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Micro-scale investigation of the role of finer grains in the behavior of bidisperse granular materials

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Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of the effect of fine content on the mechanical behavior of bidisperse granular materials using the discrete element method. Triaxial compression tests are performed on different samples with fine contents varied from 0 to 40%. It was found that, starting from 20%, fine content has a visible effect on the shear strength. The optimal fine content is about 30%, at which the shear strength is the best. An investigation into the granular micro-structure showed that the fine particles, on one hand, come into contact with coarse particles, but on the other hand, separate the latter ones as fine content increases beyond 20%. Thus, the part of the shear stress carried by the coarse–fine contacts increases, while the part carried by the coarse–coarse contacts decreases. For fine content ≤ 30%, the coarse–coarse contacts primarily carry the shear stress. Above this optimal fine content, the fine–coarse contacts overtake the coarse–coarse ones. The fine–fine contacts have little contribution to supporting the shear stress. For the studied range of fine content, the coarse particles primarily carry the shear stress, leaving the fine particles under relatively low stresses. Moreover, the matrix composed of fine particles is greatly softened by the shear loading. A classification of binary mixtures depending on their micro-structure was also proposed.

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Abbreviations

\(f_c\) :

Fine content

\(f_n\), \(f_t\) :

Normal and tangential contact forces

\(K_n\), \(K_t\) :

Normal and tangential contact stiffnesses

\(k_n\), \(k_t\) :

Normal and tangential particle stiffnesses

\(E_{\mathrm{m}}\) :

Young’s modulus of the particle material

\(\varphi\) :

Contact friction angle

\(D_{\mathrm{min}}\), \(D_{\mathrm{max}}\) :

Minimum and maximum diameters of coarse particles

\(d_{\mathrm{min}}\), \(d_{\mathrm{max}}\) :

Minimum and maximum diameters of fine particles

\(G_{\mathrm{r}}\) :

Gap ratio

\(\varvec{\sigma }\) :

Stress tensor

p :

Mean stress

q :

Deviatoric stress

\(\varvec{\varepsilon }\) :

Strain tensor

\(\varepsilon _{11}\) :

Axial strain

\(\varepsilon _{\mathrm{v}}\) :

Volumetric strain

L :

Sample size

\(N_c\) :

Number of coarse particles

\(N_f\) :

Number of fine particles

\(C_{\mathrm{v}}\) :

Coefficient of variation

e :

Global void ratio

n :

Global porosity

\(e_c\) :

Intergranular void ratio

\(e_f\) :

Interfine void ratio

\(V_{\mathrm{v}}\), \(V_{\mathrm{s}}\) :

Void and solid volumes

F, C :

Fine and coarse fractions

\(C{-}C\) :

Coarse–coarse contacts

\(C{-}F\) :

Coarse–fine contacts

\(F{-}F\) :

Fine–fine contacts

\({\mathcal{N}}\) :

Coordination number

\({\mathcal{N}}_C^{C-C}\) :

Average number of \(C{-}C\) contacts per coarse particle

\({\mathcal{N}}_C^{C-F}\) :

Average number of \(C{-}F\) contacts per coarse particle

\({\mathcal{N}}_F^{F-F}\) :

Average number of \(F{-}F\) contacts per fine particle

\(\varvec{f}^k\) :

Force at a given contact k

\(\varvec{l}^k\) :

Branch vector joining two particle centers at a given contact k

\(\varvec{\sigma }^{C{-}C}\) :

Contribution of the \(C{-}C\) contacts to the macro-stress

\(\varvec{\sigma }^{C{-}F}\) :

Contribution of the \(C{-}F\) contacts to the macro-stress

\(\varvec{\sigma }^{F{-}F}\) :

Contribution of the \(F{-}F\) contacts to the macro-stress

\(\phi ^\alpha\) :

Volume fraction of a given phase \(\alpha\)

\(\varvec{\sigma }^\alpha\) :

Intrinsic averaged stress of a given phase \(\alpha\)

\(\widehat{\varvec{\sigma }}^\alpha\) :

Partial stress of a given phase \(\alpha\)

\(\varvec{M}^p\) :

Internal moment tensor of a given particle p

\(p^F\), \(q^F\) :

Mean and deviatoric stresses carried by the fine fraction

\(\alpha\) :

Stress reduction factor

\(\alpha _p^F\) :

Mean stress ratio for the fine fraction

\(\alpha _q^F\) :

Deviatoric stress ratio for the fine fraction

\(\widehat{p}^F\) :

Contribution of the fine fraction to the macroscopic mean stress

\(\widehat{q}^F\) :

Contribution of the fine fraction to the macroscopic deviatoric stress

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the charitable and cultural association of Nabatieh-Lebanon and Cedre program of the French and Lebanese scientific cooperation for the financial support for this research project.

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Correspondence to Ngoc-Son Nguyen.

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Taha, H., Nguyen, NS., Marot, D. et al. Micro-scale investigation of the role of finer grains in the behavior of bidisperse granular materials. Granular Matter 21, 28 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-019-0867-9

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