Title
A coupled MPM-DEM method for modelling soil-rock mixtures
Author
Li, Jianguo (Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Wang, Bin (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Wang, Di (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Zhang, Pei (Westlake University, Hangzhou)
Vardon, P.J. (TU Delft Geo-engineering) 
Date
2023
Abstract
Aiming at modelling the mechanical behaviour of soil-rock mixtures accurately and efficiently, a coupled MPM-DEM formulation combining the material point method (MPM) and the discrete element method (DEM) is proposed. It is solved concurrently via the contact force linking the two individual methods. Specifically, the soil is modelled with MPM as continuums to avoid handling the contacts between fine particles. The rocks are modelled by DEM to capture the contact characteristics of rocks. This method is validated with ball impacting and block sliding tests first for the contact between material points and DEM particles. Its capability in describing the mechanics of soil-rock mixtures is thereafter proved by comparing the simulation results with pure DEM simulations of binary mixtures and laboratory tests of soil-rock mixtures. It is demonstrated that MPM-DEM can reproduce the stress–strain response of soil-rock mixtures and capture the influence of rock contents and rock sizes. In addition, a coarse-graining modelling scheme is implemented, i.e., representing the soil particles with fewer material points, which significantly increases the efficiency compared with pure DEM. Our proposed method provides a novel way to model soil-rock mixtures with reasonable computational efforts, which sheds light on simulating large-scale soil-rock mixtures in nature or engineering.
Subject
Binary granular mixture
Discrete element method
Material point method
Soil-rock mixture
Triaxial test
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4e39c6d0-f26b-402c-8be5-2993088c5bee
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2023.105508
Embargo date
2023-11-10
ISSN
0266-352X
Source
Computers and Geotechnics, 160
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2023 Jianguo Li, Bin Wang, Di Wang, Pei Zhang, P.J. Vardon