Orientational Ordering in Athermally Sheared, Aspherical, Frictionless Particles

Abstract: We numerically simulate the uniform athermal shearing of bidisperse, frictionless, two dimensional spherocylinders and three dimensional prolate ellipsoids. We focus on the orientational ordering of particles as an asphericity parameter $\alpha\to 0$ and particles approach spherical. We find that the nematic order parameter $S_2$ is non-monotonic in the packing fraction $\phi$, and that as $\alpha\to 0$ $S_{2}$ stays finite at jamming and above. The approach to spherical particles thus appears to be singular. We also find that sheared particles continue to rotate above jamming, and that particle contacts preferentially lie along the narrowest width of the particles, even as $\alpha\to 0$.