ABSTRACT
The distinct element method (DEM) is widely used to perform granular media simulations. The two key elements this requires are an adequate model for interparticulate contact forces and an efficient contact detection method. Although this method originally handles granular media composed of spherical particles, making it possible to process non-spherical particles has turned out to be of utmost importance. Indeed it is such grains that one finds in nature and many important phenomena cannot be reproduced just using spherical grains. Here, we propose a generalization of the distinct element method to a wide range of non-spherical particles. In the following, we describe some of the shapes this generalization will be able to work with and explain how the contact force models should be handled. Then, we address the question of detecting contacts between pairs of such particles, by generalizing the method described in (Ferrez and Liebling 2002) which relies on the properties of the weighted Delaunay triangulations to detect contacts in the spherical particles case.
