Thermomicromechanics of dense granular materials

Abstract

A new approach is proposed for the development of a class of elastoplastic thermomicromechanical constitutive laws for dense, cohesionless granular media. The resulting constitutive law is expressed in terms of particle scale properties. Micromechanical relations for the internal variables, tied to nonaffine deformation and their evolution laws, are derived from a structural mechanics analysis of a particular mesoscopic event: confined, elastoplastic buckling of a force chain. The capabilities of the constitutive law to reproduce several defining aspects of material behavior, viz. strain-softening under dilatation, noncoaxiality, and the evolution of shear bands, are briefly discussed. © 200..