Influence of real particle morphology on single particle crushing behavior of rockfill based on FDEM

Abstract

Particle morphology is critical in affecting the crushing behavior of rockfill materials. In contrast, most current single particle simulations lack satisfactory morphology accuracy, and the resulting crushing modes deviate from observations to some extent. Therefore, we reconstruct the real particle morphology with the spherical harmonic (SH) method and employ the finite-discrete element method (FDEM) to simulate the one-dimensional (1D) compressive crushing process of basalt particles commonly used in rockfill. The influences of four main morphological parameters, i.e. sphericity, aspect ratio, roundness, and convexity, on the single particle strength and the crushing modes are discussed. The results show that with the SH degree set to 15 and a mesh number of 20,480, the FDEM models of reconstructed particles achieve sufficient morphology accuracy and high computational efficiency. Based on the model, the simulation results demonstrate that the aspect ratio has the most significant impact on single particle strength, followed by sphericity. In contrast, roundness and convexity have a weaker effect than the above two parameters. Also, it is revealed that single particle strength decreases with increasing aspect ratio and sphericity, while it increases with higher roundness and convexity. Furthermore, aspect ratio significantly changes the initial crushing position, sphericity dominates post-crushing fragment size and quantity, and roundness mainly affects post-crushing morphology. The model results have been employed in establishing a support vector regression (SVR)-based predicted model, exhibiting good predictive performance and advantages for the optimization of rockfill particles in engineering.