Investigation of the deformable behavior of loose and dense sand through DEM

The deformable behavior of ideal granular material under external loading, especially in monotonic condition, has always been of keen interest to geotechnical engineers. Earlier researchers have reproduced the fundamental stress-strain-dilation relationships at macro scale by distinct element method (DEM). Particle shape and servo controlled boundary are always assumed to be in regular and rigid conditions. In this paper, the elongated particles are prepared for generating loose and dense consolidated specimen. Meanwhile, lateral flexible boundary is applied for simulatingthe visualizedshear band, where the confining stress is fixed at 50kPa for loading procedure. The evaluations of macro qualities or micro statistical indexes are presented for finding the characteristic states of Quasi-static shear deformation. The results indicate that the initial particles' internal contact and spatial arrangement would govern the followed shearing behavior. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.