基于应变响应包络的颗粒材料增量力学行为研究

砂土的力学响应具有显著的增量非线性特征,这与离散颗粒的微观结构,即组构特性密不可分。采用应变响应包络可以较好地获得材料在不同加载方向上的增量力学响应。在物理试验中无法同时获得同一试样在不同加载方向下的宏、微观响应,故采用离散元方法,对具有不同应力历史、不同应力状态和不同级配的试样在Rendulic平面上的增量力学响应进行了系统研究和分析。离散元模拟结果表明,传统的塑性理论不能很好地描述具有复杂应力历史试样的增量力学响应,而基于颗粒间接触法向的组构增量与剪应变之间在多种不同的工况条件下均具有较强的线性相关性。当砂土的相对密实度相同时,该线性系数主要与围压的大小有关,对颗粒级配、应力历史以及应力比的变化均不敏感。由于组构的大小可以较好地量化砂土的内结构各向异性程度,进而表征应力历史的作用。上述模拟结果为在本构建模中引入组构演化机制,综合反映外荷载和内结构各向异性对砂土增量本构关系的影响提供了较好的微观物理依据。     

颗粒材料数值样本的坐标排序生成技术

颗粒材料离散颗粒模型的数值模拟结果与颗粒材料的数值样本密切相关,随着离散单元在颗粒材料数值模拟领域的广泛应用,颗粒材料的数值样本生成技术日益受到重视。基于RSA模型研究如何使随机生成的颗粒材料更密实,对均匀颗粒而言亦即如何在指定区域内生成更多的颗粒,讨论了4类修正方案,并建议了一种基于坐标排序的样本生成技术。研究表明,在传统的颗粒体随机生成技术基础上,通过对随机生成的x坐标序列或y坐标序列进行排序,可使生成的颗粒材料数值样本更密实。     

Stress–dilatancy based modelling of granular materials and extensions to soils with crushable grains

Stress–dilatancy relations have played a crucial role in the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of soils and in the development of realistic constitutive models for their response. Recent investigations on the mechanical behaviour of materials with crushable grains have called into question the validity of classical relations such as those used in critical state soil mechanics. In this paper, a method to construct thermodynamically consistent (isotropic, three‐invariant) elasto‐plastic models based on a given stress–dilatancy relation is discussed. Extensions to cover the case of granular materials with crushable grains are also presented, based on the interpretation of some classical model parameters (e.g. the stress ratio at critical state) as internal variables that evolve according to suitable hardening laws. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Revisiting the existence of an effective stress for wet granular soils with micromechanics

A possible effective stress variable for wet granular materials is numerically investigated based on an adapted discrete element method (DEM) model for an ideal three‐phase system. The DEM simulations consider granular materials made of nearly monodisperse spherical particles, in the pendular regime with the pore fluid mixture consisting of distinct water menisci bridging particle pairs. The contact force‐related stress contribution to the total stresses is isolated and tested as the effective stress candidate for dense or loose systems. It is first recalled that this contact stress tensor is indeed an adequate effective stress that describes stress limit states of wet samples with the same Mohr‐Coulomb criterion associated with their dry counterparts. As for constitutive relationships, it is demonstrated that the contact stress tensor used in conjunction with dry constitutive relations does describe the strains of wet samples during an initial strain regime but not beyond. Outside this so‐called quasi‐static strain regime, whose extent is much greater for dense than loose materials, dramatic changes in the contact network prevent macroscale contact stress‐strain relationships to apply in the same manner to dry and unsaturated conditions. The presented numerical results also reveal unexpected constitutive bifurcations for the loose material, related to stick‐slip macrobehavior.     

