Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

DEM investigation of the microscopic mechanism of scale effect of sandy gravel material

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Acta Geotechnica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Because of the limitations on laboratory space and testing apparatus, such as the load capacity, the mechanical properties of prototype rockfill materials are generally obtained from scaled-down samples. It has been generally accepted that the underestimation of the high rockfill dam deformation is primarily due to the scale effect of rockfill materials, i.e., there are differences between the mechanical properties of prototype materials and scaled-down samples. Recent experimental studies again demonstrate that the scale effect of rockfill materials consisting of sandy gravels and blasting rocks is different, and the underlying mechanism is still unclear. This study uses the discrete element method (DEM) to investigate the microscopic mechanism of the scale effect of sandy gravel material collected from Dashixia rockfill dam in China. The sandy gravel material composed of rounded gravel and pebbles is modeled as an assembly of spheres, and the rolling resistance at particle contacts considers the slight particle non-sphericity. The DEM input parameters are calibrated and verified by a series of single-particle crushing tests, angle of repose tests, and triaxial compression tests. The DEM simulations of triaxial compression tests are performed on samples with different particle crushing strengths and particle size distributions (PSD). Particle breakage weakens the shear strength and considerably lowers the deformation modulus of sandy gravel material. On the contrary, the widening of PSD has a significant effect on the force transmission structure, which is manifested as the increase in contact force and higher mobilization of frictional force at contacts, thus promoting the bulk resistance to deformation. The scale effect of sandy gravel material results from the competition between these two factors. As to the rounded gravel and pebbles studied here, the scale effect is dominated by the widening of PSD, which is confirmed by the increase in the deformation modulus and shear strength with an increase in maximum particle size and size span.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.

References

  1. Alonso EE, Oldecop L, Pinyol NM (2009) Long term behaviour and size effects of coarse granular media. Mech Nat Solids 255–282

  2. Azéma E, Linero S, Estrada N, Lizcano A (2017) Shear strength and microstructure of polydisperse packings: the effect of size span and shape of particle size distribution. Phys Rev E 96:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  3. Azéma E, Radjaï F (2012) Force chains and contact network topology in sheared packings of elongated particles. Phys Rev E Stat Soft Matter Phys 85:031303

    Google Scholar 

  4. Baudet B, Zhang X (2013) Particle breakage in gap-graded soil. Géotech Lett 3:72–77

    Google Scholar 

  5. Beakawi Al-Hashemi HM, Baghabra Al-Amoudi OS (2018) A review on the angle of repose of granular materials. Powder Technol 330:397–417

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ben-Nun O, Einav I (2010) The role of self-organization during confined comminution of granular materials. Philos Trans R Soc A Math Phys Eng Sci 368:231–247

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ben-Nun O, Einav I, Tordesillas A (2010) Force attractor in confined comminution of granular materials. Phys Rev Lett 104:108001

    Google Scholar 

  8. Chen Q, Zhou CJ, Wang C, Zhou C (2021) Size effect on creep behaviour and creep model of slate rockfill with oversized particles. Proc Inst Civ Eng-Geotech Eng 1–12

  9. Ciantia MO, Arroyo M, Calvetti F, Gens A (2015) An approach to enhance efficiency of dem modelling of soils with crushable grains. Geotechnique 65:91–110

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cil MB, Buscarnera G (2016) DEM assessment of scaling laws capturing the grain size dependence of yielding in granular soils. Granul Matter 18:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cil MB, Sohn C, Buscarnera G (2020) DEM modeling of grain size effect in brittle granular soils. J Eng Mech 146:04019138

    Google Scholar 

  12. Coetzee CJ (2017) Review: calibration of the discrete element method. Powder Technol 310:104–142

    Google Scholar 

  13. De Bono JP, McDowell GR (2014) DEM of triaxial tests on crushable sand. Granul Matter 16:551–562

    Google Scholar 

  14. de Bono JP, McDowell GR (2015) An insight into the yielding and normal compression of sand with irregularly-shaped particles using DEM. Powder Technol 271:270–277

    Google Scholar 

  15. Domenica C, Louis G (2022) Effects of parallel gradation on strength properties of ballast materials. Adv Meas Model Soil Behav 1–7

