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The incompressible plastic flow equations for a Drucker-Prager yield law and a flow rule are shown not to allow a steady single radial velocity component, for flows from a wedge-shaped hopper. The corresponding equations for two components of velocity are considered, using a series expansion of Kaza and Jackson, which connects asymptotically to Jenike’s radial solution. This asymptotic solution gives a poor model of mass flows about the orifice, and an improvement is obtained by considering the pressure variation along the axis of the wedge, but using the angular variations determined by the power-series method. Numerical difficulties occurred for certain parameter values, when solving the two-point boundary-value problem resulting from the asymptotic series method. The region of this parametric sensitivity is associated with an internal maximum in the pressure field, whose appearance tends to offer a conservative estimate for the mass-funnel flow transition.

The incremental stress-strain relation of dense packings of polygons is investigated by using moleculardynamics simulations. The comparison of the simulation results to the continuous theories is performed using explicit expressions for the averaged stress and strain over a representative volume element. The discussion of the incremental response raises two important questions of soil deformation: Is the incrementally nonlinear theory appropriate to describe the soil mechanical response? Does a purely elastic regime exist in the deformation of granular materials? In both cases the answer will be “no”. The question of stability is also discussed in terms of the Hill condition of stability for non-associated materials. It is contended that the incremental response of soils should be revisited from micromechanical considerations. A micromechanical approach assisted by discrete element simulations is briefly outlined.

The behavior of an infinite strip of a micro-polar hypoplastic material located between two parallel plates under plane shearing is investigated. The evolution equation of the stress tensor and the couple-stress tensor is described using tensor-valued functions, which are nonlinear and positively homogeneous of first order in the rate of deformation and the rate of curvature. For the initial response of the sheared layer an analytical solution is derived and discussed for different micro-polar boundary conditions at the bottom and top surfaces of the layer. It is shown that polar quantities appear within the shear layer from the beginning of shearing with the exception of zero couple stresses prescribed at the boundaries.

When they are studied as continuum media, granular materials and other soils and rocks exhibit a complex behavior. Contrary to metals, their isotropic and deviatoric behavior are coupled. This implies some mathematical difficulties concerning boundary-value problems solved with constitutive equations modelling the salient features of such geomaterials. One of the well-known consequences is that the so-called second-order work can be negative long before theoretical failure occurs. Keeping this in mind, the starting point of this work is the pioneering and illuminating work of Nova (1994), who proved that using an isotropic hardening elasto-plastic model not obeying the normality rule, it is possible to exhibit either loss of uniqueness or loss of existence of the solution of a boundary-value problem as soon as the second-order work is negative. Because the geomaterial behavior is quite difficult to model, in practice many different constitutive equations are used. It is then important to study the point raised by Nova for other constitutive equations. In this paper, his result is generalized for any inelastic rate-independent constitutive equation. Similarly the link between localization and controllability proved by Nova (1989) is extended to some extent to a general inelastic model.

Under certain circumstances, an industrial hopper which operates under the “funnel-flow” regime can be converted to the “mass-flow” regime with the addition of a flow-corrective insert. This paper is concerned with calculating granular flow patterns near the outlet of hoppers that incorporate a particular type of insert, the cone-in-cone insert. The flow is considered to be quasi-static, and governed by the Coulomb-Mohr yield condition together with the non-dilatant double-shearing theory. In two-dimensions, the hoppers are wedge-shaped, and as such the formulation for the wedge-in-wedge hopper also includes the case of asymmetrical hoppers. A perturbation approach, valid for high angles of internal friction, is used for both two-dimensional and axially symmetric flows, with analytic results possible for both leading order and correction terms. This perturbation scheme is compared with numerical solutions to the governing equations, and is shown to work very well for angles of internal friction in excess of 45°.

Micromechanical constitutive equations are developed which allow for the broad range of interparticle interactions observed in a real deforming granular assembly: microslip contact, gross slip contact, loss of contact and an evolution in these modes of contact as the deformation proceeds. This was accomplished through a synergetic use of contact laws, which account for interparticle resistance to both sliding and rolling, together with anisotropies in contacts and the normal contact force. By applying the constitutive model to the bi-axial test it is demonstrated that the model can correctly predict the evolution of various anisotropies as well as the formation of a distinct shear band. Moreover, the predicted shear-band properties ( thickness, prolonged localisation, void ratio) are an even better fit with experimental observations than were previously found by use of previously developed micromechanical models.

A plasticity model for the flow of granular materials is presented which is derived from a physically based kinematic rule and which is closely related to the double-shearing model, the double-sliding free-rotating model and also to the plastic-potential model. All of these models incorporate various notions of the concept of rotation-rate and the crucial idea behind the model presented here is that it identifies this rotation-rate with a property associated with a Cosserat continuum, namely, the intrinsic spin. As a consequence of this identification, the stress tensor may become asymmetric. For simplicity, in the analysis presented here, the material parameters are assumed to be constant. The central results of the paper are that (a) the model is hyperbolic for two-dimensional steady-state flows in the inertial regime and (b) the model possesses a domain of linear well-posedness. Specifically, it is proved that incompressible flows are well-posed.

A theory of granular plasticity based on the time-averaged rigid-plastic flow equations is presented. Slow granular flows in hoppers are often modeled as rigid-plastic flows with frictional yield conditions. However, such constitutive relations lead to systems of partial differential equations that are ill-posed: they possess instabilities in the short-wavelength limit. In addition, features of these flows clearly depend on microstructure in a way not modeled by such continuum models. Here an attempt is made to address both short-comings by splitting variables into ‘ fluctuating’ plus ‘ average’ parts and time-averaging the rigid-plastic flow equations to produce effective equations which depend on the ‘average’ variables and variances of the ‘ fluctuating’ variables. Microstructural physics can be introduced by appealing to the kinetic theory of inelastic hard-spheres to develop a constitutive relation for the new ‘fluctuating’ variables. The equations can then be closed by a suitable consitutive equation, requiring that this system of equations be stable in the short-wavelength limit. In this way a granular length-scale is introduced to the rigid-plastic flow equations.

In this paper, fundamental mathematical concepts for modeling the dissipative behavior of geomaterials are recalled. These concepts are illustrated on two basic models and applied to derive a new form of the evolution law of the modified Cam-clay model. The aim is to discuss the mathematical structure of the constitutive relationships and its consequences on the structural level. It is recalled that non-differentiable potentials provide an appropriate means of modeling rate-independent behavior. The Cam-clay model is revisited and a standard version is presented. It is seen that this standard version is non-dissipative, which at the same time explains why a non-standard version is needed. The partial normality is exploited and an implicit variational formulation of the modified Cam-clay model is derived. As a result, the solution of boundary-value problems can be replaced by seeking stationary points of a functional.

In this paper, shear localization in granular materials is studied as a bifurcation problem based on a conventional (non-polar) and a micro-polar continuum description. General bifurcation conditions are formulated for a non-polar hypoplastic model and its micro-polar continuum extension. These conditions de.ne stress, couple stress and density states at which weak discontinuity bifurcation may occur. The stress states for bifurcation are then compared with the peak stress states, which define a bounding surface for the accessible stress domain in the principal stress space. The results show that, in a micro-polar continuum description, the constitutive model may no longer be associated with weak discontinuity bifurcation.