Microdisplacements induced by a local perturbation inside a granular packing

The microdisplacements generated by a small localized overload at the free surface are visualized experimentally inside a packing of steel beads. For a triangular packing, beads rearrangements remain confined in two inverted triangles on both sides of the applied overload. This pattern disappears for stronger disorder. A simple model allows us to account for these observations and to relate them to the stress function response measured via photoelastic visualizations. This provides a different tool to probe the mechanical Green's function in weakly confined packings of rigid grains the description of which is the most challenged.