Mesoscale Investigation of Fine Grain Contribution to Contact Stress in Granular Materials
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 148, Issue 3
Abstract
Fine grains play an important role in mechanical properties of granular materials as they control how plastic strain may develop, which has a noticeable impact on mechanical stability. In this work, we use numerical simulations based on a discrete element method (DEM) to analyze the stress contribution of fine grains to the total stress. Different from usual DEM simulations, the analysis is conducted directly at the mesoscopic scale by considering an idealized grain assembly. The results show how fine grains get progressively jammed and increasingly participate in stress transmission. Fine contribution to contact stress is shown to be nonisotropic. The principal anisotropy direction coincides with the principal direction of contraction and the anisotropy ratio (i.e., the ratio between the largest and the smallest eigenvalues of the fine stress) is shown to be limited (). By performing strain controlled directional analyses, an analytical model is proposed to account for the stress contribution of fine grains along various loading paths. Its simple form will help to enrich advanced micromechanically-based constitutive formulations and better account for the constitutive behavior of widely graded granular materials.
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Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study were generated using the DEM code LIGGGHTS. Data are available upon request.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (No. 201906270111). This enabled Qirui Ma to spend one year as a visiting Ph.D. Candidate at INRAE under the supervision of Dr. A. Wautier. Revision work was done while Qirui Ma was financially supported by the Key research and development plan of Hubei Province, China (No. 2020BCA083).
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Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 148 • Issue 3 • March 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 10, 2021
Accepted: Oct 28, 2021
Published online: Jan 6, 2022
Published in print: Mar 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jun 6, 2022
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Cited by
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