Shear weakening

K. Lu, E.E. Brodsky, and H.P. Kavehpour. Shear-weakening of the transitional regime for granular flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 587 347-372, 9 2007. 

At the beginning of sliding, the system is accelerated because the driven force must excess the resistance from lubricating film. For this reason, the system actually jumps from A to the point B, instead of B, to gain a shear stress lower than the critical value This phenomenon, so called velocity-weakening has been regarded widely in the literatures as the cause for instability and stick-slip motion in lubricated systems. 

Fig. 2 shows a qualitative comparison of the stress states using a similar format to that adopted by Cundall (1990). Components of the stress inside the fault/shear band in the homogeneous sand are reduced (Fig. 2). Our model showed that this effective weakening of the material (resulting solely from reduction of confining pressure, i.e., without any need for change of intrinsic material property) continues at larger displacements. Weakening of the material in a normal fault thus appears to be a natural characteristic...

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