Gilles Saussine

Quasistatic rheology, force transmission and fabric properties of a packing of irregular polyhedral particles

By means of contact dynamics simulations, we investigate a dense packing composed of polyhedral particles under quasistatic shearing. The effect of particle shape is analyzed by comparing the polyhedra packing with a packing of similar characteristics except for the spherical shape of the particles. The polyhedra packing shows higher shear stress and dilatancy but similar stress-dilatancy relation compared to the sphere packing. A harmonic approximation of granular fabric is presented in terms of branch vectors (connecting particle centers) and contact force components along and perpendicular to the branch vectors. It is found that the origin of enhanced shear strength of the polyhedra packing lies in its higher force anisotropy with respect to the sphere packing which has a higher fabric anisotropy. Various contact types (face-vertex, face-face, etc) contribute differently to force transmission and fabric anisotropy. In particular, most face-face contacts belong to strong force chains along the major principal stress direction whereas vertex-face contacts are correlated with weak forces and oriented on average along the minor principal stress direction in steady shearing.

Vibrational dynamics of confined granular materials.

By means of two-dimensional contact dynamics simulations, we analyze the vibrational dynamics of a confined granular layer in response to harmonic forcing. We use irregular polygonal grains allowing for strong variability of solid fraction. The system involves a jammed state separating passive (loading) and active (unloading) states. We show that an approximate expression of the packing resistance force as a function of the displacement of the free retaining wall from the jamming position provides a good description of the dynamics. We study in detail the scaling of displacements and velocities with loading parameters. In particular, we find that, for a wide range of frequencies, the data collapse by scaling the displacements with the inverse square of frequency, the inverse of the force amplitude, and the square of gravity. Interestingly, compaction occurs during the extension of the packing, followed by decompaction in the contraction phase. We show that the mean compaction rate increases linearly with frequency up to a characteristic frequency and then it declines in inverse proportion to frequency. The characteristic frequency is interpreted in terms of the time required for the relaxation of the packing through collective grain rearrangements between two equilibrium states.

Short-time dynamics of a packing of polyhedral grains under horizontal vibrations

Abstract.We analyze the dynamics of a 3D granular packing composed of particles of irregular polyhedral shape confined inside a rectangular box with a retaining wall subjected to horizontal harmonic forcing. The simulations are performed by means of the contact dynamics method for a broad set of loading parameters. We explore the vibrational dynamics of the packing, the evolution of solid fraction and the scaling of dynamics with the loading parameters. We show that the motion of the retaining wall is strongly anharmonic as a result of jamming and grain rearrangements. It is found that the mean particle displacement scales with inverse square of frequency, the inverse of the force amplitude and the square of gravity. The short-time compaction rate grows in proportion to frequency up to a characteristic frequency, corresponding to collective particle rearrangements between equilibrium states, and then it declines in inverse proportion to frequency.

Penetration Test Modelling in a Coarse Granular Medium

Penetration test is a simple and useful test to characterize soils and granular materials. Several studies have shown the link between cone penetration resistance and density for a given material if the relation connecting these two parameters has been established beforehand. A granular materials bank currently including more than 35 granular materials has been developed to this end. Unfortunately, to be able to generalize and cover the broadest possible material range, it would be necessary to multiply the tests and the number of materials. Moreover in coarse granular media, it is necessary to carry out a large number of tests in order to achieve a reliable relation between density and cone resistance.Consequently, being able to model this test in a realistic way will enable increasing the number of tests on a material and carry out more precise parametric studies to evaluate the influence of any parameter on the test response. This article presents the work carried out to model a penetration test within...

Influence of Particle Shape on Shear Stress in Granular Media

We analyze the contact and force networks in a dense confined packing of pentagonal particles simulated by means of the contact dynamics method. The particle shape effect is evidenced by comparing the data from pentagon packing and from a packing with identical characteristics except for the circular shape of the particles. A surprising observation is that the pentagon packing develops a lower structural anisotropy than the disk packing. We show in this work that this weakness is compensated by a higher force anisotropy that leads to enhanced shear strength of the pentagon packing. With the polygonal shape of the particles, the strong force chains are mostly composed of edge-to-edge contacts with a marked zig-zag aspect.

