The Nature of Stresses in a Giant Static Granular Column

We systematically investigate the mean pressure measurements at the bottom of a giant static granular column. If a constant overload is placed on top of the bed, the pressure observed displays linearity in overload and non-monotonic in column height. This result is in contradiction with the classical Janssen model. However it is in good agreement with the oriented stress linearity (OSL) model which reveals a local, linear relation between stress components. We conclude that the OSL model works well not only in a tiny static granular column but also in a giant static granular column.