Effect of wall roughness on interface behavior of DEM-simulated granular material

Abstract

This paper deals with the behavior of packed spherical particles sheared on rough surfaces. The discrete element method (DEM) is used to model the granular material. Likewise, the roughness is modeled by spherical boundary conditions. From the simulations the effect of surface roughness on the shear strength and the granular material behavior near the interface is reported for various shearing conditions. The results of the numerical simulations showed that, for a particles roughness diameter larger than the average particles diameter of the granular material, the medium is uniformly sheared and the shear strength reaches a constant value. For smaller diameter of the particles roughness, the interface shear strength and the shear strip thickness increased with the diameter of the particles roughness.