Abstract
In this study the discrete element method (DEM) is developed in the framework of the constitutive law of elastic isotropic materials for two-dimensional plane stress analysis of solids. Contact stiffnesses (normal and tangential spring constants) are theoretically derived for hexagonal elements in an arbitrary arrangement as a function of thickness and material parameters including Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. Moreover, a new method is presented to calculate stress components within an element. To validate the accuracy and efficiency of our discrete model several test problems are given. At first, uniaxial tension test using a bar is performed and the convergence of the solution to a definite value in the limit of mesh refinement is validated. In addition, two examples of stress wave propagation problems are given. Compressive wave speed is calculated and through comparing the numerical results with the other discrete element models and also analytic solution, the accuracy of the present DEM model is then discussed.
