Mechanical Behavior Of Granular Media Research Articles

Thermophysical Characteristics of a Cold Compressed Granular Medium: An Experimental Investigation

To our knowledge, very few models have described the thermal behavior of granular media or powders as a function of the mechanical stresses to which they are subjected. In recent years, many researchers have expressed great interest in establishing laws that can show the relationship between the apparent thermal conductivity and the mechanical behavior of granular media. This paper presents an experimental study of heat transfer enhancement using granular blocks. A number of experiments were carried out in the test section of a wind tunnel where velocity and temperature measurements were performed. The velocity profiles permitted us to have an idea on the flow structure in the presence of granular blocks. The temperature measurements under various operating conditions (various Reynolds numbers and granular blocks structures) led us to the conclusion that using granular blocks can improve the thermal transfer in comparison with the case of a smooth channel and this enhancement is strongly dependent on the geometrical and thermo-physical properties of these blocks.

The Adhesive Response of Regolith to Low-Energy Disturbances in Microgravity

Abstract Small, airless bodies are covered by a layer of regolith composed of particles ranging from μm-size dust to cm-size pebbles that evolve under conditions very different than those on Earth. Flight-based microgravity experiments investigating low-velocity collisions of cm-size projectiles into regolith have revealed that certain impact events result in a mass transfer from the target regolith onto the surface of the projectile. The key parameters that produce these events need to be characterized to understand the mechanical behavior of granular media, which is composed of the surfaces of small bodies. We carried out flight and ground-based research campaigns designed to investigate these mass transfer events. The goals of our experimental campaigns were (1) to identify projectile energy thresholds that influence mass transfer outcomes in low-energy collision events between cm-size projectiles and μm-size regolith, (2) to determine whether these mass transfer events required a microgravity environment to be observed, and (3) to determine whether the rebound portion of these collision events could be replicated in a laboratory drop tower environment. We found that (1) mass transfer events occurred for projectile rebound accelerations <7.8 m/s2 and we were unable to identify a corresponding impact velocity threshold, (2) mass transfer events require a microgravity environment, and (3) ourdrop tower experiments were able to produce mass transfer events. However, drop tower experiments do not exactly reproduce the free-particle impacts and rebound of the long-duration microgravity experiments and yielded systematically lower amounts of the overall mass transferred.

Modelling phase transition in granular materials: From discontinuum to continuum

This work focuses on the behaviour of granular materials under unsteady, simple shear conditions and, in particular, on from solid- to fluid-like phase transition. The authors introduce a theoretical model, based on continuum mechanics, able of predicting the mechanical behaviour of granular media under both quasi-static and dynamic conditions. The model assumes a parallel scheme where confining and shear stresses are computed as the sum of two contributions: the quasi-static and the collisional one. The quasi-static contribution is obtained by employing an elastic–plastic model including the critical state concept, while the collisional one is derived from the kinetic theory of granular gases.In order to test the model under unsteady conditions, DEM numerical simulations of time evolving homogeneous shear flows have been performed by considering an assembly of frictional, deformable spheres, under constant volume conditions. Simulations have been performed by systematically changing both void ratio and shear rate. The comparison between theoretical model predictions and DEM results is done in terms of time evolution of stresses and granular temperature. Suitable initial conditions are imposed to reproduce both solid to fluid (liquefaction) and fluid to solid (solidification) phase transitions.

Mechanical behaviour of granular media in flexible boundary plane strain conditions: experiment and level-set discrete element modelling

This article presents the results of level-set (LS) discrete element method (DEM) simulations with experimental comparisons of flexible boundary plane strain tests in granular media. The grain-scale micromechanics at the particle level is captured well with LS-DEM, while the overall macroscopic response of the specimen is in quite good agreement with the simulation results. Onset and evolution of localized zones of shear strain accompanied by a significant amount of grain rotation could be well apprehended in the simulations, while the bulging of the specimen could be noticed in the experimental findings as well as in the model predictions. Multiple zones of shear strain accumulation in conjugate arrays were also observed on subsequent biaxial shearing of the sand specimen. The computational results furnish a quantitative estimate of the evolution of force chains and grain fabric orientation. Initially, these force chains were isotropic which on further deformation oriented in the direction of loading, and the grains aligned themselves in their preferred fabric orientation and remained in that fashion till the end of biaxial loading.