  16. Duan K, Kwok CY, Ma X (2017) DEM simulations of sandstone under true triaxial compressive tests. Acta Geotech 12:495–510

    Google Scholar 

  17. Einav I (2007) Breakage mechanics-part I: theory. J Mech Phys Solids 55:1274–1297

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Emanuele F (1969) Tests on cohesionless materials for rockfill dams. J Soil Mech Found Div 95:313–332

    Google Scholar 

  19. Frossard E, Hu W, Dano C, Hicher PY (2012) Rockfill shear strength evaluation: a rational method based on size effects. Geotechnique 62:415–427

    Google Scholar 

  20. Fu R, Hu X, Zhou B (2017) Discrete element modeling of crushable sands considering realistic particle shape effect. Comput Geotech 91:179–191

    Google Scholar 

  21. Gamboa CJN (2011) Mechanical behavior of rockfill materials: application to concrete face rockfill dams. Doctoral dissertation, École Centrale Paris

  22. Gao LS, Cai CG, Zhu JQ (2006) An analysis method for uncoupled K-G model parameters in site confined compression test of rock-fill materials and its application on CFRD. J Hydroelectr Eng 25:26–33

    Google Scholar 

  23. Guo WL, Zhu JG, Wen YF (2016) Unified description for four grading scale methods for coarse aggregate. Chin J Geotech Eng 38:1473–1480

    Google Scholar 

  24. Gupta AK (2016) Effects of particle size and confining pressure on breakage factor of rockfill materials using medium triaxial test. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 8:378–388

    Google Scholar 

  25. He JZ, Liu F, Deng G, Fu PC (2021) Relationships between gradation and deformation behavior of dense granular materials: Role of high-order gradation characteristics. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 45:1791–1808

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hu W, Dano C, Hicher PY, Le Touzo JY, Derkx F, Merliot E (2011) Effect of sample size on the behavior of granular materials. Geotech Test J 34:1–12

    Google Scholar 

  27. Huang X, Hanley KJ, O’Sullivan C, Kwok FCY (2014) Effect of sample size on the response of DEM samples with a realistic grading. Particuology 15:107–115

    Google Scholar 

  28. Huang QS, Zhou W, Ma G, Ng TT, Xu K (2020) Experimental and numerical investigation of Weibullian behavior of grain crushing strength. Geosci Front 11:401–411

    Google Scholar 

  29. Jia YF, Xu B, Chi SC, Xiang B, Zhou Y (2017) Research on the particle breakage of rockfill materials during triaxial tests. Int J Geomech 17:04017085

    Google Scholar 

  30. Jiang MD, Yang ZX, Barreto D, Xie YH (2018) The influence of particle-size distribution on critical state behavior of spherical and non-spherical particle assemblies. Granul Matter 20:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  31. Karatza Z, Andò E, Papanicolopulos SA, Viggiani G, Ooi JY (2019) Effect of particle morphology and contacts on particle breakage in a granular assembly studied using X-ray tomography. Granul Matter 21:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  32. Kong XJ, Liu JM, Zou DG (2016) Scale effect of rockfill and multiple-scale triaxial test platform. Chin J Geotech Eng 38:1941–1947

    Google Scholar 

  33. Kong XJ, Ning FW, Liu JM, Zou DG, Zhou CG (2019) Scale effect of rockfill materials using super-large triaxial tests. Chin J Geotech Eng 41:255–261

    Google Scholar 

  34. Kuang DM, Long ZL, Ogwu I, Chen Z (2021) A discrete element method (DEM)-based approach to simulating particle breakage. Acta Geotech 1–14

  35. Kuhn MR, Bagi K (2009) Specimen size effect in discrete element simulations of granular assemblies. J Eng Mech 135:485–492

    Google Scholar 

  36. Latham JP, Munjiza A, Garcia X, Xiang JS, Guises R (2008) Three-dimensional particle shape acquisition and use of shape library for DEM and FEM/DEM simulation. Miner Eng 21:797–805

    Google Scholar 

  37. Li C, He CR, Wang C, Zhao HF (2008) Study of scale effect of large-scale triaxial test of coarse-grained materials. Rock Soil Mech 29:563–566

