3D DEM simulation of principal stress rotation in different planes of cross-anisotropic granular materials

Long Xue, Nicolaas P. Kruyt, Rui Wang*, Jian‐Min Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    16 Citations (Scopus)
    2 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Three-dimensional Discrete Element Method simulations have been performed to study the deformation of cross-anisotropic granular materials under principal stress rotation (PSR), for rotation planes oriented at different angles θ with respect to the bedding plane. The simulations have been conducted with a novel technique for applying specified stresses at three-dimensional boundaries. The results are qualitatively in agreement with experimental results from literature. Cumulative volume contraction is always observed under continuous PSR and increases with increasing θ. The dilatancy rate decreases with increasing number of PSR cycles, tending to zero. The noncoaxiality angle between the strain increment and the stress in the PSR plane increases with increasing number of cycles, reaching the same asymptotic value for samples of various densities and for various θ. Periodic oscillations of the dilatancy rate and noncoaxiality angle within each PSR cycle are observed with an increasing oscillation magnitude with increasing θ, due to the larger fabric anisotropy within the PSR plane. When θ = 30 or 60°, significant noncoaxial strain accumulation occurs in the plane perpendicular to the PSR plane due to the oblique angle between the PSR plane and the bedding plane, echoing the major principal fabric direction's being neither parallel nor perpendicular to the PSR plane. The macroscopic behavior of the samples is related to the microscopic parameters including coordination number and fabric anisotropy. With increasing number of cycles, the difference between normalized stress/strain/fabric increment tensors tends to become constant, with only a small lag between each pair, irrespective of θ.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2227-2250
    Number of pages24
    JournalInternational journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics
    Volume43
    Issue number14
    Early online date29 Jul 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 10 Oct 2019

    Keywords

    • n/a OA procedure

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