Contributions of strong and weak subnetworks to the shear strength of dense granular inertial flow

Discrete element method simulations are employed to quantitatively analyze the contributions of strong and weak subnetworks to the shear strength of dense granular inertial flow. All the individual anisotropy parameters of subnetworks contribute positively, except the weak subnetwork's normal contact force. The contribution weight of strong subnetwork is significantly greater than that of weak subnetwork, but decreases slightly with shear velocity increasing, which is caused by the attenuation of the transverse support provided by weak sub-network. The whole network's equilibrium is dynamically achieved by balancing the difference and compen-sation in the stability of subnetworks.