Micromechanics of granular media Part I: Generation of overall constitutive equation for assemblies of circular disks Original Research Article

Many problems of special interest to engineers and earth scientists involve characterization of the overall engineering behavior of granular media. Granular materials respond quite differently from polycrystalline materials such as metals due to their particulate nature and random microstructure. Since the particle-to-particle interaction is frictional in nature, contacts in granular media can easily form or break as the particles move towards their new equilibrium positions. From a modeling standpoint, the prediction of the new microstructure of a granular material is a major source of numerical difficulty. Consequently, the effects of microstructure on the overall response of granular media remain hardly understood.