Evaluation of Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio of Granular Materials Using Discrete Element Approach

In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the influence of different parameters such as number of cycles, confining pressure, void ratio, gradation, initial anisotropy and stress path on the dynamic properties of granular materials using Discrete Element Method (DEM). A series of strain controlled cyclic triaxial numerical simulations using three dimensional DEM have been carried out on an assembly of spheres. Dynamic properties such shear modulus (G) and damping ratio (D) were determined from the typical hysteresis loop obtained during cyclic triaxial test simulation. It has been observed from the test results that the numerical simulation using DEM has captured the variation of dynamic properties over a wide range of shear strain values for different parameters considered for the current investigation. Maximum shear modulus (Gmax) was found to be influenced by initial confining pressure, void ratio, gradation and initial anisotropy. Whereas, the damping ratio (D) was found to be influenced by number of cycles, initial confining pressure, gradation and stress path. Further it has been shown that the variation of shear modulus with shear strain can be divided into three distinct zones such as Isotropic Zone (IZ), Anisotropic Zone (AZ) and Stable Anisotropic Zone (SAZ). A drastic reduction of shear modulus with shear strain has been observed in the Anisotropic Zone (AZ). In addition, the results obtained using numerical simulations have been compared with the laboratory experimental values. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.