Fabric Evolution in Granular Materials Subject to Drained, Strain Controlled Cyclic Loading

While there have been many discrete element method (DEM) publications considering the micromechanics of granular materials subject to monotonic loading, studies of the particle-scale material response to cyclic or repeated loading have been comparatively rare. From a geotechnical perspective soil is subjected to repeated loading in a variety of situations. Examples include foundations to railways and roads, foundations to wind turbines, soil adjacent to integral bridges, etc. The work described in this paper extends an earlier study by O’Sullivan et al. [1]. In this earlier study, DEM simulations of strain controlled cyclic triaxial tests were coupled with laboratory experiments to validate a DEM model. The simulations were performed using the axi-symmetric DEM formulation proposed by [2] and a stress controlled membrane algorithm was used to apply forces to balls along the outer vertical boundaries to model the latex membrane used in the laboratory tests. Specimens of uniform spheres and mixtures of sphere sizes were considered in the validation stage of this research. The earlier study considered strain amplitudes of 1%, 0.5% and 0.1%. In the current study the response is extended to consider the smaller strain amplitude of 0.01%. All of the simulations were carried out in a quasi-static mode and in all cases the maximum stress level mobilized was significantly lower than the peak stress measured in equivalent monotonic physical tests and DEM simulations [2]. In examining the response of the material to the smaller strain amplitude, the macro scale analyses considered the stress strain response and specimen stiffness. At the particle scale, the variation in coordination number and deviator fabric are considered as well as the distribution of the contact forces orientations. The findings may provide insight to the development of continuum constitutive models for cyclic soil response that include fabric parameters [3].