An experimental and analytical study of the effect of cold compression on the thermophysical properties of a granular medium

Based on the previous literature, very few models have described the thermal behavior of granular media or powders as a function of the mechanical stresses to which they are subjected. In recent years, many researchers have been interested in establishing laws that can express the relationship between the apparent thermal conductivity and the mechanical behavior of granular media. The present paper seeks to present a simple model that describes the variation of the apparent thermal conductivity of a granular medium as a function of the mechanical stress. One of the main objectives of this paper is to produce a tool for calculating the thermal conductivity of heterogeneous media, especially that of granular media. For the resolution of the problem, it was decided to use an experimental method recently developed in the laboratory and which is due to be the basis of our calculations. This method is called the hot rod method. It was initially developed to evaluate the damage to a soil subject to superficial heat shock (fires, burns). The results show that for short times and a distance between two measurement points large enough, the 2D transfer can be reduced to a 1D transfer which for long times is hybridized to a hot wire transfer. The modeling of thermal transfers within the environment makes it possible to know the temperature field of soil under the effect of a thermal accident.

Experimental assessment of continuum breakage models accounting for mechanical interactions at particle contacts

Particle size and shape are major factors in determining the mechanical behavior of granular media. This paper discusses experiments conducted at particle and assembly scales on two materials (i.e., glass beads and quartz sand) and it interprets them in light of fracture mechanics theories. First, diametral compression tests on particles of varying size have been conducted to measure the energy stored in individual grains at the onset of fracture. Then, oedometric compression tests on samples made of the same particles have been performed to measure the yielding pressure, as well as to track the evolution of breakage. These experiments have been used to test the performance of recently proposed scaling laws bridging the energy released by a single particle with the work input required to comminute an assembly. The results show that the variables associated with macroscopic comminution scale with the grain size according to the same power law functions that control the size-dependence of the corresponding particle-scale quantities. Major differences between the scaling laws of glass beads and quartz sands have been found, with the former approaching the size effect law associated with fracture by central splitting and the latter being closer to the trends predicted by fracture at the contacts. These findings emphasize the key role of the particle shape on the energetics of breakage, thus motivating further studies focusing on different shapes, for which even wider ranges of fracture modes and scaling laws may exist.

Assessment of the Mechanical Behaviour of Granular Media by DEM-Based True Triaxial Tests

This study presents the numerical simulation of a true triaxial test by means of the discrete element method (DEM). Experimental results performed on Toyoura sand are employed as reference and the calibration methodology is explained. Physical aspects of the real soil, such as the grain size distribution and the relative density, are considered during the generation of the virtual sample. It is shown that the main aspects of the macro-mechanical behaviour of granular soils during compression loading can be fairly represented by the idealised simulations with particles.

Existence of a threshold for brittle grains crushing strength: two-versus three-parameter Weibull distribution fitting

Grain crushing plays an important role in the mechanical behavior of granular media, in chemo-hydro-thermo-mechanical couplings, in instabilities related to strain localization such as shear bands and compaction bands, in geophysical and geotechnical processes, in reservoir and petroleum engineering and in many other domains. The strength of brittle particles seems to be quite well described by a two-parameter Weibull distribution. Nevertheless, such a distribution predicts that failure is possible under any level of applied stress. On the contrary a three-parameter Weibull distribution contains a stress threshold under which grain failure is unlikely. Based on existing experiments on crushing of individual grains from various geomaterials and surrogate materials, and on new experiments performed on rock sugar particles, the present paper explores and compares the applicability of a two-versus a three parameter Weibull distribution. It is shown that in most of the cases the three-parameter Weibull distribution better describes the experimental results.

