ABSTRACT

The identification of a mesoscopic length scale is achieved by inspecting numerical simulations and filtering the variations in the strain pattern. An identification with a heterogeneous continuum theory yields the result that the meso scale is approximately of the order of five particle diameters. Multi-particle correlations are introduced and the ‘intensity’ of the correlation as a function of the interparticle distance is discussed. A homogenisation based on the distinction of these scales is then introduced and a quite natural ordering follows, which is applied by way of example to an isotropic medium. The microscopic data are extracted from a numerical simulation.