Micromechanical modelling of powder compaction (Q5933905)

To model the compactification of a granular material by accounting for its microstructural properties, three different models (one isotropic, two anisotropic) are proposed and tested against each other (and, where available, against experimental data) in several scenarios. Provided that the contact moments are negligible, simulations prove that the (ansiotropic, static) Reuss approach is favorable against the (anisotropic, kinematic) Voigt approach and an isotropic model based on yield surfaces. For proportional loading, the Reuss model and isotropic model give similar results, while the Voigt model does not yield quantitatively realistic ones. Investigations leading to these conclusions have been related to i) lateral stress during die-pressing; ii) density of compacts produced by proportional loading; iii) probing the yield surface; and iv) hydrostatic re-compactifiation. The paper is well written, and the equations are carefully derived from the principle of virtual work. 8 plots illustrate the computations.