Micromechanics of granular media. I: Generation of overall constitutive equation for assemblies of circular disks (Q2564571)

A mathematical model is presented in which the response of a macroscopic point is derived from the overall response of the particle assembly. The conventional hypothesis in computational plasticity is employed, i.e. the overall stress response of the assembly is determined from the micromechanical responses of the constituent granules to a given overall displacement gradient. An important feature of the present formulation is the quasi-static nature in which the micromechanical responses are computed. To assess the performance of the model, numerical results obtained from two-dimensional plane-strain simulations with regular and random initial packings of circular disks are presented.