A micro-investigation on water bridge effects for unsaturated granular materials with constant water content by discrete element method

The most common state of surface soil is unsaturated. Changes in water content will substantially impact its strength, leading to geological and engineering catastrophes. This paper used LIGGGHTS software to simulate the water bridge effect of unsaturated granular materials with constant water content and verify the rationality of the simplification of the stress-force-fabric (SFF) relationship. The results showed that the capillary force was not isotropic, which was different from the previous study, thus it cannot be overlooked in the simplification of the SFF relationship. Moreover, the influence of water content on the macroscopic mechanical behavior of unsaturated granular materials was interpreted through the evolutions of coordination number, interparticle force, fabric and force anisotropy, and other microscopic parameters. Compared to the literature, we found that different water bridge models would not change the characteristics of the solid skeleton.     

DEM investigation on the effect of sample preparation on the shear behavior of granular soil

The effect of initial fabric anisotropy produced by sample preparation on the shear behavior of granular soil is investigated by performing discrete element method (DEM) simulations of fourteen biaxial tests in drained conditions. Numerical test specimens are prepared by three means: gravitational deposition, multi-layer compression, and isotropic compression, such that different initial inherent soil fabrics are created. The DEM simulation results show that initial fabric anisotropy exerts a considerable effect on the shear behavior of granular soil, and that the peak stress ratio and peak dilatancy increase with an increase in the fabric index a_n that is estimated from the contact orientations. The stress–dilatancy relationship is found to be independent of the initial fabric anisotropy. The anisotropy related to the contact orientation and contact normal force accounts for the main contribution to the mobilized friction angle. Also, the occurrence of contractive shear response in an initial shearing stage is accompanied by the most intense particle rearrangement and microstructural reorganization, regardless of the sample preparation method. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the critical state line in e–log p′ and q–p′ plots is observed, suggesting that the influence of initial fabric anisotropy is erased at large shear strains.     

粒料固有各向异性的离散元模拟与细观分析

料在摊铺后形成的颗粒定向排列将导致其力学性质的固有各向异性. 依据粒料的实际不规则形状, 构建了可模拟粒间咬合嵌挤作用的三维离散元复杂形状颗粒; 生成了5 种不同沉积方向的各向异性试件和1种各向同性试件, 对比了各试件在三轴压缩试验中的宏观力学特性差异; 引入组构张量以量化各向异性程度, 利用玫瑰图表达接触法向与接触力的分布特征, 探究了粒料各向异性的细观发展规律. 结果表明: 颗粒长轴愈趋向水平排布, 峰值应力比愈大, 剪缩与剪胀程度愈明显; 相较于各向同性试件, 沉积角$\theta$为料在摊铺后形成的颗粒定向排列将导致其力学性质的固有各向异性. 依据粒料的实际不规则形状, 构建了可模拟粒间咬合嵌挤作用的三维离散元复杂形状颗粒; 生成了5 种不同沉积方向的各向异性试件和1种各向同性试件, 对比了各试件在三轴压缩试验中的宏观力学特性差异; 引入组构张量以量化各向异性程度, 利用玫瑰图表达接触法向与接触力的分布特征, 探究了粒料各向异性的细观发展规律. 结果表明: 颗粒长轴愈趋向水平排布, 峰值应力比愈大, 剪缩与剪胀程度愈明显; 相较于各向同性试件, 沉积角$\theta$为$0^\circ$时, 峰值应力比和最大体积压缩应变分别提高了12.6\%和18.8\%, 其原因在于加载过程中颗粒旋转和滑动百分比更小, 内部调整时间更短、更易被剪密; 固有各向异性对颗粒法向接触力分布的影响不大, 但显著影响接触法向分布特征; 剪切过程中, $\theta$为$90^\circ$时的接触法向各向异性系数先快速减小后逐渐增大, 而$\theta$为$0^\circ$到$60^\circ$时则呈现出增大后稍有回落或趋于稳定的趋势, 且$\theta$ 愈小的试件各向异性系数增大愈快.     