    Google Scholar 

  38. Li SY, Wang TC, Wang H, Jiang MJ, Zhu JG (2022) Experimental studies of scale effect on the shear strength of coarse-grained soil. Appl Sci 12:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  39. Linero-Molina S, Azéma E, Estrada N, Fityus S, Simmons J, Lizcano A (2021) Impact of sample scaling on shear strength: coupled effects of grains size and shape. EPJ Web Conf 249:06011

    Google Scholar 

  40. Liu MC, Gao YF, Liu HL (2011) Effect of particle breakage on strength and deformation of modeled rockfills. Chin J Geotech Eng 33:1691–1699

    Google Scholar 

  41. Luo XF, Zhao L, Dong H (2021) Study on DEM parameter calibration and wear characteristics of vanadium-titanium magnetite pellets. Powder Technol 393:427–440

    Google Scholar 

  42. Ma G, Chang XL, Zhou W, Ng TT (2014) Mechanical response of rockfills in a simulated true triaxial test: a combined FDEM study. Geomech Eng 7:317–333

    Google Scholar 

  43. Ma G, Zhou W, Chang XL (2014) Modeling the particle breakage of rockfill materials with the cohesive crack model. Comput Geotech 61:132–143

    Google Scholar 

  44. Ma G, Zhou W, Chang XL, Chen MX (2016) A hybrid approach for modeling of breakable granular materials using combined finite-discrete element method. Granul Matter 18:1–17

    Google Scholar 

  45. Ma G, Zhou W, Regueiro RA, Wang Q, Chang XL (2017) Modeling the fragmentation of rock grains using computed tomography and combined FDEM. Powder Technol 308:388–397

    Google Scholar 

  46. Marachi N (1969) Strength and deformation characteristics of rockfills material. University of California, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  47. Marachi ND, Chan CKSHB (1972) Evaluation of properties of rockfill materials. J Soil Mech Found Div 98:95–114

    Google Scholar 

  48. Marsal RJ (1967) Large scale testing of rockfill materials. J Soil Mech Found Div 93:27–43

    Google Scholar 

  49. McDowell GR, de Bono JP (2013) On the micro mechanics of one-dimensional normal compression. Geotechnique 63:895–908

    Google Scholar 

  50. Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China. GB/T 50123–2019 Standard for geotechnical testing method. China Planning Press, 2019

  51. Nguyen DH, Azéma E, Sornay P, Radjai F (2015) Effects of shape and size polydispersity on strength properties of granular materials. Phys Rev E 91:032203

    Google Scholar 

  52. Ning FW, Kong XJ, Zou DG, Liu JM, Yu X, Zhou CG (2021) Scale effect of rockfill materials and its influences on deformation and stress analysis of Aertashi CFRD. Chin J Geotech Eng 43:263–270

    Google Scholar 

  53. Ouadfel H, Rothenburg L (2001) ‘Stress-force-fabric’ relationship for assemblies of ellipsoids. Mech Mater 33:201–221

    Google Scholar 

  54. Ovalle C, Dano C (2020) Effects of particle size–strength and size–shape correlations on parallel grading scaling. Géotech Lett 10:191–197

    Google Scholar 

  55. Ovalle C, Frossard E, Dano C, Hu W, Maiolino S, Hicher PY (2014) The effect of size on the strength of coarse rock aggregates and large rockfill samples through experimental data. Acta Mech 225:2199–2216

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  56. Qu TM, Wang M, Feng YT (2022) Applicability of discrete element method with spherical and clumped particles for constitutive study of granular materials. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 14:240–251

    Google Scholar 

  57. Radjai F, Jean M, Moreau J et al (2016) Force distributions in dense two-dimensional granular systems. Phys Rev Lett 77:274

    Google Scholar 

  58. Rahmani H, Panah AK (2021) Influence of particle size on particle breakage and shear strength of weak rockfill. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80:473–489

    Google Scholar 

  59. Shao XQ, Chi SC, Tao Y, Zhou XX (2020) DEM simulation of the size effect on the wetting deformation of rockfill materials based on single-particle crushing tests. Comput Geotech 123:103429

