Characterizing the rheology of fluidized granular matter.

In this study we characterize the rheology of fluidized granular matter subject to secondary forcing. Our approach consists of first fluidizing granular matter in a drum half filled with grains via simple rotation and then superimposing oscillatory shear perpendicular to the downhill flow direction. The response of the system is mostly linear, with a phase lag between the grain motion and the oscillatory forcing. The rheology of the system can be well characterized by the GDR MiDi model if the system is forced with slow oscillations. The model breaks down when the forcing time scale becomes comparable to the characteristic time for energy dissipation in the flow.