Multiscale mechanical behaviors in discrete materials: a review

The discrete material, which belongs to the category of soft materials, is one of the most prevalent forms of matter in nature and engineering fields. These materials often exhibit abundant and complex mechanical properties which are still far from being perfectly understood. From the view of multi-scale framework concentrated on the ‘bridge’ role in the macro-micro relation, this review mainly introduces some theoretical investigations of mechanical behaviors in discrete materials, including the continuum constitutive model based on the macroscopic phe-nomenological approach and coupled micro-macro approach, the statistical analysis of some microscopic physical quantities involved contacted forces between particles and its transmission within the whole system, and the statistical analysis for some microscopic processes in aeolian landform systems involving the grain-bed impact, the transportation and sedimentation of wind-blown sand flux, et al. Finally, some further worthwhile challenges in these fields are suggested.