Non-spherical Particle Modelling Approach in Discrete Element Method and its Validations

Abstract

Abstract The discrete element method (DEM) is widely used for investigating the mechanical behaviours of complex physical system consisting of particles. In nature, the physical system such as rock and soil system, sand or flour are all composed of particles with different shapes. The particle shape can considerably influence nature characteristics in DEM simulation. Developing an effective particle shapes representation approach is a valuable task to improve the DEM modelling techniques. In this study, a super-quadrics function is introduced to represent the non-spherical particle shape. Furthermore, the corresponding contact detection and calculation algorithm named “deepest point method” is also explained to describe the complex contact relationships and calculate the contact forces between two irregular particles. At last, sandpile collapse simulations were conducted to validate the accuracy of the proposed approach. The numerical results indicate that the non-spherical particle modelling approach in this study can easily simulate most nature shape of particle system.