A coupled FEM/DEM approach for hierarchical multiscale modelling of granular media

SUMMARYA hierarchical multiscale framework is proposed to model the mechanical behaviour of granular media. The framework employs a rigorous hierarchical coupling between the FEM and the discrete element method (DEM). To solve a BVP, the FEM is used to discretise the macroscopic geometric domain into an FEM mesh. A DEM assembly with memory of its loading history is embedded at each Gauss integration point of the mesh to serve as the representative volume element (RVE). The DEM assembly receives the global deformation at its Gauss point from the FEM as input boundary conditions and is solved to derive the required constitutive relation at the specific material point to advance the FEM computation. The DEM computation employs simple physically based contact laws in conjunction with Coulomb's friction for interparticle contacts to capture the loading‐history dependence and highly nonlinear dissipative response of a granular material. The hierarchical scheme helps to avoid the phenomenological assumptions on constitutive relation in conventional continuum modelling and retains the computational efficiency of FEM in solving large‐scale BVPs. The hierarchical structure also makes it ideal for distributed parallel computing to fully unleash its predictive power. Importantly, the framework offers rich information on the particle level with direct link to the macroscopic material response, which helps to shed lights on cross‐scale understanding of granular media. The developed framework is first benchmarked by a simulation of single‐element drained test and is then applied to the predictions of strain localisation for sand subject to monotonic biaxial compression, as well as the liquefaction and cyclic mobility of sand in cyclic simple shear tests. It is demonstrated that the proposed method may reproduce interesting experimental observations that are otherwise difficult to be captured by conventional FEM or pure DEM simulations, such as the inception of shear band under smooth symmetric boundary conditions, non‐coaxial granular response, large dilation and rotation at the edges of shear band and critical state reached within the shear band. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Characteristics of Elastic Waves According to Cementation of Dissolved Salt

Natural cementation influences the mechanical behavior of granular media. The goal of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of the low strain stiffness of granular media during precipitation and cementation of dissolved salt in the pore fluid. Granular specimens of glass beads with three different sizes (0.26, 0.5, and 1.29 mm) were cemented by NaCl aqueous solutions (0, 0.1, 0.50, 1.0, and 2.0 mol L−1). The small‐strain stiffness was investigated by measuring compressional (P) and shear (S) waves using bender elements and piezo disk elements during the cementation process. The change of P‐ and S‐wave velocities during cementation due to drying shows three distinct stages based on the degree of saturation, S: (i) S‐wave velocity increases, but P‐wave velocity decreases at a degree of saturation of 100 to ∼90%; (ii) the elastic wave velocities are stable at 90 to ∼10% saturation; and (iii) the elastic wave velocities dramatically change (increase and decrease) at a degree of saturation of 10 to ∼0% due to salt cementation and capillary force. Without cementation, the three grain size particles are controlled by capillary forces. The cementation occurs at contact points of particles for low salt concentrations and at both pores and contact points for high salt concentrations. The measured small‐strain stiffness agreed with the predicted stiffness based on the micromechanical model. This study demonstrates the elastic wave characteristics of granular media in a vadose zone according to the cementation of dissolved salt.

Monotonic aspects of the mechanical behaviour of bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration and its potential use for road construction

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash is an atypical granular material because it may include industrial by-products that result from the incineration of domestic waste. The prospects for the beneficial use of this particular material mainly lie in the field of road construction, as a substitute for the traditional natural aggregates. However, its mechanical properties are still little known, particularly in term of stiffness and deformability, characteristics that are essential to the construction of a durable roadway. The purpose of this paper is to describe better the mechanical behaviour of this recycled material. In order to reach this objective, a large experimental campaign is presented. The first part of this paper presents and comments in detail on the results obtained from static monotonic tests. Oedometric and triaxial shear tests were performed on MSWI bottom ash both before and after treatment with a specific hydraulic binder. These tests allow specification of the mechanical characteristics of the MSWI bottom ash, such as the initial Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, the compressibility index, the friction angle, and the contracting or dilating behaviour of the material. The results reveal a mechanical behaviour similar to that of initially dense standard materials (sands, unbound granular materials) and a dependence on the applied average pressure, characteristic of the mechanical behaviour of granular media. More laboratory data on other samples of MSWI bottom ash are required to ensure that this comparison is statistically valid.

