Discrete simulations of shear zone patterning in sand in earth pressure problems of a retaining wall

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe intention of the paper is to check the capability of a discrete element method (DEM) to simulate a pattern of quasi-static shear zones in initially dense sand. Discrete calculations were carried out with a rigid and very rough retaining wall, undergoing passive and active horizontal translation, rotation about the top and rotation about the toe. To simulate the behavior of sand, the three-dimensional spherical discrete model was used allowing for grain rolling resistance. The geometry of calculated shear zones was qualitatively compared with experimental results of laboratory model tests using X-rays and Digital Image Correlation technique (DIC), and quantitatively with finite element results obtained with a micro-polar hypoplastic constitutive model. The results show that a discrete model is able to realistically predict the experimental pattern of shear zones in the sand interior. A satisfactory agreement with experiments and finite element calculations was achieved.

Modelling of concrete fracture at aggregate level using FEM and DEM based on X-ray μCT images of internal structure

“…The DEM calculations were performed with the three-dimensional spherical discrete element model YADE, which was developed at University of Grenoble [31,32]. The model was successfully used for describing the behaviour of different engineering materials with a granular structure (mainly of granular materials by taking shear localization into account [33][34][35][36]). It demonstrated also its usefulness to fracture simulations in concrete [21].…”

Effect of grain roughness on strength, volume changes, elastic and dissipated energies during quasi-static homogeneous triaxial compression using DEM

“…To resemble the real grain shape (roughness), two main approaches are usually used: 1) contact moments between rigid spheres or disks are assumed ( [5,16,18,21,28,44]) or 2) clusters of combined discrete elements that form irregularly-shaped grains are introduced [12,25,26,29,35,48].…”

Continuum Modeling of Granular Media

“…The literature abounds with many interesting experimental observations (e.g., Ref. [43]) and numerical simulations of shear bands, with numerous striking examples presented in a sustained body of work by Tejchman [11,14] and Widuli nski et al [44]. Following the pioneering studies of J. Desrues, recent developments in X-ray computer tomography have led to grain-level visualization that reveal such bands via density contrasts arising from granular dilatancy [45].…”