ABSTRACT
DEM is not a new technique; however, a widespread appreciation of the method amongst the geomechanics research community has only recently been achieved and awareness of the technique in geotechnical practice remains limited. The seminal paper on DEM from the perspective of geomechanics was published in 1979 (Cundall and Strack, 1979a). As noted in Chapter 1, molecular dynamics is a technique that shares algorithmic similarities with particulate DEM. Molecular dynamics was originally developed in the 1950s. However, the computational cost of simulations using particulate DEM codes has rendered them relatively inaccessible and unattractive to both researchers and practitioners until relatively recently. Consequently, at the time of writing, and considering its slow uptake in the geotechnical industry in particular to date, it is probably still reasonable to echo the comment of Rapaport (2004) (who considered molecular dynamics) and state that the method is not \fully mature." This nal Chapter presents some (subjective) ideas of how DEM use within the geotechnical engineering is likely to evolve in coming years.
