On the energy dissipation and velocity discontinuities in granular materials and solution of a boundary value problem in geophysics (Q1089202)

Consider the plane-strain rigid-perfectly plastic deformation of a granular material which satisfies the stress equilibrium equations and the Coulomb yield criterion. An expression is derived which enables the rate of energy dissipation to be calculated for any pair of stress and velocity fields. This is specialised to the Spencer-Mehrabadi-Cowin model and a kinematic inequality is obtained. Jump conditions are derived for velocity discontinuities on the boundary and in the interior of the plastic region. A simple analytic solution of the equations of the Mehrabadi-Cowin model is presented for the deformation of a granular material filled joint of fracture separating two rock masses undergoing a shearing motion.