Microstructural analysis of sheared polydisperse polyhedral grains

Abstract

© 2020 American Physical Society. This article presents an analysis of the shear strength of numerical samples composed of polyhedra presenting a grain size dispersion. Previous numerical studies using, for instance, disks, polygons, and spheres, have consistently shown that microstructural properties linked to the fabric and force transmission allow granular media to exhibit a constant shear resistance although packing fraction can dramatically change as a broader grain-size distribution is considered. To have a complete picture of such behavior, we developed a set of numerical experiments in the frame of the discrete element method to test the shear strength of polydisperse samples composed of polyhedral grains. Although the contact networks and force transmission are quite more complex for such generalized grain shape, we can verify that the shear strength independence still holds up for 3D regular polyhedra. We make a particular focus upon the role of different contact types in the assemblies and their relative contributions to the granular connectivity and sample strength. The invariance of shear strength at the macroscopic scale results deeply linked to fine compensations at the microstructural level involving geometrical and force anisotropies of the assembly.