Tracking the Rheological Behavior Change of a Fresh Granular-Cement Paste Material to a Granular Material Based on DEM

Abstract

The common approach to describe the rheological behavior of a granular-paste material relies on a description of the motion within the frame of continuum mechanics. However, since a granular-paste system cannot be considered as a homogeneous continuous fluid its behavior should not be estimated by common fluid models, such as Bingham or Herschell Bulkley models. Therefore, a continuum approach is not considered the best option to study the phase effects of a multi-phase material and its corresponding rheological behavior. In this particular case analytical techniques based on the multi-phase models are required. A more appropriate approach is to consider a granular-paste material as a two phase model that accounts for the effect of the gradually decreasing the volume fraction of the pasty phase until getting to zero value on the rheological behavior of the material. In this investigation, a cone test is used to evaluate the rheological behavior of a granular mix where a discrete element method (DEM) is considered as a basis of the numerical simulation.