Statistical analysis of stress transmission in wet granular materials

The micromechanics of wet granular materials encompasses complex microstructural and capillary interconnects that can be readily described through a formal derivation of stress transmission in such a 3‐phase medium. In the quest for defining an appropriate stress measure, the stress tensor expression that results from homogenization [Duriez et al. J Mech Phys Solids 99 (2017): 495‐511] of such a medium provides theoretical insights necessary to extract useful information on the relationship between capillary effects and microforce interactions via several small‐scale parameters whose evaluation can be challenging. Using instead a statistical approach where microvariable distributions are described by probability density functions, the current study provides simple estimates of stress components in terms of only a few tractable microvariables such as coordination number and fabric anisotropy. In particular, the latter recognizes details of contacts such as force interactions being either mechanical or capillary, including interactions with and without mechanical contact. The developed expressions are in a good agreement with discrete element method simulation results of the triaxial loading of a wet granular assembly, notably for hydrostatic (mean) pressure. A new set of dimensionless groups is also identified to characterize the significance of mechanical and capillary physics, which facilitates a better understanding of the contribution of dominating elements to stress, while also providing the opportunity to incorporate important capillary effects in micromechanically based constitutive formulations.     

易破碎粒状材料本构研究

粒状材料被广泛地应用到土木工程的各个领域。大部分粒状材料在外力作用下较容易产生颗粒破碎,颗粒破碎对材料的力学性能有很大的影响。为了更好地描述易破碎粒状材料的力学特性,基于弹塑性力学和临界状态土力学开发了一种能够考虑颗粒破碎效应的本构模型。此本构模型能够考虑在剪应力和压应力作用下引起的颗粒破碎对粒状材料力学性能的影响。为了考虑颗粒破碎的影响,基于对Cambria 砂的高压试验,得出了临界状态线位置与消耗塑性功之间的关系,并称之为“破碎方程”。此本构模型拥有双屈服面,分别考虑剪切和等向压缩产生的塑性变形。通过试验结果与数值计算结果的对比得出,新的本构模型能较好地描述易破碎粒状材料的力学特性     

Modeling the effect of wetting on the mechanical behavior of crushable granular materials

It is well known that the compressibility of crushable granular materials increases with the moisture content,due to the decrease of particle strength in a humid environment.An existing approach to take into account the effect of grain breakage in constitutive modeling consists in linking the evolution of the grain size distribution to the plastic work.But how the material humidity can affect this relationship is not clear,and experimental evidence is quite scarce.Based on compression tests on dry and saturated crushable sand recently reported by the present authors,a new non-linear relationship is proposed between the amount of particle breakage and the plastic work.The expression contains two parameters:(1)a material constant dependent on the grain characteristics and(2)a constant depending on the wetting condition(in this study,dry or saturated).A key finding is that the relationship does not depend on the stress path and,for a given wetting condition,only one set of parameters is necessary to reproduce the results of isotropic,oedometric,and triaxial compression tests.The relationship has been introduced into an elastoplastic constitutive model based on the critical state concept with a double yield surface for plastic sliding and compression.The breakage ratio is introduced into the expression of the elastic stiffness,the critical state line and the hardening compression pressure.Incremental stress-strain computations with the model allow the plastic work to be calculated and,therefore,the evolution of particle crushing can be predicted through the proposed non-linear relationship and reintroduced into the constitutive equations.Accurate predictions of the experimental results in terms of both stress-strain relationships and breakage ratio were obtained.     

粒状介质三维复杂应力加载离散元数值试验方法

实际荷载条件下（如交通、地震荷载）,粒状岩土材料常受到三维复杂应力路径作用。目前,多数粒状岩土材料的本构理论和模型都基于简单应力路径加载条件下的物理试验提出,在更加复杂应力路径下的适用性则需要进一步验证。但受机械控制的限制,物理试验中无法实现很多客观存在的三维复杂应力路径加载。为了能够再现并分析三维复杂应力路径下粒状介质的力学响应,提出了一种离散元数值试验方法,该方法采用球形数值试样,通过直接控制试样边界应力达到对3个主应力大小和方向的任意控制,从而可以实现诸多物理试验中无法实现的复杂应力路径。通过与目前常见的一些物理试验进行定性对比,论证了该数值试验方法通过高精度的加载控制和测量能够再现已有物理试验现象。在此基础上,进一步开展了应力主轴的三维旋转,分析了在这种实际存在却无法通过物理试验再现的加载条件下粒状介质的变形规律,初步显示了提出的数值试验方法在深入研究三维复杂应力路径下粒状介质力学响应方面所拥有的能力和优势。     

