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Examining The Use Of Idealized Granular Material In Validated Dem Simulations, Anjana Thoroppady Kittu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Discrete element method (DEM) modeling, is becoming widely used for understanding the micro-mechanical behavior of granular materials at the particle level. This dissertation presents important considerations regarding the experimental boundary conditions and idealized granular materials used in DEM validations.

A common issue in DEM validation studies for direct shear and direct simple shear is selecting top and bottom cap boundary conditions that allow for shear transmission while also being efficiently modeled in the DEM simulations. While the traditional grid boundary types used in the laboratory can be replicated in the numerical models, researchers have also used fixed-particle boundaries, sawtooth boundaries, …