Micromechanics of granular materials: An experimental investigation of shear behavior

Abstract eng:
The macroscopic behavior of granular materials is governed by micro-scale mechanics, including inter-particle forces and kine- matics. Although micromechanical tools have provided tremendous insight, they still lack quantitative accuracy and, associated with this, capacity to predict macroscopic behavior. We present here experiments in which we have successfully measured particle-scale kinematics and inter-particle forces in a two-dimensional idealized granular assembly subject to shear deformation. Kinematics are obtained using Digital Image Correlation (DIC). The inter-particle forces are inferred using the Granular Element Method (GEM), provided that average particle strains are measured and that the location of the contact points in the array is known. By seamlessly connecting particle-scale information to continuum scale experiments, we shed light into the multiscale mechanical behavior of granular assemblies under shear loading.

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