Formulation and numerical implementation of micro-scale boundary conditions for particle aggregates
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to propose a novel methodology to deal with micro-structural boundary conditions for the analysis of granular materials. The response of the granular assembly is modelled through the discrete element method (DEM), consistent with a micro-macro homogenization scheme formulated in the transition from a continuous to a discrete setting. The three classical types of boundary conditions (displacement, periodic and displacement) are implemented with a servo-control method. Two types of algorithms are developed, which consider or not an initial prediction for the displacement field of the particles. Additionally, to simulate in a more realistic manner the effect of macroscopic deformation on the micro-structure, a mixed type of boundary conditions is introduced, i.e. a combination of classical boundary conditions. The effectiveness of the algorithms is tested on a series of DEM simulations. The influence of the micro-structural morphology and of the size of the micro-structure on the overall response is finally investigated.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1612.07006,
title = {Formulation and numerical implementation of micro-scale boundary conditions for particle aggregates},
author = {J. Liu and E. Bosco and A. S. J. Suiker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.07006},
year = {2017}
}