Continuum Modeling of Granular Media

Abstract

This is a survey of the interesting phenomenology and the prominent regimes of granular flow, followed by a unified mathematical synthesis of continuum modeling. The unification is achieved by means of “parametric” viscoelasticity and hypoplasticity based on elastic and inelastic potentials. Fully nonlinear, anisotropic viscoelastoplastic models are achieved by expressing potentials as functions of the joint isotropic invariants of kinematic and structural tensors. These take on the role of evolutionary parameters or “internal variables,” whose evolution equations are derived from the internal balance of generalized forces. The resulting continuum models encompass most of the mechanical constitutive equations currently employed for granular media. Moreover, these models are readily modified to include Cosserat and other multipolar effects. Several outstanding questions are identified as to the contribution of parameter evolution to dissipation; the distinction between quasielastic and inelastic models of material instability; and the role of multipolar effects in material instability, dense rapid flow, and particle migration phenomena.