ABSTRACT
In the traditional picture of shearing for a dense granular material, grains are assumed to be relatively hard. If shear is applied to a sample subject by a normal load, the system responds elastically (if the individual grains are not infinitely stiff) up to the yield point. At the yield point, the system dilates enough to allow shear displacement, resulting in grains slipping over each other. This picture is referred to as Reynolds dilatancy. The dilation often occurs in narrow spa tial regions known as shear bands. After the initial dilation, it is generally assumed that the system can attain a steady state under continued shearing without significant temporal varia tion [14].
