Contact disorder and force distribution in granular materials

Jean-Noël Roux (1)

1 LCPC - Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées

Thanks to extensive numerical simulations of a simple two-dimensional model of a granular packing, we identify a characteristic length for stress inhomogeneity that is significantly larger than the grain size, and accurately compute the contact force distribution. The effects of load orientation (biaxial test) are studied and the influence of some basic simplifying assumptions (small displacements, no friction...) is discussed, which allows us to shed some light on the possible microscopic origins of some generic mechanical behaviours of granular materials.

Mots clés: granular material; isostaticity; stress-strain relation

Domaines: Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

Jean-Noël Roux. Contact disorder and force distribution in granular materials. Saint-Venant symposium, Jul 1997, Champs-sur-Marne, France. pp. 577-584. ⟨hal-00354715⟩