ABSTRACT
The constitutive relations of granular materials exhibit a great variety as a result of loading sensitive particle arrangements. Multi-scale investigations play a vital role in the current research on the elementary behaviour of granular materials. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) (Cundall and Strack, 1979) is a powerful tool in these developments. DEM reveals the consequence of a complex discrete system consisting of a large number of particles when subjected to inevitable idealizations and assumptions on particle geometries and interactions.The macro-scale observation is found to be in qualitative agreements with the laboratory observations on real granular materials.The DEM simulations can therefore be used to explore the micromechanics of granular materials. DEM is attractive because the observations both on continuum scale material responses and on detailed micro-scale information of particle displacements and interactions are easily accessible at any stage of loading.