考虑颗粒转矩的接触网络诱发各向异性分析

颗粒材料的宏观力学行为与接触网络的组构各向异性密切相关, 根据接触点的滑动与否、转动与否和强弱力情况, 可以将颗粒间的接触系统分为不同的子接触网络. 一般而言, 不同的子接触网络在颗粒体系中的传力机制不同, 对宏观力学响应的贡献也有不同. 采用离散单元法(discrete element method, DEM)模拟了不同抗转动系数$\mu_r$下颗粒材料三轴剪切试验, 分析了剪切过程中不同子接触网络的组构张量的演变规律, 并探究了颗粒抗转动效应对子接触网络各向异性指标演变规律的影响. 研究发现: 剪切过程中转动、非转动接触的组构张量变化不是独立的, 受到颗粒间滑动与否的影响; 非滑动、强接触网络是颗粒间的主要传力结构, 非滑动接触网络的接触法向和法向接触力各向异性均随$\mu_r$的增大而增大, 其对宏观应力的贡献程度随$\mu_r$的增大而减小;强接触网络的接触法向各向异性随$\mu_r$的增大而增大, 但法向接触力各向异性随$\mu_r$的增大无明显变化, 强接触网络对宏观应力的贡献程度在不同$\mu_r$情况下均相同.      

Effective and relative permeabilities of anisotropie porous media

A model composed of a three-dimensional orthogonal network of capillary tubes was used to simulate the flow behavior in an unsaturated anisotropic soil. The anisotropy in the network's permeability was introduced by randomly selecting the radii in the three mutually orthogonal directions of the network tubes from three different lognormal probability distributions, one for each direction. These three directions were assumed to be the principal directions of anisotropy. The sample was gradually drained, with only tubes smaller than a certain diameter remaining full at each degree of saturation. Computer experiments were conducted to determine the network's effective permeability as a function of saturation. The main conclusion was that the relationship between saturation and effective permeability depends on direction. Consequently the concept of relative permeability used in unsaturated flow should be limited to isotropic media and not extended to anisotropic ones.     

Three-dimensional constitutive relations for granular materials based on the dilatant double shearing mechanism and the concept of fabric

An extension of a three-dimensional model proposed by Anand and Gu (2000) for amorphous granular materials to include the effects of initial and induced anisotropy is presented in this paper. The proposed model can also be considered as a three-dimensional generalization of a model recently developed by Zhu et al. (2005) for the planar deformation of granular materials. The main ingredients of the model include the dilatant double shearing mechanism (Spencer, 1964, Mehrabadi and Cowin, 1978), the concept of fabric (Oda, 1972), and an extension of the Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion (Shield, 1955, Spencer, 1982) to three dimensions.The constitutive equations are implemented in the finite element program ABAQUS/Explicit (ABAQUS, 2001) by developing a user-material subroutine to conduct numerical triaxial compression tests for samples of granular materials with different initial anisotropy. The numerical results agree with the observed behavior and show that the extended constitutive model is capable of capturing the strength anisotropy of granular materials. Employing the anisotropic model developed here, we have also repeated the numerical simulation of the stress state in a static conical sand pile conducted earlier by Anand and Gu (2000). We find that fabric has little or no influence on the vertical stress distribution except at the base of the sand pile where the peak value of this stress is slightly higher than that predicted by the model of Anand and Gu (2000) which does not include the effects of fabric. We also find that the direction of the principal compressive stress changes from vertical at points away from the center of the pile to almost horizontal at points close to the center of the pile. This result provides a possible explanation for the observed dip in the vertical stress distribution in sand piles.     

颗粒材料三维应力路径下的接触组构特性

颗粒材料的宏观应力变形特征与其微观接触力、组构等紧密相关.一般而言,强接触系统属于颗粒内部体系的传力结构,其对应的组构张量是影响宏观应力性质的重要因素.细观数值方法(如离散单元法)能够反映物理试验的基本规律,并且可以方便地提取宏微观数据来研究颗粒体系的应力变形机制.采用离散单元法(discrete element method,DEM)进行一系列等$p$等$b$应力路径下颗粒材料的真三轴试验,在此基础上研究了三维应力路径下颗粒材料的宏微观力学参数的演化过程、三维组构张量与应力张量多重联系以及强接触体系反映的宏观应力特征.研究表明:颗粒体系偏应力峰值状态和临界状态均存在与加载路径无关的宏微观特征;三维应力路径下组构张量与应力张量存在非共轴性,但其联合不变量演化过程表现出加载路径无关的特征;与弱接触系统的组构张量相比,强接触系统的组构张量更能反映宏观应力张量的特征;强弱接触体系的组构张量对颗粒体系宏观响应的贡献不同,其分界点存在一定取值范围,但采用平均接触力较为简单合理.      

