Micro-Macro Quantification of the Internal Structure of Granular Materials
This article has been corrected.
VIEW CORRECTIONPublication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 135, Issue 7
Abstract
We have attempted a multiscale quantification of the internal structure of granular materials. The internal structure of granular materials, i.e., the geometrical information on granular particles and their spatial arrangement, was described mathematically on the particle scale using Voronoi–Delaunay tessellations. These tessellations were further modified into two cell systems: a solid cell system and a void cell system, with the internal supporting structure properly reflected. By doing so, the two cell systems were geometrically and physically significant. Taking solid/void cells as the microscopic basic elements, the behavior of granular materials was expressed as the volumetric average of the microcell behavior. Macroscopically, the internal structure could be characterized by the statistical measures from the geometry of the microcells. Our approach was used to investigate the anisotropic behavior of granular materials. A study on the void cells explains how the spatial arrangement affects the strength and dilatancy of granular materials. A new anisotropic fabric tensor was defined based on the void cell anisotropy. The correlation between the anisotropic fabric tensor and the macro behavior of granular materials was verified with numerical simulations. The results showed that the new material anisotropic tensor is a more effective definition than the existing ones based on particle orientations and contact normals.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this work from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR through Grant Nos. UNSPECIFIEDHKUST6002/02E and UNSPECIFIED6140/04E is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 135 • Issue 7 • July 2009
Pages: 641 - 656
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 28, 2007
Accepted: Dec 29, 2008
Published online: Jun 15, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2009
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Anil Misra
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