Particulate mechanics considerations as an aid in understanding the mechanical behavior of geomaterials

摘要

This paper presents a summary of the results obtained in a series of 2D Discrete Element simulations aiming at investigating the effect of various factors affecting the small strain stiffness of coarse grained granular materials. As the simulation test results are compared to those of actual laboratory tests performed with a large scale repeated loading triaxial testing device, they seem to correlate very favorably especially with regard to the effects of stress and strain level, density and particle size. In the case of the effects of particle surface roughness and stiffness, however, the comparison to the experimental results is not easy to make since it is very difficult to investigate these effects experimentally independent off all the other related factors. Nevertheless, DEM simulations were found to be a unique tool in improving our understanding of the factors affecting the basic mechanical behavior of granular materials.