Particle Crushing in Granular Assemblies

摘要

Idealised assemblies of equally sized spherical particles are subjected to a range of macroscopic compressive principal stresses and contact forces are determined. Stress fields within individual particles are studied and a failure criterion for brittle materials imposed indicating that crushing occurs when the maximum contact force reaches a threshold particle strength value, irrespective of the presence and magnitude of other lesser contact forces acting on the particle. Failure surfaces are drawn in the three dimensional principal stress space.