skip to main content


Title: On the statics and dynamics of granular-microstructured rods with higher order effects
Granular-microstructured rods show strong dependence of grain-scale interactions in their mechanical behavior, and therefore, their proper description requires theories beyond the classical theory of continuum mechanics. Recently, the authors have derived a micromorphic continuum theory of degree n based upon the granular micromechanics approach (GMA). Here, the GMA is further specialized for a one-dimensional material with granular microstructure that can be described as a micromorphic medium of degree 1. To this end, the constitutive relationships, governing equations of motion and variationally consistent boundary conditions are derived. Furthermore, the static and dynamic length scales are linked to the second-gradient stiffness and micro-scale mass density distribution, respectively. The behavior of a one-dimensional granular structure for different boundary conditions is studied in both static and dynamic problems. The effects of material constants and the size effects on the response of the material are also investigated through parametric studies. In the static problem, the size-dependency of the system is observed in the width of the emergent boundary layers for certain imposed boundary conditions. In the dynamic problem, microstructural effects are always present and are manifested as deviations in the natural frequencies of the system from their classical counterparts.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1727433
NSF-PAR ID:
10276135
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids
ISSN:
1081-2865
Page Range / eLocation ID:
108128652110099
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Granular micromechanics approach (GMA) provides a predictive theory for granular material behavior by connecting the grain-scale interactions to continuum models. Here we have used GMA to predict the closed-form expressions for elastic constants of macro-scale chiral granular metamaterial. It is shown that for macro-scale chirality, the grain-pair interactions must include coupling between normal and tangential deformations. We have designed such a grain-pair connection for physical realization and quantified with FE model. The verification of the prediction is then performed using a physical model of 1D bead string obtained by 3D printing. The behavior is also verified using a discrete model of 1D bead string. 
    more » « less
  2. Summary

    Geomaterials such as sand and clay are highly heterogeneous multiphase materials. Nonlocality (or a characteristic length scale) in modeling geomaterials based on the continuum theory can be associated with several factors, for instance, the physical interactions of material points within finite distance, the homogenization or smoothing process of material heterogeneity, and the particle or problem size‐dependent mechanical behavior (eg, the thickness of shear bands) of geomaterials. In this article, we formulate a nonlocal elastoplastic constitutive model for geomaterials by adapting a local elastoplastic model for geomaterials at a constant suction through the constitutive correspondence principle of the state‐based peridynamics theory. We numerically implement this nonlocal constitutive model via the classical return‐mapping algorithm of computational plasticity. We first conduct a one‐dimensional compression test of a soil sample at a constant suction through the numerical model with three different values of the nonlocal variable (horizon)δ. We then present a strain localization analysis of a soil sample under the constant suction and plane strain conditions with different nonlocal variables. The numerical results show that the proposed nonlocal model can be used to simulate the inception and propagation of shear banding as well as to capture the thickness of shear bands in geomaterials at a constant suction.

     
    more » « less
  3. For many problems in science and engineering, it is necessary to describe the collective behavior of a very large number of grains. Complexity inherent in granular materials, whether due the variability of grain interactions or grain-scale morphological factors, requires modeling approaches that are both representative and tractable. In these cases, continuum modeling remains the most feasible approach; however, for such models to be representative, they must properly account for the granular nature of the material. The granular micromechanics approach has been shown to offer a way forward for linking the grain-scale behavior to the collective behavior of millions and billions of grains while keeping within the continuum framework. In this paper, an extended granular micromechanics approach is developed that leads to a micromorphic theory of degree n. This extended form aims at capturing the detailed grain-scale kinematics in disordered (mechanically or morphologically) granular media. To this end, additional continuum kinematic measures are introduced and related to the grain-pair relative motions. The need for enriched descriptions is justified through experimental measurements as well as results from simulations using discrete models. Stresses conjugate to the kinematic measures are then defined and related, through equivalence of deformation energy density, to forces conjugate to the measures of grain-pair relative motions. The kinetic energy density description for a continuum material point is also correspondingly enriched, and a variational approach is used to derive the governing equations of motion. By specifying a particular choice for degree n, abridged models of degrees 2 and 1 are derived, which are shown to further simplify to micro-polar or Cosserat-type and second-gradient models of granular materials.

     
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    This paper is devoted to the development of a continuum theory for materials having granular microstructure and accounting for some dissipative phenomena like damage and plasticity. The continuum description is constructed by means of purely mechanical concepts, assuming expressions of elastic and dissipation energies as well as postulating a hemi-variational principle, without incorporating any additional postulate like flow rules. Granular micromechanics is connected kinematically to the continuum scale through Piola's ansatz. Mechanically meaningful objective kinematic descriptors aimed at accounting for grain-grain relative displacements in finite deformations are proposed. Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) type conditions, providing evolution equations for damage and plastic variables associated to grain-grain interactions, are derived solely from the fundamental postulates. Numerical experiments have been performed to investigate the applicability of the model. Cyclic loading-unloading histories have been considered to elucidate the material-hysteretic features of the continuum, which emerge from simple grain-grain interactions. We also assess the competition between damage and plasticity, each having an effect on the other. Further, the evolution of the load-free shape is shown not only to assess the plastic behavior, but also to make tangible the point that, in the proposed approach, plastic strain is found to be intrinsically compatible with the existence of a placement function. 
    more » « less
  5. The flow threshold in dense granular materials is typically modeled by local, stress-based criteria. However, grain-scale cooperativity leads to size effects that cannot be captured with local conditions. In a widely studied example, flows of thin layers of grains down an inclined surface exhibit a size effect whereby thinner layers require more tilt to flow. In this paper, we consider the question of whether the size-dependence of the flow threshold observed in inclined plane flow is configurationally general. Specifically, we consider three different examples of inhomogeneous flow – planar shear flow with gravity, annular shear flow, and vertical chute flow – using two-dimensional discrete-element method calculations and show that the flow threshold is indeed size-dependent in these flow configurations, displaying additional strengthening as the system size is reduced. We then show that the nonlocal granular fluidity model – a nonlocal continuum model for dense granular flow – is capable of quantitatively capturing the observed size-dependent strengthening in all three flow configurations. 
    more » « less