Compaction of Railway Ballast During Tamping Process: a Parametric Study

We characterize an industrial process currently used on railway track: tamping operation. This process is employed in order to restore the geometry of railway track distorted by train traffics. The main goal is to compact the granular material under the sleepers supporting the railroad squeezing and vibrations. We focus on different phases of the tamping process, namely the penetration of tamping tines into the ballast and squeezing of ballast between tines. Our numerical simulations of three‐dimensional discrete polyhedral grains allow us to investigate the influence of vibration frequency on the compaction level at the end of the process, the role of velocity of tamping tines during penetration phase and the mechanism of compaction of a confined granular layer under horizontal vibrations. For each tamping phase, an optimal frequency is proposed, and an analysis of the full process on the samples representing a portion of the railway track enables us to access the influence of various parameters required...

Predicting the settlement of coarse granular materials under vertical loading.

Granular materials are widely used in industrial processes despite their complex and poorly understood mechanical behaviour both in static and dynamic regimes. A prototypical example is the settlement and compaction of a granular bed under vibrational loading. The elementary mechanisms of this process are still unclear and there is presently no established theory or methodology to predict the settlement and its statistical variability. By means of a parametric study, carried out on a full-scale track, and a critical analysis of density relaxation laws, we introduce a novel settlement model in coarse granular materials under cyclic loading. Our extensive experimental data indicate that the settlement process is governed by three independent parameters strongly correlated with the vibration intensity and initial packing fraction. We show that the mean settlement is well predicted by the model with its parameter values extracted from experimental data.

Domain decomposition with discrete element simulations using shared-memory parallel computing for railways applications

Numerical simulation with discrete elements leads to several issues for large-scale problems and long loading times, as for the granular dynamic simulations of the ballasted railway behaviour. To reduce computational costs, we study the use of two strategies: domain decomposition methods and shared-memory parallelisation with OpenMP. An example of a maintenance process, the tamping, on a portion of railway track with seven sleepers, is simulated. La simulation numérique par éléments discrets présente des difficultés pour l’étude de problèmes de grande taille et en temps de sollicitation long, comme la dynamique des milieux granulaires pour le ballast ferroviaire. Afin de résoudre ce problème à moindre coût, on propose d’allier deux stratégies: la décomposition de domaine (DDM) et le calcul parallèle (en mémoire partagée avec OpenMP). Un exemple traitant d’un procédé de maintenance ferroviaire, le bourrage, sur une portion de voie ballastée de 7 blochets de long est étudié.

Influence of Moisture Conditioning on Linear Viscoelastic Behaviour of Bituminous Mixtures Used For Railway Trackbeds

The influence of moisture on the linear-viscoelastic properties of bituminous mixtures with and without polymer modified bitumen (PMB) to be used for railway trackbeds was addressed in this paper. Nowadays, the use of bituminous mixtures in railway trackbeds, particularly for new high-speed lines, is a common practice. The variation of the thermomechanical properties of bituminous mixtures needs to be characterized considering railway loading, circulation speed, and environmental exposure conditions. For this purpose, improved 3D complex modulus tests were performed on base-course type mixtures. A tri-dimensional constitutive model, called 2S2P1D (2 Springs, 2 Parabolic creep elements and 1 Dashpot), was used to model the viscoelastic behavior of the materials. A moisture conditioning procedure was used to induce moisture damage to the mixtures. The thermomechanical properties of the materials are compared for the conditioned and non-conditioned states. Low variation of the linear viscoelastic behavior of the studied materials after moisture conditioning was observed. The results allowed assessing the interest of using polymer modified bitumen for bituminous mixtures to be used in railway trackbeds.

A risk assessment method for ballast flight; managing the rolling stock/infrastructure interaction

The evaluation of the level of risk resulting from the phenomenon of ballast flight is currently receiving considerable attention, due to its direct impact on the safety and reliability of commercial railway operations. Of particular interest are the effects of this phenomenon on both railway infrastructure and rolling stock. It is difficult to analyse the ballast flight phenomenon, due to its dependence on a large number of variable parameters. Investigations carried out at SNCF have led to the proposal of a global approach, called the stress–strength interference analysis method, which can be applied by considering a relevant indicator to evaluate the risk due to flying ballast. This paper presents the work on the application of the proposed analysis approach to the ballast flight phenomenon performed within the FP7 EU AeroTRAIN project. The approach considers the influence of the passage of dedicated rolling stock and the resistance of the track to the displacement of ballast. It leads to the proposal of a methodology to evaluate the risk of ballast flight in high-speed rail operations; this allows the evaluation of the degradation rate of railway infrastructure and rolling stock due to this phenomenon to be performed.