Mechanical behaviour and rupture of cohesive granular media

The modelling of mechanical behaviour and rupture of cohesive granular media is carried out on a model medium made of aluminium cylinders and cohesive bonds playing the role of cohesion points. The mechanical behaviour of the cohesion point is studied under different loading Situations (compression, traction, shearing, torque). The results are introduced into a code, which is based on a discrete element method extended to the cohesive case. The validation is achieved with compression tests of macroscopic samples. We notice a good correlation between simulation and experiment on the mechanical behaviour, on the appearance of fractures and their propagation.