A Micro-Polar Hypoplastic Approach to Interface Shear Behavior of Granular Materials

This paper presents the results of numerical simulations of plane shearing of a cohesionless granular soil layer in contact with a rough surface of a moving bounding structure. A hypoplastic constitutive model formulated within the framework of a micro-polar continuum is employed to describe the mechanical behavior of granular soil. Special attention is paid to the influence of the interface friction prescribed between the rough surface of the bounding structure and the granular soil body. While in previous investigations conducted by the authors only very rough interfaces were considered, the main focus of the present simulations is on the special cases of a medium rough interface when the interface friction angle is lower than the peak friction angle of the granular material. It is shown that the prescribed interface friction angle, which represents the surface roughness of the bounding structure, significantly affects the shear deformation of the granular soil body.