Experimental Stick-Slip Behaviour in Triaxial Test on Granular Matter

This paper is concerned with the quasi-static rheology of packings of glass spheres of diameter d (d=0.2mm, 0.7mm or 3mm). Stick-slip behaviour is observed on small spheres, i.e d=0.2mm & 0.7mm ; one observes also in this case a weakening of the rheology as the rate of deformation increases, and the larger the rate the larger the weakening; this generates macroscopic instabilities and stick-slip. Statistics of stick-slip events have been determined, which show that the larger the sample the more regular (i.e. "periodic") the sick-slip, the faster the strain rate the less periodic the events. One concludes that this stick-slip is generated at the macroscopic level and comes from the macroscopic rhelogical law. However when sample is small, local fluctuations perturb the macroscopic events and trigger them erratically. Pacs # : 5.40 ; 45.70 ; 62.20 ; 83.70.Fn