Photoelastic Analysis of Cohesive Granular Aggregates

Photoelasticimetry facilitates the non-invasive measurement of individual contact forces in granular materials. This gives us greater insight into the spatially hetergeneous structure of force transmission characteristic of amorphous granular solids. To our knowledge, photoelasticimetry has been used exclusively to measure contact force networks in aggregates of repulsive particles. We present photoelasticimetric force measurements of systems of particles which exhibit attractive interparticle forces, and contrast the structure of force networks in these systems with the networks in purely repulsive aggregates.