2005 Volume 45 Issue 4 Pages 79-87
Granular materials forming part of natural slopes, embankments, subgrades of foundations and pavement structures are subjected to both static and dynamic loads during their engineering lives. As a result of these loads, particle crushing occurs. The present study focuses on the evolution of crushing in a simulated granular material subjected to different combinations of biaxial stresses. It was found that the Discrete Element Method (DEM) can be used to visualize and understand the evolution of crushing experienced by a granular material under these conditions. Even though DEM does not normally consider particle breakage, it is possible to simulate crushing by replacing one particle that has failed in tension with a combination of many particles of different sizes. The results from the developed simulations indicated that the samples tended to achieve a fractal distribution of particle sizes, although at the end of the simulations these distributions were still being dominated by the size of the original particles. Changes in other properties of the simulated granular material such as the void ratio and the shear strength were also recorded and analyzed. It was found that the internal friction angle decreased as a result of particle crushing.