颗粒材料剪胀性的微观力学分析

剪胀性是颗粒材料在加载过程中表现出来的重要变形特性。以孔隙胞元描述颗粒材料内部结构的最小单元,通过对单个孔隙胞元进行剪切受力分析,探讨了剪切过程中颗粒材料体积的改变对应力比和单个孔隙胞元形状的依赖关系,解释了排列密实的颗粒材料在剪切过程中先压缩后剪胀的微观机制。用离散元数值模拟得到了在双轴剪切过程中单个孔隙胞元形状以及孔隙胞元体积变形的演化过程。离散元数值结果表明,加载过程中孔隙胞元形状由初始各向同性到沿大主应力方向变大变长、体积变形先压缩后膨胀,并且体积变形在加载过程中存在局部化现象,体积变化大的孔隙胞元在较大变形时,排列成倾斜的窄带。综合孔隙胞元的受力分析和离散元数值结果表明,致密排列颗粒材料的剪胀性与微观尺度上孔隙胞元的几何结构及其内部的力链传递方式密切相关。     

Breakage and deformation mechanisms of crushable granular materials

Biaxial compressional tests with two types of stress paths were carried out on an assembly of round bars, which can be crushed to investigate the breakage and deformation mechanisms of granular materials at the mesoscale. The following was found experimentally: (1) upon loading, the crushable rods slide, rotate and break, and finally the breakage band forms for the two types of stress paths and different stress states; and (2) for the axial loading stress path, the round rods mainly fail in the vertically split mode and laterally crushed mode. However, for the lateral unloading stress path, the round rods fail with the combination mode of locally crushed and vertically split.     

DEM modelling of cone penetration tests in a double-porosity crushable granular material

A three-dimensional discrete element model is used to investigate the effect of grain crushing on the tip resistance measured by cone penetration tests (CPT) in calibration chambers. To do that a discrete analogue of pumice sand, a very crushable microporous granular material, is created. The particles of the discrete model are endowed with size-dependent internal porosity and crushing resistance. A simplified Hertz–Mindlin elasto-frictional model is used for contact interaction. The model has 6 material parameters that are calibrated using one oedometer test and analogies with similar geomaterials. The calibration is validated reproducing other element tests. To fill a calibration chamber capable of containing a realistic sized CPT the discrete analogue is up-scaled by a factor of 25. CPT is then performed at two different densities and three different confinement pressures. Cone tip resistance in the crushable material is practically insensitive to initial density, as had been observed in previous physical experiments. The same CPT series is repeated but now particle crushing is disabled. The ratios of cone tip resistance between the two types of simulation are in good agreement with previous experimental comparisons of hard and crushable soils. Microscale exploration of the models indicates that crushing disrupts the buttressing effect of chamber walls on the cone.     

A virtual experiment technique on the elementary behaviour of granular materials with discrete element method

Multi‐scale investigations aided by the discrete element method (DEM) play a vital role for current state‐of‐the‐art research on the elementary behaviour of granular materials. Similar to laboratory tests, there are three important aspects to be considered carefully, which are the proper stress/strain definition and measurement, the application of target loading paths and the designed experiment setup, to be addressed in the present paper. Considering the volume sensitive characteristics of granular materials, in the proposed technique, the deformation of the tested specimen is controlled and measured by deformation gradient tensor involving both the undeformed configuration and the current configuration. Definitions of Biot strain and Cauchy stress are adopted. The expressions of them in terms of contact forces and particle displacements, respectively, are derived. The boundary of the tested specimen consists of rigid massless planar units. It is suggested that the representative element uses a convex polyhedral (polygonal) shape to minimize possible boundary arching effects. General loading paths are described by directly specifying the changes in the stress/strain invariants or directions. Loading can be applied in the strain‐controlled mode by specifying the translations and rotations of the boundary units, or in the stress‐controlled mode by using a servo‐control mechanism, or in the combination of the two methods to realize mixed boundary conditions. Taking the simulation results as the natural consequences originated from a complex system, virtual experiments provide particle‐scale information database to conduct multi‐scale investigations for better understanding in granular material behaviours and possible development of the constitutive theories provided the qualitative similarity between the simulation results from virtual experiments and observations on real material behaviour. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A numerical representation of fracturing granular materials

