Behaviour Of Granular Materials

This book presents a complete and comprehensive analysis of the behaviour of granular materials including the description of experimental results, the different ways to define the global behaviour from local phenomena at the particle scale, the various modellings which can be used for a D.E.M. analysis to solve practical problems and finally the analysis of strain localisation. The concepts developed in this book are applicable to many kinds of granular materials considered in civil, mechanical or chemical engineering.

Granular or particulate materials arise in almost every aspect of our lives, including many familiar materials such as tea, coffee, sugar, sand, cement and powders. At some stage almost every industrial process involves a particulate material, and it is usually the cause of the disruption to the smooth running of the process. In the natural environment, understanding the behaviour of particulate materials is vital in many geophysical processes such as earthquakes, landslides and avalanches. This book is a collection of current research from some of the major contributors in the topic of modelling the behaviour of granular materials. Papers from every area of current activity are included, such as theoretical, numerical, engineering and computational approaches. This book illustrates the numerous diverse approaches to one of the outstanding problems of modern continuum mechanics.

In view of its extreme complexity the mathematical description of the mechanical behaviour of granular materials is an extremely difficult task. Today many different models compete with each other. However, the complexity of the models hinders their comparison, and the potential users are confused and, often, disencouraged. This book is expected to serve as a milestone in the present situation, to evaluate the present methodes, to clear up the situation, to focus and encourage for further research activities.