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Exploring the influence of sphericity on the mechanical behaviors of ballast particles subjected to direct shear

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Abstract

To quantitatively evaluate the influence of shape on the mechanical behaviors of ballast, a series of 2D direct shear simulations were conducted on particles with different sphericities. The particle contours were obtained from the scanning images of 40 ballast particles, based on which the irregular-shaped particles were precisely reconstructed by clumps in the discrete element models. According to the sphericity, five assemblies were prepared for the direct shear simulation. Higher shear strength, vertical relative displacement and apparent angle of shear resistance were observed in assemblies consisting of low-sphericity particles. To explore the mechanism of macro-mechanical behaviors, an in-depth analysis of the mesoscopic responses was conducted. Two parameters were adopted to evaluate the anisotropy of the contact force distribution observed clearly in all samples and stronger anisotropy was found in samples with low-sphericity particles. The translational and rotational displacements of particles were also analyzed. Larger vertical displacements and less rotations were observed in samples with low-sphericity particles. The results suggest that particles with diverse shapes can produce varying particle interlock states and moving behaviors, hence influence the macro-mechanical behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 51878521, 51178358). The support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Yangzepeng Liu, Rui Gao & Jing Chen

  2. The Key Laboratory of Safety for Geotechnical and Structural Engineering of Hubei Province, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Yangzepeng Liu, Rui Gao & Jing Chen

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Correspondence to Rui Gao.

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Liu, Y., Gao, R. & Chen, J. Exploring the influence of sphericity on the mechanical behaviors of ballast particles subjected to direct shear. Granular Matter 21, 94 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-019-0943-1

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