Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Han, Xu, Jing, Lu, Kwok, Chung-Yee, Yang, Gengchao, Sobral, Yuri Dumaresq
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14518
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915518983700480
author Han, Xu
Jing, Lu
Kwok, Chung-Yee
Yang, Gengchao
Sobral, Yuri Dumaresq
author_facet Han, Xu
Jing, Lu
Kwok, Chung-Yee
Yang, Gengchao
Sobral, Yuri Dumaresq
contents Granular material has significant implications for industrial and geophysical processes. A long-lasting challenge, however, is seeking a unified rheology for its solid- and liquid-like behaviors under quasi-static, inertial, and even unsteady shear conditions. Here, we present a data-driven framework to discover the hidden governing equation of sheared granular materials. The framework, PINNSR-DA, addresses noisy discrete particle data via physics-informed neural networks with sparse regression (PINNSR) and ensures dimensional consistency via machine learning-based dimensional analysis (DA). Applying PINNSR-DA to our discrete element method simulations of oscillatory shear flow, a general differential equation is found to govern the effective friction across steady and transient states. The equation consists of three interpretable terms, accounting respectively for linear response, nonlinear response and energy dissipation of the granular system, and the coefficients depends primarily on a dimensionless relaxation time, which is shorter for stiffer particles and thicker flow layers. This work pioneers a pathway for discovering physically interpretable governing laws in granular systems and can be readily extended to more complex scenarios involving jamming, segregation, and fluid-particle interactions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_14518
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle White-box machine learning for uncovering physically interpretable dimensionless governing equations for granular materials
Han, Xu
Jing, Lu
Kwok, Chung-Yee
Yang, Gengchao
Sobral, Yuri Dumaresq
Soft Condensed Matter
Granular material has significant implications for industrial and geophysical processes. A long-lasting challenge, however, is seeking a unified rheology for its solid- and liquid-like behaviors under quasi-static, inertial, and even unsteady shear conditions. Here, we present a data-driven framework to discover the hidden governing equation of sheared granular materials. The framework, PINNSR-DA, addresses noisy discrete particle data via physics-informed neural networks with sparse regression (PINNSR) and ensures dimensional consistency via machine learning-based dimensional analysis (DA). Applying PINNSR-DA to our discrete element method simulations of oscillatory shear flow, a general differential equation is found to govern the effective friction across steady and transient states. The equation consists of three interpretable terms, accounting respectively for linear response, nonlinear response and energy dissipation of the granular system, and the coefficients depends primarily on a dimensionless relaxation time, which is shorter for stiffer particles and thicker flow layers. This work pioneers a pathway for discovering physically interpretable governing laws in granular systems and can be readily extended to more complex scenarios involving jamming, segregation, and fluid-particle interactions.
title White-box machine learning for uncovering physically interpretable dimensionless governing equations for granular materials
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14518