Handbook of Granular Materials

Granular systems arise in a variety of geological and industrial settings, from landslides, avalanches, and erosion to agricultural grains and pharmaceutical powders. Understanding the underlying physics that governs their behavior is the key to developing effective handling and transport mechanisms as well as appropriate environmental policies.

Handbook of Granular Materials presents foundational techniques used to investigate granular systems, examples of their use in contemporary research, and extensions to granular-like systems that greatly expand the realm of study. The book provides guidance on how to conduct research in granular materials and explores promising directions for new research.

The first several chapters cover various methods used by contemporary researchers to investigate granular materials. Subsequent chapters delve into broader themes of investigation, focusing on results rather than methodology. The final chapters describe three extended systems of granular media: suspensions, emulsions and foams, and colloids.

Introduction. Experimental Techniques. Computational Methods. Kinetic Theories for Collisional Grain Flows. Statistical Mechanics of Dry Granular Materials: Statics and Slow Dynamics. Packings: Static. Forces in Static Packings. Sheared Dense Granular Flows. Avalanches in Slowly Sheared Disordered Materials. Segregation in Dense Sheared Systems. Suspension Mechanics and Its Relation to Granular Flow. Wet Foams, Slippery Grains. Introduction to Colloidal Suspensions. Index.

Scott V. Franklin is a professor in the Department of Physics at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he runs a lab that focuses on experimental and computational investigations of granular and other complex materials. His recent research interests include rod-like and other materials that, due solely to particle shape, can maintain a solid-like rigidity. He earned a PhD from The University of Texas at Austin.

Mark D. Shattuck is a professor in the Benjamin Levich Institute and Department of Physics at The City College of New York, where he performs experimental and computational research in soft condensed matter and granular materials. He is an editor of the journal Granular Matter and a founding organizer of the annual regional meeting "Northeastern Granular Materials Workshop." He also served on the Publication Oversight Committee of the American Physical Society. He earned a PhD from Duke University.