Shear band in sand with spatially varying density

Bifurcation theory is often used to investigate the inception of a shear band in a homogeneously deforming body. The theory predicts conjugate shear bands that have the same likelihood of triggering. For structures loaded symmetrically the choice of which of the two conjugate shear bands will persist is arbitrary. In this paper we show that spatial density variation could be a determining factor for the selection of the persistent shear band in a symmetrically loaded localizing sand body. We combine experimental imaging on rectangular sand specimens loaded in plane strain compression with mesoscale finite element modeling on symmetrically loaded sand specimens to show that spatial heterogeneity in density does have a profound impact on the persistent shear band.