Evolution and heredity of particle distribution in the free-fall method of modeling particle-reinforced concrete-like composites

Abstract

Further improvements and investigations of the free-fall method involving enrichment of the particle shape, reduction of computational consumption, establishment of the relationship between volume fraction and particle shell thickness, as well as particle distribution evolution and heredity are made in this paper. The convexity and concavity of particles are considered, and non-convex polyhedral particles with different aspect ratios are generated and positioned in the designate space. Simplification of intersection detection process saves plenty of computation time. To better control the acquired volume fraction, a relationship between the particle shell thickness and the final volume fraction is established and the corresponding fitting equation is derived to better control the acquired volume fraction. Particle arrangements are quantified by the nearest neighbor distribution. The phenomenon that the generation of particle interlock effects among non-convex particles after the free-fall simulation makes the model closer to the reality is defined as particle distribution evolution. Particle distribution heredity is defined as the consistency of the particle distribution, which is verified by comparing the particle distribution before and after free-fall simulation, and by tracking the particles' falling paths.