Numerical computations for shear bands in an antiplane shear model (Q1319075)

We study numerically a model for shear bands that is loosely based on antiplane shearing of granular material. In the model, a shear band is idealized to a jump discontinuity in the solution to the dynamic PDE. We do not explicitly incorporate small scale effects within this shear band into the model -- rather at the shear band we impose a jump condition which includes a length parameter modeling the grain diameter. At this level of approximation, we study in several cases the process by which shear bands first form and subsequently develop, including the growth of the unloading region containing the shear band(s). Our computations use a Godunov method, based on solving appropriate Riemann problems.