This paper describes the computer algorithms used in a numerical simulation of the compression of an aggregate of crushable grains. It has been used in a model for the evolution of a granular medium under one-dimensional compression, in which the probability of fracture for individual particles is a function of applied stress, particle-size and co-ordination number. The information relating to the particles is represented in a compact way on the computer which allows the number of particles produced to become sufficiently large for satisfactory comparisons to be made with experimental data and which allows information, such as the positions and sizes of the particles, to be easily extracted. An algorithm based on the representation is used to locate neighbouring particles in a way which does not deteriorate unacceptably in terms of speed as the number of particles increases. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three-dimensional discrete element method parallel computation of Cauchy stress distribution over granular materials

The paper presents Cauchy stress tensor computation over parallel grids of message passing interface (MPI) parallel three-dimensional (3D) discrete element method (DEM) simulations of granular materials, considering spherical and nonspherical particles. The stress tensor computation is studied for quasi-static and dynamic conditions, and its resulting symmetry or asymmetry is discussed within the context of classical continuum mechanics (CCM), granular materials mechanics (GMM), and micropolar continuum mechanics (MCM). The average Cauchy stress tensor computation follows Bagi's and Nicot's formulations and is verified within MPI parallel 3D DEM simulations involving dynamically adaptive compute grids. These grids allow calculation of temporal and spatial distributions of stress across granular materials under static and dynamic conditions. The vertical stress component in gravitationally deposited particle assemblies exhibits nonuniform spatial distributions under static equilibrium, and its zone of maximum value changes during the process of gravitational pluviation and collapse. These phenomena reveal a microstructural effect on stress distribution within granular materials that is attributed to their discrete particulate nature (particle size, shape, gradation, boundary conditions, etc).     

Micromechanical aspects of the shear strength of wet granular soils

This paper presents a micromechanical model for the analysis of wet granular soils at low saturation (below 30%). The discrete element method is employed to model the solid particles. The capillary water is assumed to be in a pendular state and thus exists in the form of liquid bridges at the particle‐to‐particle contacts. The resulting inter‐particle adhesion is accounted for using the toroidal approximation of the bridge. Hydraulic hysteresis is accounted for based on the possible mechanism of the formation and breakage of the liquid bridges during wetting and drying phases. Shear test computational simulations were conducted at different water contents under relatively low net normal stresses. The results of these simulations suggest that capillary‐induced attractive forces and hydraulic hysteresis play an important role in affecting the shear strength of the soil. These attractive forces produce a tensile stress that contributes to the apparent cohesion of the soil and increases its stiffness. During a drying phase, capillary‐induced tensile stresses, and hence shear strength, tend to be larger than those during a wetting phase. The proposed model appears to capture the macroscopic response of wet granular materials and revealed a number of salient micromechanical mechanisms and response patterns consistent with theoretical considerations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于接触价键的颗粒材料微观临界状态

用颗粒离散元法,分别对二维圆形、椭圆形颗粒体进行了双轴压缩数值模拟。微观尺度的变形是基于孔隙胞元和其中的变形来计算的,而单个孔隙胞元的变形通过周围颗粒的相对运动来计算。针对该方法提出了以接触价键（每个孔隙胞元的边数）来表征颗粒材料微观临界状态的理论。为了定义临界接触价键的极限值,分别讨论了摩擦系数较大、较小时的两种情况。文中给出了微观几何织构（包括接触价键、孔隙胞元的形状、孔隙比）随压缩变形的演变过程,比较了不同颗粒形状、颗粒间摩擦系数以及颗粒体的固结压力对颗粒体的微观力学性能的影响。计算结果表明,颗粒材料的微观临界状态并不是可以唯一表征的,而是受围压、摩擦系数,颗粒形状等参数的共同影响。     

