2005/06/30 by S. Fazekas, S Fazekas, János Török +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Geotechnical and Geomechanical Engineering #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Landslides and related hazards #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.74.031303
published as Phys. Rev. E 74, 031303, 2006 · 6 pages 5 figures, low resolution figures!
openalex publication_date 2006/09/13 · arxiv created 2007/01/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
We present numerical results on spontaneous symmetry breaking strain localization in axisymmetric triaxial shear tests of granular materials. We simulated shear band formation using the three-dimensional distinct element method with spherical particles. We demonstrate that the local shear intensity, the angular velocity of the grains, the coordination number, and the local void ratio are correlated and any of them can be used to identify shear bands; however, the latter two are less sensitive. The calculated shear band morphologies are in good agreement with those found experimentally. We show that boundary conditions play an important role. We discuss the formation mechanism of shear bands in the light of our observations and compare the results with experiments. At large strains, with enforced symmetry, we found strain hardening.