Random porosity fields and their influence on the stability of granular media

AbstractIt is well established that the mechanical behavior of granular media is strongly influenced by the media's microstructure. In this work, the influence of the microstructure is studied by integrating advances in the areas of geostatistics and computational plasticity, by spatially varying the porosity on samples of sand. In particular, geostatistical tools are used to characterize and simulate random porosity fields that are then fed into a nonlinear finite element model. The underlying effective mechanical response of the granular medium is governed by a newly developed elastoplastic model for sands, which readily incorporates spatial variability in the porosity field at the meso‐scale. The objective of this study is to assess the influence of heterogeneities in the porosity field on the stability of sand samples. One hundred and fifty isotropic and anisotropic samples of dense sand are failed under plane‐strain compression tests using Monte Carlo techniques. Results from parametric studies indicate that the axial strength of a specimen is affected by both the degree and orientation of anisotropy in heterogeneous porosity values with anisotropy orientation having a dominant effect, especially when the bands of high porosity are aligned with the natural orientation of shear banding in the specimen. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A physically based approach to granular media mechanics: grain-scale experiments, initial results and implications to numerical modeling

It is generally appreciated that the mechanical behavior of granular media depends fundamentally on the interaction of the constituent particles, and that the validity of numerical models of granular media would be greatly improved with knowledge of the grain-scale mechanics. However, most supporting experimental work has been conducted on highly idealized materials, and a limited amount of information exists on grain-scale force–displacement relationships for naturally occurring materials. To address this shortcoming, we are conducting a program that integrates laboratory experiments on grains of naturally occurring aggregate with the discrete element modeling method, with the goal of relating the grain-scale physical and mechanical properties of granular media to bulk behavior. The paper describes the equipment and methods that have been developed to conduct close-loop controlled, grain-scale experiments under monotonic and cyclic loading conditions, and presents results from an initial set of experiments on unbonded grains. The implications of the grain-scale results to the discrete element model are discussed. Discussions center on the applicability of a physically based approach to the mechanics of granular media in general. In light of future exploration missions and the resulting need to predict the mechanical properties of lunar and planetary regoliths, the paper examines the potential usefulness of our physically based approach to the problem of predicting the behavior of the types of materials found in those environments.

An elasto-plastic model for granular materials with microstructural consideration

In this paper, we have extended the granular mechanics approach to derive an elasto-plastic stress–strain relationship. The deformation of a representative volume of the material is generated by mobilizing particle contacts in all orientations. Thus, the stress–strain relationship can be derived as an average of the mobilization behavior of these local contact planes. The local behavior is assumed to follow a Hertz–Mindlin’s elastic law and a Mohr–Coulomb’s plastic law. Essential features such as continuous displacement field, inter-particle stiffness, and fabric tensor are discussed. The predictions of the derived stress–strain model are compared to experimental results for sand under both drained and undrained triaxial loading conditions. The comparisons demonstrate the ability of this model to reproduce accurately the overall mechanical behavior of granular media and to account for the influence of key parameters such as void ratio and mean stress. A part of this paper is devoted to the study of anisotropic specimens loaded in different directions, which shows the model capability of considering the influence of inherent anisotropy on the stress–strain response under a drained triaxial loading condition.

On incremental non-linearity in granular media: phenomenological and multi-scale views (Part I)

On the basis of fundamental constitutive laws such as elasticity, perfect plasticity, and pure viscosity, many elasto-viscoplastic constitutive relations have been developed since the 1970s through phenomenological approaches. In addition, a few more recent micro-mechanical models based on multi-scale approaches are now able to describe the main macroscopic features of the mechanical behaviour of granular media. The purpose of this paper is to compare a phenomenological constitutive relation and a micro-mechanical model with respect to a basic issue regularly raised about granular assemblies: the incrementally non-linear character of their behaviour. It is shown that both phenomenological and micro-mechanical models exhibit an incremental non-linearity. In addition, the multi-scale approach reveals that the macroscopic incremental non-linearity could stem from the change in the regime of local contacts between particles (from plastic regime to elastic regime) in terms of the incremental macroscopic loading direction. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.