Highlights

This paper was presented at the 3rd International Conference on Discrete Element Methods - DEM 2002 held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, 23-25 September 2002.

The authors are indebted for the financial support of the German Science Foundation (DFG) within the research group Modellierung koh siver Reibungsmaterialien under Grant no. FOR 326. G. A. D'Addetta is grateful for the useful discussions with F. Kun from the University of Debrecen, Hungary.

Keywords Particle physics, Modelling

Abstract In this paper, a new homogenization technique for the determination of dynamic and kinematic quantities of representative elementary volumes (REVs) in granular assemblies is presented. Based on the definition of volume averages, expressions for macroscopic stress, couple stress, strain and curvature tensors are derived for an arbitrary REV. Discrete element model simulations of two different test set-ups including cohesionless and cohesive granular assemblies are used as a validation of the proposed homogenization technique. A non-symmetric macroscopic stress tensor, as well as couple stresses are obtained following the proposed procedure, even if a single particle is described as a standard continuum on the microscopic scale.

1. Introduction

The mechanical behavior of granular materials can be...