Eur. Phys. J. B 21, 507-510 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510170160

Rate of creation of the contacts between grains in a loose array of particles submitted to an uniaxial pressure

Laboratoire de Métallurgie Physique (UMR 6630 CNRS) , boulevard P. et M. Curie, bâtiment SP2MI, BP 30179, 86960 Futuroscope Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a sylvain.dubois@univ-poitiers.fr

Received: 6 December 2000
Revised: 30 March 2001
Published online: 15 June 2001

Abstract

Macroscopic resistivity measurements have been performed on TiC/Al₂O₃ random mixtures submitted to uniaxial compression (0-95 kN). Such a random mixture exhibits an insulator-conductor transition which appears at increasing force while decreasing the conductive composition of the TiC/Al₂O₃ mixture. It is demonstrated that the conductivity behavior may be understood in the framework of a site percolation model. Finally, the rate of creation of the contacts between conductive grains is extracted from the macroscopic resistivity measurements.