, 95% of the grains’ elastic strain energy returned to the sys-
tem as kinetic energy on breakage. We note that other investigators (e.g. Hazzard et al., 2000)
have used damping coefficients as low as 0.015 in obtaining realistic results for failure of
intact rocks; and that experimental data (Bergstrom, 1963; Zeleny and Piret, 1962) confirm
the return of fracture energy as free energy (see also Davies and McSaveney, 2010).
The fragmentation-induced reduction of resistance to shear in the simulation is simi-
lar to that measured in the rheometer (of the order of 5º), but both fragmenting and
non-fragmenting friction angles are much lower in the simulation, for three reasons: first,
this is an inevitable feature of a 2D simulation of a 3D grain flow, where the difference is of
the order of 5º (Hazzard and Mair, 2003); second, individual circular discs could easily roll
against one another, a mode of relative motion much less readily available to angular grains;
and third, the disc-disc friction coefficient of 0.5 was probably too low. Further simulations
with disc-disc friction coefficients of 0.75 and 1.0 gave fragmenting friction angles of 17º and
20º respectively, compared with 15º in Fig. 8.
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 Deganutti (2008) suggested that the 15° friction angle of the fragmenting flow simulations
may have been due to the creation of large numbers of individual circular discs as a result of
cluster break-up. However, since the friction angle of a flow comprising only individual discs with
no clusters was 17° with a disc-on-disc friction angle of 30° (Fig. 10), this explanation is clearly
insufficient to completely account for the fragmenting friction angle of 15° (Fig. 8). Further, the
variation of friction angle with damping factor demonstrated by Fig. 9 shows that released strain
energy has an effect on the fragmenting friction, which would not be the case if it were only due
to rolling friction. We infer that the reduction in friction angle demonstrated by the simulation is
between 2° and 8°, of the same order as the 3.5° shown by the laboratory tests.
Clearly an even better match between the lab data and the simulation could be achieved
by judicious variation of the damping factor (Fig. 9; this appears to increase friction angle
linearly up to a value of 0.7, and increasingly thereafter). For now we conclude that both
physical tests and simulations demonstrate reduced friction in the absence of water or any
other mechanism able to reduce friction; and hence that fragmentation alone is sufficient to
explain reduced friction in comminuting grain-flows.
Several features of the laboratory experiments were also present in the simulations
(Deganutti, 2008): (i) shearing and fragmentation took place preferentially in the upper part
of the grain layer; (ii) the time variation of friction at the start of a test followed a similar pat-
tern; (iii) the scatter in the time-series data was similar, being greater in the non-fragmenting
material; (iv) the reduction of friction angle was similar (in the order of 5º). Given the
simplicity of the simulation (2D vs 3D; small variety of cluster sizes and shapes; only one
generation of clustering above fundamental disc size) these correspondences suggest that the
essential features of the experiments may have been captured by the simulations.

Figure 8. PFC-2D simulations showing friction angle of unbreakable clumps (23°, upper trace) and
breakable clusters (15°, lower trace).

Friction angle vs damping factor

Friction angle degrees

40

30

20

10

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Damping factor

Figure 9. PFC-2D Steady-state friction with breakable clusters varying with damping factor.

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Figure 10. PFC-2D Friction angle with individual discs; ø = 17°.

6 discussion

We have shown that dynamic rock fragmentation alone is capable of causing reduced fric-
tion in comminuting grain flows, compared to equivalent non-comminuting flows. None of
the variety of previous explanations for low friction in rock shear (silica gel formation, talc,
flash heating of asperities, melting, pore fluid pressure effects, nanoparticle lubrication) were
present in either the laboratory or the numerical tests. Grain fragmentation therefore appears
to be a sufficient condition for generating low friction. Further, Davies and McSaveney (2010;
this volume) have demonstrated that it is capable of quantitative explanation of the degree of
friction reduction in geophysical flows.
There is also substantial evidence that grain fragmentation is a necessary condition for low
friction in granular rock flows. In every situation we have found reported that exhibits low
rock friction (µ < 0.2), grain comminution is involved. Other mechanisms, such as melting, or
talc formation, may occur; but comminution is also present at some stage.
Our numerical simulations show that the degree of friction reduction corresponds to the
degree to which the elastic strain energy stored in a clast immediately prior to fragmentation
is transformed to fragment kinetic energy. Our most realistic simulations used 95% redistri-
bution of the strain energy as kinetic energy. We note that in simulations of acoustic emis-
sions from intact granite, Hazzard et al. (2000) found optimal agreement with laboratory
data when 98.5% of strain energy was returned as kinetic energy. The damping factor used
in the DEM simulations evidently has a significant effect on apparent friction in comminut-
ing flows grain flows (Fig. 9). However, the choice of damping factor has no effect on the
dynamics of high-concentration grain-flows when grains are continuously in contact with
their neighbours and no grain breakage is occurring; so in our case it only affects the dynam-
ics of granular flow via grain fragmentation events, and has no effect on the normal grain-
flow processes in which the high proportion of non-fragmenting grains are involved.
While fragmentation appears to be necessary and sufficient for low rock friction, this does
not imply that other mechanisms do not contribute to friction reduction. However, some of
the proposed mechanisms are incompatible with fragmentation; melting for example requires
that rock first ceases to be brittle, so before melting can occur fragmentation must cease
as the rock becomes ductile. In fact, before a continuous layer of molten rock can replace
rock friction with melt of low viscosity, cessation of fragmentation must result in higher
friction (which is necessary in any case to generate the heat needed for melting to occur).
Interestingly, Sammis and Ben-Zion (2008) recently showed that the presence of very fine
particles (10 nm) in fault rock gouge precludes the possibility that temperatures can have
been high enough for melting to occur.
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7 conclusions

Dynamic rock fragmentation alone is a sufficient explanation for reduced resistance to

shear in a comminuting grain flow. Since reduced rock friction is universally associated
with comminution, fragmentation is also a necessary condition. This does not mean that
other low-friction mechanisms do not occur, though some appear to be incompatible with
fragmentation.

acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, under
contract CO 5612, Catastrophic Landslides in New Zealand, with the GNS Sciences Ltd. We
gratefully acknowledge the role of Rick Diehl in the design and construction of the rheom-
eter. Francesco Calvetti of Politecnico di Milano (Italy) provided assistance with use of the
PFC code.

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