ABSTRACT
The deformation of a volume of sand comes about from particle rearrangement to new positions, and from particle crushing at larger stresses. It is desirable to be able to quantify the level of crushing inside a sand, as this affects the grain size distribution of the sample, which is directly linked to its permeability. In addition, under certain conditions, which need to be clarified, the crushing of one particle may lead to the crushing of a near neighbour, ultimately leading to the formation of a propagating compaction band. An attempt will be presented here to understand and predict the extent of crushing using a statistical analysis based on the results of discrete element simulations. The distributions of intergranular contact forces inside a DEM model of a sand will be coupled with an idealised distribution of crushing strengths of the sand grains. These will be combined to obtain the probabilities of crushing of grains within a stressed assembly. It is anticipated that DEM analyses and statistical reasoning may permit engineers to use grain-scale tests to predict the extent of crushing in a sample, and ultimately discriminate between cases of homogeneous crushing throughout a volume of sand and localised crushing in a compaction band.
