Effect of Particle Shape on Transport Property and Mechanical Behaviour of Granular Assemblies: Exploration of Macro, Meso and Micro Behaviours (Ii)(1/2)

With many thanks to the financial support from MOST, the project 「Effect of particle shape ontransport property and mechanical behaviour of granular assemblies: exploration of macro, meso andmicro behaviours (I)」was granted last year. The previous project designed rotation test and silo dischargetest in water for granular assemblies. This year project continues to systematically study the effect of particleshape on transport property and mechanical behaviour of granular assemblies subjected to different loadingscenarios and further explore the dependence of the macro, meso and micro behaviours upon the particleshape.Different loading scenarios, including vibration test, shear cell test, confined compression test andJenike shear test, are designed and applied to the granular assemblies. Particle shapes, such as spherical shape,ellipsoidal shape I (aspect ratio=1.5), ellipsoidal shape II (aspect ratio=2.0), paired particle shape andcylindrical shape, will be studied. The vibration test, shear cell test and Jenike shear test for these particleswill be conducted and the corresponding simulations of discrete element method (DEM) will be performed.The confined compression test of granular solids will also be conducted and the corresponding LinkedDEM-FEM simulations will be performed. The macro behaviours, such as the transport properties (i.e. localaverage velocity, local fluctuation velocity, granular temperature, fluctuation velocity distribution andself-diffusion coefficient) and the properties of force transmission (i.e. load-displacement response, forcetransmission to boundary surfaces, lateral pressure ratio, mobilized bulk wall friction coefficient, shearstrength and stress distribution on contacting structures), will be calculated. The comparison betweennumerical simulation and physical experiment will be made and discussed. The discrepancy will be found outand the modelling technique will then be modified.After careful validation for the numerical models, the meso and micro behaviours (meso properties:solid fraction, strain and stress; micro properties: force chain, coordination number and fabric) will beevaluated. The effect of particle shape on macro, meso and micro behaviours of granular assemblies will beexplored. This project will provide useful and valuable strategies for DEM applications to realisticengineering problems in industries.