New granular materials flow but can still be compressed
When we take a stroll on the beach, we walk on the sand without any trouble. The sand appears solid and is difficult to compress. When we put the same sand grains in an hourglass, they behave very differently: the sand flows like a liquid. Granular materials like sand have many interesting properties. In lab-made granular materials, scientists have so far been able to fine tune their ‘liquid’ flow properties, but the ‘solid’ compressibility properties have remained rather robust. Researchers have now managed to design new granular materials that can also easily be compressed, a result which could have great potential in applications like shock dampening.