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Evolution of fabric in spherical granular assemblies under the influence of various loading conditions through DEM

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Abstract

Fabric of a granular assembly represents the topology of the contact network. This paper investigates the evolution of contact anisotropy (fabric) and average coordination number for a granular assembly subjected to uniaxial compression through the Discrete Element Method (DEM). A monosize three-dimensional random close-packed granular assembly with periodic boundary conditions under uniaxial compression is considered in this work. The fabric evolution is studied by post-processing the output data of the DEM simulation. The influence of cyclic loading, strain rate, and Young’s modulus on the evolution of contact anisotropy and average coordination number is presented. The Young’s modulus of the particle shows a significant influence on the particle contact creation during compression of the granular assembly with high strain rate. Effect of inertia on the contact anisotropy is observed to be significant during the compression of granular assemblies with different Young’s modulus under high strain rate. The paper concludes with a semi-empirical model to predict the evolution of contact anisotropy as a function of the macroscopic stress state of the assembly during quasi-static uniaxial compaction. The model also introduces two microscopic non-dimensional parameters that are independent of friction between the particles and can be used to relate the macroscopic stresses with the contact anisotropy.

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Notes

  1. Strictly speaking, the state of stress in the granular assembly with the present kind of loading is not uniaxial. However, in this work, we use uniaxial, referring to the loading which is applied only in one direction.

  2. I is calculated by taking the maximum value of pressure developed in the system.

  3. The inertial number I is calculated by replacing P with E in Eq. 11.

  4. The assumption of neglecting the tangential term is to simplify the stress tensor calculation only.

  5. It may be noted that the linear fit is obtained from the simulation data, as shown in Fig. 17. Hence, the omission of tangential components from stress tensor equation does not affect the results in Fig. 17 and Eq. 25.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanics of Materials Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    Akhil Vijayan & Ratna Kumar Annabattula

  2. School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Yixiang Gan

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  1. Akhil Vijayan
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  3. Ratna Kumar Annabattula
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Correspondence to Ratna Kumar Annabattula.

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Vijayan, A., Gan, Y. & Annabattula, R.K. Evolution of fabric in spherical granular assemblies under the influence of various loading conditions through DEM. Granular Matter 22, 34 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-020-1000-9

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