RESEARCH ARTICLE

Compaction of granular columns under thermal cycling

¹ Department of Physics, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
² State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
³ School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

^* Corresponding authors (emails: zzk97115_kenny@sjtu.edu.cn (Zhikun Zeng); yujiewang@sjtu.edu.cn (Yujie Wang))

Received: 4 March 2025
Revised: 22 April 2025
Accepted: 12 May 2025

Abstract

Granular materials undergo compaction under periodic temperature fluctuations, leading to various engineering and geological phenomena from landslides to silo compaction. Although thermal effects on granular materials have been extensively studied in soil mechanics and geology, the underlying physical mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigates the compaction dynamics of granular materials subjected to thermal cycling using monodisperse glass beads and polydisperse sand packings. We demonstrate that differential thermal expansion between the container and the grains drives compaction through shear. We quantify compaction dynamics using three established fitting models: Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW), double-exponential, and logarithmic functions. Our results reveal that granular materials exhibit slow relaxation processes in response to weak perturbations, displaying aging dynamics similar to those observed in glassy systems. These findings provide insights into fundamental mechanisms of granular compaction with broad implications for geological and engineering applications.