Xiaoping Jia

Bio: Xiaoping Jia is an academic researcher from Centre national de la recherche scientifique. The author has contributed to research in topics: Acoustic wave & Granular material. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 66 publications receiving 1597 citations. Previous affiliations of Xiaoping Jia include ESPCI ParisTech & University of Paris.

Nonlinear dynamics, granular media and dynamic earthquake triggering

Abstract: The 1992 magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake triggered an exceptional number of additional earthquakes within California and as far north as Yellowstone and Montana. Since this observation, other large earthquakes have been shown to induce dynamic triggering at remote distances--for example, after the 1999 magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine and the 2002 magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquakes--and in the near-field as aftershocks. The physical origin of dynamic triggering, however, remains one of the least understood aspects of earthquake nucleation. The dynamic strain amplitudes from a large earthquake are exceedingly small once the waves have propagated more than several fault radii. For example, a strain wave amplitude of 10(-6) and wavelength 1 m corresponds to a displacement amplitude of about 10(-7) m. Here we show that the dynamic, elastic-nonlinear behaviour of fault gouge perturbed by a seismic wave may trigger earthquakes, even with such small strains. We base our hypothesis on recent laboratory dynamic experiments conducted in granular media, a fault gouge surrogate. From these we infer that, if the fault is weak, seismic waves cause the fault core modulus to decrease abruptly and weaken further. If the fault is already near failure, this process could therefore induce fault slip.

Nonlinear Dynamics, Granular Media and Dynamic Earthquake Triggering

Abstract: The 1992 magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake triggered an exceptional number of additional earthquakes within California and as far north as Yellowstone and Montana. Since this observation, other large earthquakes have been shown to induce dynamic triggering at remote distances--for example, after the 1999 magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine and the 2002 magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquakes--and in the near-field as aftershocks. The physical origin of dynamic triggering, however, remains one of the least understood aspects of earthquake nucleation. The dynamic strain amplitudes from a large earthquake are exceedingly small once the waves have propagated more than several fault radii. For example, a strain wave amplitude of 10(-6) and wavelength 1 m corresponds to a displacement amplitude of about 10(-7) m. Here we show that the dynamic, elastic-nonlinear behaviour of fault gouge perturbed by a seismic wave may trigger earthquakes, even with such small strains. We base our hypothesis on recent laboratory dynamic experiments conducted in granular media, a fault gouge surrogate. From these we infer that, if the fault is weak, seismic waves cause the fault core modulus to decrease abruptly and weaken further. If the fault is already near failure, this process could therefore induce fault slip.

Ultrasound Propagation in Externally Stressed Granular Media

Abstract: Experimental observations of pulsed ultrasonic transmission through granular glass beads under oedometric loading are presented. We observe in the transmitted signals the coexistence of a coherent ballistic pulse traveling through an ``effective contact medium'' and a specklelike multiply scattered signal. The relative amplitudes of these signals strongly depend on the ratios of the bead size to the wavelength and to the detector size. Experimental data support recent descriptions of the inhomogeneous stress field within granular media.

Codalike multiple scattering of elastic waves in dense granular media

Abstract: We study the multiple scattering of short-wavelength ultrasound through the force networks in dry and wet glass bead packings under stress. Over long distance scales, the diffusion approximation is shown to describe adequately the transport of elastic waves dominated by shear waves. The recovered transport mean path reveals a short-range correlation of the force chains. Also we observe the drastic effect of wetting liquids on the energy dissipation in the granular medium. The relevance of these experimental findings for the seismological applications is discussed.

Mechanisms for acoustic absorption in dry and weakly wet granular media.

Abstract: The dissipation of an elastic wave in dry and wet glass bead packings is measured using multiple sound scattering. The interplay of a linear viscoelastic loss and a nonlinear frictional one is observed in dry media. The Mindlin model provides a qualitative description of the experiment, but fails to quantitatively account for the data due to grain roughness. In weakly wet media, we find that the dissipation is dominated by a linear viscous loss due to the liquid films trapped at the grain surface asperities. Adding more liquid enables us to form the capillary menisci but does not increase the energy loss.

Ultralight nanofibre-assembled cellular aerogels with superelasticity and multifunctionality

Abstract: Three-dimensional nanofibrous aerogels (NFAs) that are both highly compressible and resilient would have broad technological implications for areas ranging from electrical devices and bioengineering to damping materials; however, creating such NFAs has proven extremely challenging. Here we report a novel strategy to create fibrous, isotropically bonded elastic reconstructed (FIBER) NFAs with a hierarchical cellular structure and superelasticity by combining electrospun nanofibres and the fibrous freeze-shaping technique. Our approach causes the intrinsically lamellar deposited electrospun nanofibres to assemble into elastic bulk aerogels with tunable densities and desirable shapes on a large scale. The resulting FIBER NFAs exhibit densities of >0.12 mg cm(-3), rapid recovery from deformation, efficient energy absorption and multifunctionality in terms of the combination of thermal insulation, sound absorption, emulsion separation and elasticity-responsive electric conduction. The successful synthesis of such fascinating materials may provide new insights into the design and development of multifunctional NFAs for various applications.

Universal physical responses to stretch in the living cell

Abstract: With every beat of the heart, inflation of the lung or peristalsis of the gut, cell types of diverse function are subjected to substantial stretch. Stretch is a potent stimulus for growth, differentiation, migration, remodelling and gene expression. Here, we report that in response to transient stretch the cytoskeleton fluidizes in such a way as to define a universal response class. This finding implicates mechanisms mediated not only by specific signalling intermediates, as is usually assumed, but also by non-specific actions of a slowly evolving network of physical forces. These results support the idea that the cell interior is at once a crowded chemical space and a fragile soft material in which the effects of biochemistry, molecular crowding and physical forces are complex and inseparable, yet conspire nonetheless to yield remarkably simple phenomenological laws. These laws seem to be both universal and primitive, and thus comprise a striking intersection between the worlds of cell biology and soft matter physics.

Colloquium : Modeling friction: from nanoscale to mesoscale

Abstract: The physics of sliding friction is gaining impulse from nanoscale and mesoscale experiments, simulations, and theoretical modeling This Colloquium reviews some recent developments in modeling and in atomistic simulation of friction, covering open-ended directions, unconventional nanofrictional systems, and unsolved problems

The relationship between attractive interparticle forces and bulk behaviour in dry and uncharged fine powders

Abstract: Memento, homo, qui pulvis est et pulverem reverteris. Genesis 3 Polvos seran, mas polvo enamorado. Francisco de Quevedo The physics of granular materials in ambient gases is governed by interparticle forces, gas–particle interaction, geometry of particle positions and geometry of particle contacts. At low consolidations these are strongly dependent on the external forces, boundary conditions and on the assembling procedure. For dry fine powders of micron and sub-micron particle size interparticle attractive forces are typically much higher than particle weight, and particles tend to aggregate. Because of this, cohesive powders fracture before breaking, flow and avalanche in coherent blocks much larger than the particle size. Similarly the drag force for micron sized particles is large compared to their weight for velocities as low as 1 mm/s. Due to this extreme sensitivity to interstitial gas flow, powders transit directly from plastic dense flows to fluidization without passing through collisional re...

Granular Media: Between Fluid and Solid

Abstract: Foreword 1. Introduction 2. Interactions at the grain level 3. The granular solid: statics and elasticity 4. The granular solid: plasticity 5. Granular gases 6. The granular liquid 7. Immersed granular media 8. Erosion and sediment transport 9. Geomorphology References Index.