Simulation of triaxial response of granular materials by modified DEM

A modified discrete element method (DEM) with rolling effect taken into consideration is developed to examine macroscopic behavior of granular materials in this study. Dimensional analysis is firstly performed to establish the relationship between macroscopic mechanical behavior, mesoscale contact parameters at particle level and external loading rate. It is found that only four dimensionless parameters may govern the macroscopic mechanical behavior in bulk. The numerical triaxial apparatus was used to study their influence on the mechanical behavior of granular materials. The parametric study indicates that Poisson’s ratio only varies with stiffness ratio, while Young’s modulus is proportional to contact modulus and grows with stiffness ratio, both of which agree with the micromechanical model. The peak friction angle is dependent on both inter-particle friction angle and rolling resistance. The dilatancy angle relies on inter-particle friction angle if rolling stiffness coefficient is sufficiently large. Finally, we have recommended a calibration procedure for cohesionless soil, which was at once applied to the simulation of Chende sand using a series of triaxial compression tests. The responses of DEM model are shown in quantitative agreement with experiments. In addition, stress-strain response of triaxial extension was also obtained by numerical triaxial extension tests.