基于离散元数值方法的砂土小应变弹性特性探讨

土体在非常小应变（小于10?6）时表现为线弹性。以往大量试验研究表明,土体的弹性特性主要受到土体有效围压、孔隙比、颗粒级配和试样制备方法等影响。通过离散元方法模拟Duffy和Mindlin中的物理试验,建立球形颗粒规则排列的三维模型,继而进行小变形条件下的数值加载试验来确定弹性特性,并从细观层面揭示决定土体弹性特性的内在因素。模拟结果表明：粒状土的弹性模量取决于土体的颗粒接触配位数、法向接触力的大小和分布,跟宏观土体孔隙比、有效围压作用相对应。弹性模量应力指数n高于Hertz-Mindlin接触法则对应的1/3,主要是由于应力增加过程中配位数的增加和接触力趋于更均匀导致。同时,泊松比也随着配位数的增加而减小,并非保持不变,跟试验结果趋势一致。     

Quantification of particle crushing in consideration of grading evolution of granular soils in biaxial shearing: A probability‐based model

A probability‐based model is presented to estimate particle crushing and the associated grading evolution in granular soils during isotropic compression and prepeak shearing in biaxial tests. The model is based on probability density functions of interparticle and intraparticle stress (ie, particle normalized maximum shear stress and particle average maximum shear stress) derived from discrete element method simulations of biaxial tests. We find that the probability density functions of normalized maximum shear stress are dependent on the current sample grading, implying coupling effects between particle crushing and sample grading such that the particle crushing is affected by the current sample grading, and the grading change is also dependent on the current particle crushing extent. To incorporate these coupling effects into the model, particle crushing and grading change are calculated for each load increment, in which the crushing probability of a particle during any loading increment is denoted as the corresponding increment of probability of the internal maximum shear stress exceeding its maximum shear strength. The model shows qualitative agreement with published experimental data. The effects of the model parameters, including initial porosity, particle strength, initial grading, and crushing mode, on the calculated results are discussed and compared with previous studies. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the model are discussed.     

基于B-DEM的颗粒聚合体应力计算和破碎路径模拟

结合边界元法和离散元法,提出一种可以进行计算颗粒内部应力和破碎路径的方法。该方法利用离散元法求解颗粒的相互作用和每个颗粒上的荷载。然后利用边界元法计算颗粒的应力分布,为了实现动态平衡,将颗粒的加速度视为恒定大小的体力。但体力导致边界积分方程中出现域积分,故采用直线积分法将域积分转化为边界积分,以保证边界元法降维的优势。为了提高边界元的计算效率,对于几何形状相似的颗粒,以其中一个颗粒作为模板颗粒,只需要计算模板颗粒在局部坐标系中的系数矩阵,其他相似颗粒可以通过局部和全局坐标系之间的映射获得。在得到应力后,基于Hoek-Brown准则来判断颗粒是否破碎。此外,将破坏路径简化为直线,并采用最小二乘法拟合得到破坏路径。     

Unified discrete-element approach applying arbitrary undrained loading paths in element testing for granular soils

The discrete element method (DEM) is crucial in investigating and modeling the elementary behavior of granular materials under varying loading conditions, especially those that cannot be adequately investigated via conventional laboratory testing. However, the application of the DEM in simulations that involve complex loading paths under undrained conditions is scarce, primarily owing to the inability to maintain a constant-volume condition. This paper presents a unified discrete element approach that can apply arbitrary loading paths while satisfying the equivalent undrained condition. The proposed method comprises two parts: (1) a novel strategy that determines the virtual pore pressure under complex undrained loading conditions, and (2) an advanced undrained servomechanism that can simultaneously control each stress component independently. Numerical algorithms corresponding to three new undrained loading paths, that is, true triaxial test, rotational shear, and traffic loading path that have never been simulated using DEM are successfully implemented in a unified manner. Macroscale simulation results under these loading paths are qualitatively in good agreement with their experimental counterparts, thereby confirming the practicality and robustness of the proposed approach. Furthermore, in-depth discussions on the DEM results from these three new loading paths are presented from microscopic perspective.