    Google Scholar 

  60. Sitharam TG, Nimbkar MS (2000) Micromechanical modelling of granular materials: Effect of particle size and gradation. Geotech Geol Eng 18:91–117

    Google Scholar 

  61. Thornton C, Antony SJ (1998) Quasi-static deformation of participate media. Philos Trans R Soc A Math Phys Eng Sci 356:2763–2782

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  62. Tsoungui O, Vallet D, Charmet JC (1999) Numerical model of crushing of grains inside two-dimensional granular materials. Powder Technol 105:190–198

    Google Scholar 

  63. Varadarajan A, Sharma KG, Venkatachalam K, Gupta AK (2003) Testing and modeling two rockfill materials. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 129:206–218

    Google Scholar 

  64. Voivret C, Radjaï F, Delenne JY, El Youssoufi MS (2009) Multiscale force networks in highly polydisperse granular media. Phys Rev Lett 102:2–5

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  65. Wang CH, Cheng YP, He XX, Yi MH, Wang ZY (2019) Size effect on uniaxial compressive strength of single coal particle under different failure conditions. Powder Technol 345:169–181

    Google Scholar 

  66. Wang JW, Chi SC, Shao XQ, Zhou XX (2021) Determination of the mechanical parameters of the microstructure of rockfill materials in triaxial compression DEM simulation. Comput Geotech 137:104265

    Google Scholar 

  67. Wang H, Cui YJ, Zhang F, Liu JJ (2022) Effect of grain breakage on the compressibility of soils. Acta Geotech 17:769–778

    Google Scholar 

  68. Wang J, Gutierrez M (2010) Discrete element simulations of direct shear specimen scale effects. Geotechnique 60:395–409

    Google Scholar 

  69. Wang Y, Ma G, Mei J, Zou YX, Zhang D, Zhou W (2021) Machine learning reveals the influences of grain morphology on grain crushing strength. Acta Geotech 16:3617–3630

    Google Scholar 

  70. Wang P, Yin ZY, Wang ZY (2022) Micromechanical investigation of particle-size effect of granular materials in biaxial test with the role of particle breakage. J Eng Mech 148:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  71. Wang SR, Zhu JG, Chen HF, Weng HY (2019) Study on strength and deformation characteristics of coarse aggregate after different grading scale methods. J Hebei Univ Eng 1:36–41

    Google Scholar 

  72. Wei KM, Zhu S, Yu XH (2014) Influence of the scale effect on the mechanical parameters of coarse-grained soils. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng 38:75–84

    Google Scholar 

  73. Wensrich CM, Katterfeld A (2012) Rolling friction as a technique for modelling particle shape in DEM. Powder Technol 217:409–417

    Google Scholar 

  74. Wiącek J, Molenda M (2014) Effect of particle size distribution on micro-and macromechanical response of granular packings under compression. Int J Solids Struct 51:4189–4195

    Google Scholar 

  75. Wiącek J, Molenda M (2016) Representative elementary volume analysis of polydisperse granular packings using discrete element method. Particuology 27:88–94

    Google Scholar 

  76. Wl GUO (2018) Study on the particle breakage evolution and constitutive model of coarse-grained soils. Hohai University, Nanjing ((in Chinese))

    Google Scholar 

  77. Wu W, Ma G, Zhou W, Wang D, Chang XL (2019) Force transmission and anisotropic characteristics of sheared granular materials with rolling resistance. Granul Matter 21:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  78. Wu LQ, Ye F, Lin WQ (2020) Experimental study on scale effect of mechanical properties of rockfill materials. Chin J Geotech Eng 42:141–145

    Google Scholar 

  79. Wu LQ, Zhu S, Zhang XH, Chen WL (2016) Analysis of scale effect of coarse-grained materials. Rock Soil Mech 37:2187–2197

    Google Scholar 

  80. Xiao Y, Liu HL, Chen YM, Jiang JS (2014) Strength and deformation of rockfill material based on large-scale triaxial compression tests. II. Influence of particle breakage. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 140:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  81. Xiao Y, Meng MQ, Daouadji A, Chen QS, Wu ZJ, Jiang X (2020) Effects of particle size on crushing and deformation behaviors of rockfill materials. Geosci Front 11:375–388