A microstructural elastoplastic model for unsaturated granular materials

The homogenization technique is used to obtain an elastoplastic stress–strain relationship for dry, saturated and unsaturated granular materials. Deformation of a representative volume of material is generated by mobilizing particle contacts in all orientations. In this way, the stress–strain relationship can be derived as an average of the mobilization behavior of these local contact planes. The local behavior is assumed to follow a Hertz–Mindlin’s elastic law and a Mohr–Coulomb’s plastic law. For the non-saturated state, capillary forces at the grain contacts are added to the contact forces created by an external load. They are calculated as a function of the degree of saturation, depending on the grain size distribution and on the void ratio of the granular assembly. Numerical simulations show that the model is capable of reproducing the major trends of a partially saturated granular assembly under various stress and water content conditions. The model predictions are compared to experimental results on saturated and unsaturated samples of silty sands under undrained triaxial loading condition. This comparison shows that the model is able to account for the influence of capillary forces on the stress–strain response of the granular materials and therefore, to reproduce the overall mechanical behavior of unsaturated granular materials.     

非饱和颗粒材料的多孔连续体有效压力与有效广义Biot应力

多孔连续体理论框架下的非饱和多孔介质广义有效压力定义和Bishop参数的定量表达式长期以来存在争议,这也影响了对与其直接相关联的非饱和多孔介质广义Biot有效应力的正确预测.基于随时间演变的离散固体颗粒-双联液桥-液膜体系描述的Voronoi胞元模型,利用由模型获得的非饱和颗粒材料表征元中水力-力学介观结构和响应信息,文章定义了低饱和度多孔介质局部材料点的有效内状态变量:非饱和多孔连续体的广义Biot有效应力和有效压力,导出了其表达式.所导出的有效压力公式表明,非饱和多孔连续体的有效压力张量为各向异性,它不仅对非饱和多孔连续体广义Biot有效应力张量的静水应力分量的影响呈各向异性,同时也对其剪切应力分量有影响.文章表明,非饱和多孔连续体中提出的广义Biot理论和双变量理论的基本缺陷在于它们均假定反映非混和两相孔隙流体对固相骨架水力-力学效应的有效压力张量为各向同性.此外,为定义各向同性有效压力张量和作为加权系数而引入的Bishop参数并不包含对非饱和多孔连续体中局部材料点水力-力学响应具有十分重要效应的基质吸力.所导出的非饱和多孔介质广义Biot有效应力和有效压力公式(包括反映有效压力...     

Dissipation consistent fabric tensor definition from DEM to continuum for granular media

In elastoplastic soil models aimed at capturing the impact of fabric anisotropy, a necessary ingredient is a measure of anisotropic fabric in the form of an evolving tensor. While it is possible to formulate such a fabric tensor based on indirect phenomenological observations at the continuum level, it is more effective and insightful to have the tensor defined first based on direct particle level microstructural observations and subsequently deduce a corresponding continuum definition. A practical means able to provide such observations, at least in the context of fabric evolution mechanisms, is the discrete element method (DEM). Some DEM defined fabric tensors such as the one based on the statistics of interparticle contact normals have already gained widespread acceptance as a quantitative measure of fabric anisotropy among researchers of granular material behavior. On the other hand, a fabric tensor in continuum elastoplastic modeling has been treated as a tensor-valued internal variable whose evolution must be properly linked to physical dissipation. Accordingly, the adaptation of a DEM fabric tensor definition to a continuum constitutive modeling theory must be thermodynamically consistent in regards to dissipation mechanisms. The present paper addresses this issue in detail, brings up possible pitfalls if such consistency is violated and proposes remedies and guidelines for such adaptation within a recently developed Anisotropic Critical State Theory (ACST) for granular materials.     

非饱和土力学理论的研究进展

回顾了非饱和土有效应力的发展,目前普遍认同采用两个应力变量来建立本构模型,且对基质吸力中毛细和粘吸两部分作用进行了阐述。分析了非饱和土强度问题,包括抗剪强度和抗拉强度。讨论了非饱和土的本构模型问题,包括基于净应力和基质吸力的弹塑性模型,基于Bishop有效应力和基质吸力的水力力学耦合弹塑性模型,以及双孔隙结构的模型。最后探讨了热力学方法和多孔介质理论在非饱和土中的应用,基于多孔介质理论在多场耦合条件下土体复杂的行为是当前值得研究的问题。     

Incorporating the effects of fabric in the dilatant double shearing model for planar deformation of granular materials

The objective of this paper is to incorporate the effects of fabric and its evolution into the Dilatant Double Shearing Model [Mehrabadi, M.M., Cowin, S.C., 1978. Initial planar deformation of dilatant granular materials. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 26, 269–284] for granular materials in order to capture the anisotropic behavior and the complex response of granular materials in cyclic shear loading. An important consequence of considering the fabric is that one can have unequal shearing rates along the two slip directions. This property leads to the non-coaxiality of the principal axes of stress and strain rate, which is more appropriate for a material that exhibits initial and induced anisotropy. In addition, we employ a fabric-dependent elasticity tensor with orthotropic symmetry. The model developed in this paper also predicts one of the experimentally observed characteristics of granular materials: the gradual concentration of the contact normals towards the maximum principal stress direction.We implement the constitutive equations into ABAQUS/Explicit by writing a user material subroutine in order to predict the strength anisotropy of granular materials in a plane strain biaxial compression test and investigate the mechanical behavior of granular materials under the cyclic shear loading conditions. The predictions from this model show good quantitative agreement with the experiments of [Park, C.S., 1990. Anisotropy in deformation and strength properties of sands in plane strain compression, Masters Thesis, University of Tokyo; Park, C.S., Tatsuoka, F., 1994. Anisotropic strength and deformation of sands in plane strain compression. In: XIII ICSMFE, New Delhi, India; Okada, N., 1992. Energy dissipation in inelastic flow of cohesionless granular media. Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, San Diego].     

Micro-scale behavior of granular materials during cyclic loading

This study presents the micro-scale behavior of granular materials under biaxial cyclic loading for differ- ent confining pressures using the two-dimensional （2D） discrete element method （DEM）. Initially, 8450 ovals were generated in a rectangular frame without any overlap. Four dense samples having confining pressures of 15, 25, 50, and 100 kPa were prepared from the initially generated sparse sample. Numeri- cal simulations were performed under biaxial cyclic loading using these isotropically compressed dense samples. The numerical results depict stress-strain-dilatancy behavior that was similar to that observed in experimental studies. The relationship between the stress ratio and dilatancy rate is almost indepen- dent of confining pressures during loading but significantly dependent on the confining pressures during unloading. The evolution of the coordination number, effective coordination number and slip coordina- tion number depends on both the confining pressures and cyclic loading. The cyclic loading significantly affects the microtopology of the granular assembly. The contact fabric and the fabric-related anisotropy are reported, as well. A strong correlation between the stress ratio and the fabric related to contact normals is observed during cyclic loading, irrespective of confining pressures.     

Necking of anisotropic micro-films with strain-gradient effects

Necking of stubby micro-films of aluminum is investigated numerically by considering tension of a specimen with an initial imperfection used to onset localisation. Plastic anisotropy is represented by two different yield criteria and strain-gradient effects are accounted for using the visco-plastic finite strain model. Furthermore, the model is extended to isotropic anisotropic hardening （evolving anisotropy）. For isotropic hardening plastic anisotropy affects the predicted overall nominal stress level, while the peak stress remains at an overall logarithmic strain corresponding to the hardening exponent. This holds true for both local and nonlocal materials. Anisotropic hardening delays the point of maximum overall nominal stress.     

