Energetic stability and structural admissibility in granular systems: Dry Configurational Micromechanics and Barrier-Controlled Rearrangements

This preprint develops the dry configurational micromechanical foundation of a broader energetic framework for granular systems. The work focuses intentionally and exclusively on dry granular assemblies in order to isolate the purely structural mechanisms governing metastability, configurational admissibility, barrier-controlled rearrangements, localization, collective relaxation, and marginal stability. Granular systems are interpreted as evolving through dissipative transitions between mechanically admissible metastable configurations within non-convex energetic landscapes. Instability is described as the progressive loss of structural admissibility associated with increasing configurational accessibility and collective rearrangement dynamics. No pore-fluid interaction, hydraulic coupling, or liquefaction processes are introduced at this stage. The objective is instead to establish the underlying energetic and configurational micromechanical basis upon which later hydro-mechanical and dynamically activated formulations may be developed. The manuscript represents the dry micromechanical component of the broader “Energetic Stability and Structural Admissibility in Granular Systems” framework.