Self-stresses and Crack Formation by Particle Swelling in Cohesive Granular Media

Moulay Said El Youssoufi; Jean-Yves Delenne; Farhang Radjai

doi:10.1103/physreve.71.051307

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Self-stresses and Crack Formation by Particle Swelling in Cohesive Granular Media

Moulay Said El Youssoufi·Jean-Yves Delenne·Farhang Radjai

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Abstract

We present a molecular dynamics study of force patterns, tensile strength and crack formation in a cohesive granular model where the particles are subjected to swelling or shrinkage gradients. Non-uniform particle size change generates self-equilibrated forces that lead to crack initiation as soon as strongest tensile contacts begin to fail. We find that the coarse-grained stresses are correctly predicted by an elastic model that incorporates particle size change as metric evolution. The tensile strength is found to be well below the theoretical strength as a result of inhomogeneous force transmission in granular media. The cracks propagate either inward from the edge upon shrinkage and outward from the center upon swelling.

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Moulay Said El Youssoufi, Jean-Yves Delenne, Farhang Radjai. 2004-10-15. Self-stresses and Crack Formation by Particle Swelling in Cohesive Granular Media. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.71.051307

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