ABSTRACT
A variety of axi-symmetric systems are of interest to geotechnical engineers. At the laboratory scale, the triaxial test apparatus, the hollow cylinder apparatus, and the ring shear apparatus are all geometrically axi-symmetric.Axi-symmetric conditions are encountered in the field during cone penetration testing and pile installation. While a three-dimensional analysis is essential to develop insight into the fundamental mechanics of the material response in these systems, three-dimensional discrete element analyses are computationally expensive. The current paper proposes an axi-symmetric analysis approach that significantly reduces the computational cost of discrete element simulations of such systems, while maintaining a continuous system of particle-to-particle contacts in every direction throughout the granular material.
