MR Imaging of Reynolds Dilatancy in the Bulk of Smooth Granular Flows

Dense granular matter has to expand in order to flow, a phenomenon known as dilatancy. Here we perform, by means of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, direct measurements of the evolution of the local packing density of a slow and smooth granular shear flow generated in a split-bottomed geometry. The dilatancy is found to be surprisingly strong. The dilated zone follow the region of large strain rate and slowly spreads as a function of time. This suggests that the local packing density is governed by the total amount of local strain experienced since the start of the experiment.