Study on the mechanical behavior of sands using 3D discrete element method with realistic particle models

Abstract

Presented is a study on the geometrical characteristics of sand particles and the mechanical behavior of sand material under external loading. Based on computed tomography technique, a reconstruction method of granular particles was developed and used to build a database of 3D geometrical models for sand particles. The studied sand particles showed good regularities in morphological characteristics and thus were suitable to be used for the random generation of numerical samples. DEM tests using realistically shaped particles were proven to better simulate the mechanical behavior of the sample during elastoplastic loading stage, which was an issue for the simplified spherical particles. The generation, extension, and breakage of the force chains controlled the strain softening behavior of sands. Anisotropy analysis using the spherical harmonic series showed that the evolution of anisotropy directions and parameters corresponded well with the macroscopic mechanical behavior of the material. Pore volume computation based on Voronoi diagram was performed to illustrate the formation and evolution of localized shear zone. The mesoscopic analysis showed that particle shape significantly influences the mechanical behavior of sands and thus should be properly modeled in numerical simulations.