Percolating Contact Subnetworks on the Edge of Isostaticity

Abstract

We search for a percolating, strong subnetwork of contacts in a quasi-statically deforming, frictional granular material. Of specific interest in this study is that subnetwork which contributes to the majority of the total deviator stress and is, or is on the edge of being, isostatic. We argue that a subnetwork derived from the minimal spanning trees of a graph optimized to include as many elastic contacts as possible and which bear normal contact forces above a given threshold delivers such a network. Moreover adding the strong 3-force-cycles to the spanning tree introduces a level of redundancy required to achieve a network that is almost if not isostatic. Results are shown for assemblies of non-uniformly sized circular particles under biaxial compression, in two-dimensions: a discrete element (DEM) simulation of monotonic loading under constant confining pressure, and cyclic loading of photoelastic disks under constant volume.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA582735

Entities

People

  • Antoinette Tordesillas
  • Colin Thornton
  • David M. Walker
  • Jie Zhang
  • John F. Peters
  • Robert Behringer

Organizations

  • University of Melbourne

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Assembly
  • Elastic Properties
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Granular Materials
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Mechanics
  • Numerical Analysis
  • Particles
  • Phase
  • Simplex Method
  • Simulations
  • Structural Mechanics
  • Topology
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Computer Networking
  • Mechanical Engineering/Mechanics of Materials.
  • Structural Dynamics.