Fabric and connectivity as field descriptors for deformations in granular media

Granular materials involve microphysics across the various scales giving rise to distinct behaviours of geomaterials, such as steady states, plastic limit states, non-associativity of plastic and yield flow, as well as instability of homogeneous deformations through strain localization. Incorporating such micro-scale characteristics is one of the biggest challenges in the constitutive modelling of granular materials, especially when micro-variables may be interdependent. With this motivation, we use two micro-variables such as coordination number and fabric anisotropy computed from tessellation of the granular material to describe its state at the macroscopic level. In order to capture functional dependencies between micro-variables, the correlation between coordination number and fabric anisotropy limits is herein formulated at the particle level rather than on an average sense. This is the essence of the proposed work which investigates the evolutions of coordination number distribution (connectivity) and anisotropy (contact normal) distribution curves with deformation history and their inter-dependencies through discrete element modelling in two dimensions. These results enter as probability distribution functions into homogenization expressions during upscaling to a continuum constitutive model using tessellation as an abstract representation of the granular system. The end product is a micro-mechanically inspired continuum model with both coordination number and fabric anisotropy as underlying micro-variables incorporated into a plasticity flow rule. The derived plastic potential bears striking resemblance to cam–clay or stress–dilatancy-type yield surfaces used in soil mechanics.     

Micro-scale behavior of granular materials during cyclic loading

This study presents the micro-scale behavior of granular materials under biaxial cyclic loading for different confining pressures using the two-dimensional (2D) discrete element method (DEM). Initially, 8450 ovals were generated in a rectangular frame without any overlap. Four dense samples having confining pressures of 15, 25, 50, and 100 kPa were prepared from the initially generated sparse sample. Numerical simulations were performed under biaxial cyclic loading using these isotropically compressed dense samples. The numerical results depict stress–strain–dilatancy behavior that was similar to that observed in experimental studies. The relationship between the stress ratio and dilatancy rate is almost independent of confining pressures during loading but significantly dependent on the confining pressures during unloading. The evolution of the coordination number, effective coordination number and slip coordination number depends on both the confining pressures and cyclic loading. The cyclic loading significantly affects the microtopology of the granular assembly. The contact fabric and the fabric-related anisotropy are reported, as well. A strong correlation between the stress ratio and the fabric related to contact normals is observed during cyclic loading, irrespective of confining pressures.     

Constitutive relations for the isotropic deformation of frictionless packings of polydisperse spheres

The isotropic compression of polydisperse packings of frictionless spheres is modeled with the Discrete Element Method (DEM). The evolution of coordination number, fraction of rattlers, isotropic fabric, and pressure (isotropic stress) is reported as function of volume fraction for different system parameters. The power law relationship, with power $\approx 1/2$, between coordination number and volume fraction is confirmed in the jammed state for a broad range of volume fractions and for different (moderate) polydispersities. The polydispersity in the packing causes a shift of the critical volume fraction, i.e., more heterogeneous packings jam at higher volume fractions. Close to jamming, the coordination number and the jamming volume fraction itself depend on both history and rate. At larger densities, neither the deformation history nor the loading rate have a significant effect on the evolution of the coordination number.Concerning the fabric tensor, comparing our DEM results to theoretical predictions, good agreement for different polydispersities is observed. An analytical expression for the pressure as function of isotropic (volumetric) strain is proposed for polydisperse packings, based on the assumption of uniform deformation. We note that, besides the implicit proportionality to contact number density (or fabric), no single power-law is evidenced in the relation between pressure and isotropic strain. However, starting from zero pressure at the jamming point, a linear term with a quadratic correction describes the stress evolution rather well for a broad range of densities and for various polydispersities. Finally, an incremental evolution equation is proposed for both fabric and stress, as function of isotropic strain, and involving the coordination number and the fraction of rattlers, as starting point for further studies involving anisotropic deformations.     

Stress Singularity in an Elastic Cylinder of Cylindrically Anisotropic Materials

The issue of stress singularity in an elastic cylinder of cylindrically anisotropic materials is examined in the context of generalized plane strain and generalized torsion. With a viewpoint that the singularity may be attributed to a conflicting definition of anisotropy at r=0, we study the problem through a compound cylinder in which the outer cylinder is cylindrically anisotropic and the core is transversely isotropic. By letting the radius of the core go to zero, the cylinder becomes one with the central axis showing no conflict in the radial and tangential directions. Closed-form solutions are derived for the cylinder under pressure, extension, torsion, rotation and a uniform temperature change. It is found that the stress is bounded everywhere, and singularity does not occur if the anisotropy at r=0 is defined appropriately. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.