Abstract
Conventionally, the definition of instability is considered to be shear failure. However, there is substantial evidence that instabilities can also occur in a diffuse (homogeneous) manner without the apparent presence of a shear band under both undrained and drained conditions. Compared to undrained diffuse instability, drained diffuse instability of granular soil is less studied and is not yet well understood. This paper presents a discrete element method (DEM) study of drained diffuse instability of a granular soil. Instability and loss of controllability were observed well below the failure line when the DEM specimens were subjected to a constant shear-drained (CSD) stress path, which coincides with experimental and continuum numerical findings in the literature. The preliminary micro-scale examination includes the monitoring of coordination number evolution along CSD stress path. This study shows DEM modeling can well reproduce drained diffuse instability in granular materials and can be used to further investigate the mechanics of this phenomenon from a micro-scale perspective.
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