Dynamical mechanism for non-locality in dense granular flows

The dynamical mechanism at the origin of the non-local rheology of dense granular flows is investigated trough discrete element simulations. We show that the influence of a shear band on the mechanical behavior of a distant zone is contained in the spatial variations observed in the network of granular contacts. Using a micro-rheology technique, we establish that the exponential responses hence obtained, do not proof the validity of a mechanical activation process as previously suggested, but stem from the spatial relaxation of the shear rate as a direct consequence of a macroscopic non-local constitutive relation. Finally, by direct visualization of the local relaxation processes, we dismiss the kinetic elasto-plastic picture, where a flow is conceived as a quasi-static sequence of localized plastic events interacting through the stress field. We therefore conclude in favor of the jamming scenario, where geometrical constrains lead to coherent non-affine displacements along floppy modes, inherently non-local.