Decompaction of wet granular materials under freeze-thaw cycling

The packing fraction dynamics of a wet granular material submitted to freeze-thaw cycling is investigated experimentally. The dynamics is strongly influenced by the liquid volume fraction ω in the considered range of 0.03<ω<0.32. This range of liquid contents covers different regimes of wetness from the creation of the capillary network until the formation of large clusters and finally close to the saturated case. For the liquid contents ω0.15, the pile experiences a decompaction until a particular value of the packing fraction 0.56 corresponding to a random loose packing configuration for monosized spheres. Moreover, the decompaction starts after a cycling number that decreases exponentially with the liquid content. Finally, we show that the packing dynamics can be well modeled on the basis of a Landau potential with an asymmetric double-well structure. The onset of decompaction represents the tendency of the system to stay in a metastable state. After several cycles, the forces induced by the thermal cycling and local stochastic rearrangements of the grains can drive the system to overcome the energy barrier of the cohesive forces. © 2019 American Physical Society.