    Google Scholar 

  82. Xu K, Zhou W, Ma G, Chang XL, Yang LF (2018) Review of particle breakage simulation based on DEM. Chin J Geotech Eng 40:880–889

    Google Scholar 

  83. Yang G, Jiang Y, Nimbalkar S, Sun YF, Li NH (2019) Influence of particle size distribution on the critical state of rockfill. Adv Civ Eng 2019:1–7

    Google Scholar 

  84. Ye Y, Zeng YW, Sun HQ, Liu Y, Chen X, Ma WJ (2021) An experimental study on the influence of multiple contacts and size on contact behavior of marble sphere. Granul Matter 23:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  85. Yu FW (2017) Characteristics of particle breakage of sand in triaxial shear. Powder Technol 320:656–667

    Google Scholar 

  86. Zhao SW, Evans TM, Zhou XW (2018) Shear-induced anisotropy of granular materials with rolling resistance and particle shape effects. Int J Solids Struct 150:268–281

    Google Scholar 

  87. Zhao JD, Guo N (2014) Rotational resistance and shear-induced anisotropy in granular media. Acta Mech Solida Sin 27:1–14

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  88. Zhou LL, Chu XH, Xu YJ (2017) Breakage behavior of sand under true triaxial stress based on discrete element method. Chin J Geotech Eng 39:839–847

    Google Scholar 

  89. Zhou W, Hua JJ, Chang XL, Zhou CB (2011) Settlement analysis of the Shuibuya concrete-face rockfill dam. Comput Geotech 38:269–280

    Google Scholar 

  90. Zhou W, Liu JY, Ma G, Chang XL (2017) Three-dimensional DEM investigation of critical state and dilatancy behaviors of granular materials. Acta Geotech 12:527–540

    Google Scholar 

  91. Zhou W, Ma G, Chang X-L, Duan Y (2015) Discrete modeling of rockfill materials considering the irregular shaped particles and their crushability. Eng Comput 32:1104–1120

    Google Scholar 

  92. Zhou W, Ma G, Chang XL, Zhou CB (2013) Influence of particle shape on behavior of rockfill using a three-dimensional deformable DEM. J Eng Mech 139:1868–1873

    Google Scholar 

  93. Zhou X, Ma G, Zhang Y (2019) Grain size and time effect on the deformation of rockfill dams: a case study on the shuibuya CFRD. Geotechnique 69:606–619

    Google Scholar 

  94. Zhou W, Wang D, Ma G, Cao XX, Hu C, Wu W (2020) Discrete element modeling of particle breakage considering different fragment replacement modes. Powder Technol 360:312–323

    Google Scholar 

  95. Zhou W, Xu K, Ma G, Chang XL (2019) On the breakage function for constructing the fragment replacement modes. Particuology 44:207–217

    Google Scholar 

  96. Zhou W, Yang LF, Ma G, Chang XL, Cheng YG, Li DQ (2015) Macro–micro responses of crushable granular materials in simulated true triaxial tests. Granul Matter 17:497–509

    Google Scholar 

  97. Zhou W, Yang LF, Ma G, Chang XL, Lai ZQ (2016) DEM analysis of the size effects on the behavior of crushable granular materials. Granul Matter 18:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  98. Zhu S, Wang J, Zhong CX, Wu LQ (2019) Experimental study on scale effect of the dry density of rockfill material. Chin J Rock Mech Eng 38:1073–1080

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51825905, U1865204). The numerical calculations in this paper have been done on the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Ni An, Gang Ma, Di Wang & Wei Zhou

  2. Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics in Hydraulic Structural Engineering of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Ni An, Gang Ma, Di Wang & Wei Zhou

  3. Powerchina Xibei Engineering Corporation Limited, Xian, 710065, China

    Heng Zhou & Xi Lu

Authors
  1. Ni An
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gang Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Heng Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Di Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Xi Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wei Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gang Ma.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

An, N., Ma, G., Zhou, H. et al. DEM investigation of the microscopic mechanism of scale effect of sandy gravel material. Acta Geotech. 18, 1373–1390 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-022-01667-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-022-01667-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation