El Youssoufi MS, Delenne JY, Radjai F. Self-stresses and crack formation by particle swelling in cohesive granular media.
PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2005;
71:051307. [PMID:
16089528 DOI:
10.1103/physreve.71.051307]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2004] [Revised: 03/31/2005] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
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. Nonuniform particle size change generates self-equilibrated forces that lead to crack initiation as soon as the strongest tensile contacts begin to fail. We find that the tensile strength is 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 or outward from the center upon swelling. We show that the coarse-grained stresses are correctly predicted by an elastic model that incorporates particle size change as metric evolution.
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