Deformation Mechanisms of Crushable Blocky Materials Upon Lateral Unloading for a Biaxial Stress State

Excerpt

The geological materials encountered in engineering are mainly particulate materials, which are composed of distinct particles that interact with one another and the associated voids among them. Upon loading or unloading, the particles may slide, rotate, crush, or break. The deformation and breakage mechanisms of particulate materials are sufficiently complicated that many experimental studies have attempted to characterize these processes (see, e.g., Rowe 1962; Drescher 1976; Chappell 1979; Oda et al. 1980; Calvetti et al. 1997; Lanier 2001; Wolf et al. 2003; Delenne et al. 2004). Furthermore, several researchers have employed theoretical and numerical methods to study the deformation mechanisms of particulate materials (McDowell et al. 1996; Anandarajah 2004; Chang and Hicher 2005). …