Mechanical behavior and particle crushing of irregular granular material under high pressure using discrete element method

This study investigated the influence of stress levels on the mechanical behavior and particle crushing of irregular granular materials. Granular materials with irregular sides were modelled using the discrete element method (DEM). A new method of using a shear fracture zone to characterize the deformation of irregular granular materials under high pressure was proposed. The crushing energy is analysed based on the first law of thermodynamics. The shear strength of irregular granular materials shows significantly nonlinear behavior due to particle crushing. The deformation behavior can be characterized with the help of particle rotation under low confining pressure, and can be characterized with the help of particle breakage under high confining pressure. Granular materials easily break into many single fine particles under high confining pressure. The breakage degree can be represented by the value of crushing energy. Irregular granular materials have a large breakage degree under high confining pressures. It weakens the stability of engineered structures constructed from granular materials.