• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.343-351
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• 2018

Brazilian disc test is one of the most widely used experiments in the literature of geo-mechanics. In this work, the pre-holed concrete Brazilian disc specimens are numerically modelled by a two-dimensional discrete element approach. The cracks initiations, propagations and coalescences in the numerically simulated Brazilian discs (each containing a single cylindrical hole and or multiple holes) are studied. The pre-holed Brazilian discs are numerically tested under Brazilian test conditions. The single-holed Brazilian discs with different ratios of the diameter of the holes to that of the disc radius are modelled first. The breakage load in the ring type disc specimens containing an internal hole with varying diameters is measured and the crack propagation mechanism around the wall of the ring is investigated. The crack propagation and coalescence mechanisms are also studied for the case of multi-holes' concrete Brazilian discs. The numerical and experimental results show that the breaking mechanism of the pre-holed disc specimens is mainly due to the initiation of the radially induced tensile cracks which are growth from the surface of the central hole. Radially cracks propagated toward the direction of diametrical loading. It has been observed that for the case of disc specimens with multiple holes under diametrical compressive loading, the breaking process of the modelled specimens may occur due to the simultaneous cracks propagation and cracks coalescence phenomena. These results also show that as the hole diameter and the number of the holes increases both the failure stress and the crack initiation stress decreases. The experimental results already exist in the literature are quit agree with the proposed numerical simulation results which validates this simulation procedure.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.115-122
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• 2023

This study utilized a discrete element method (DEM) simulation, as one of the virtual field trials, to predict the impact of tillage depth on the rotary blade shaft during rotavator tilling. The virtual field for the simulation was generated according to soil properties observed in an actual field. Following the generation of particles for the virtual field, a sequence of calibration steps followed to align the mechanical properties more closely with those of real soil. Calibration was conducted with a focus on bulk density and shear torque, resulting in calibration errors of just 0.02% for bulk density and 0.52% for shear torque. The prediction of the load on a rotary tiller's blade shaft involved a three-pronged approach, considering shaft torque, draft force, and vertical force. In terms of shaft torque, the values exhibited significant increases of 42.34% and 36.91% for every 5-centimeter increment in tillage depth. Similarly, the vertical force saw substantial growth by 40.41% and 36.08% for every 5-centimeter increment. In contrast, the variation in draft force based on tillage depth was comparatively lower at 18.49% and 0.96%, indicating that the effect of tillage depth on draft force was less pronounced than its impact on shaft torque and vertical force. From a perspective of agricultural machinery research, this study provides valuable insights into the DEM soil modeling process, accounting for changes in soil properties with varying tillage depths. These findings are expected to be instrumental in future agricultural machinery design studies.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.189-196
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• 2000

Effect of ball filling ratio on the behavior of balls motion and their collision characteristic in a tumbler-ball milling of metal powder are investigated by a computer simulation. The discrete element method and the extended Kelvin model composed of nonlinear spring and nonlinear dashpot were employed in the simulation. It can be possible that analysis of the individual balls motion in a three-dimensional actual mill by the two-dimensional model simulation, since the simulated trajectories of ball paths are in relatively good agreement with the actual ones. It knows that the balls motion in the tumbler-ball mill is strongly influenced by the surface conditions of the balls and mill container wall. The energy consumption of the individual balls during impact and the impact frequency of the individual balls increased with an increase in the ball filling ratio and showed maximum values at about 50-60% ball filling ratio, and then decreased.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.219-224
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• 2020

Industrial mixers to homogeneously blend particulate materials have been developed and widely used in various industries. However, most industrial mixers have at most two-degree-of-freedom for the operation, which limits the range of operation parameter selection for optimal blending. This paper proposes a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic mixer designed by converging a conventional drum blender and a robotic manipulator and evaluated its performance in a virtual operating environment. Discrete element simulations were conducted for mixing performance evaluation. The numerical results showed that the proposed mixer design exhibits a better mixing performance than conventional ones.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.21-32
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• 2016

PURPOSES : In this paper, the analytical solutions suggested to simulate the behavior of rheological fluids were rigorously re-derived and investigated for fixed conditions to evaluate the applicability for the solutions on a mini-cone slump test of cement paste. The selected solutions with proper boundary conditions can be used as reference solutions to evaluate the performance of numerical simulation approaches, such as the discrete element method. METHODS : The slump, height, and spread radius for the given boundary and yield stress conditions that are determined by five different analytical solutions are compared. RESULTS : The analytical solution based on fluid mechanics for pure shear flow shows similar results to that for intermediate flow at low yield stresses. The fluid mechanics-based analytical solution resulted in a very similar trend to the geometry-based analytical solution. However, it showed a higher slump at high yield stress and lower slump at low yield stress ranges than the geometry-based analytical model. The analytical solution based on the mini-cone geometry was not significantly affected by the yield criteria, such as von Mises and Tresca. CONCLUSIONS : Even though differences among the analytical solutions in terms of slump and spread radius existed, the difference can be considered insignificant when the solutions were used as reference to evaluate the appropriateness of numerical approaches, such as the discrete element method.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.37-44
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• 2017

PURPOSES : Conductive and convective heat transfer simulations for an asphalt mixture were made by using discrete element method (DEM) and similarity principle. METHODS : In this research, virtual specimens composed of discrete element method particles were generated according to four different predetermined particle size distribution curves. Temperature variations of the four different particles for a given condition were estimated and were compared with measurements and analytical solutions. RESULTS : The virtual specimen with mixed particles and with the smallest particle show very good agreement with laboratory test results and analytical solutions. As particle size decreases, better heat transfer simulation can be performed due to smaller void ratio and more contact points and areas. In addition, by utilizing the similarity principle of thermal properties and corresponding time unit, analytical time can be drastically reduced. CONCLUSIONS : It is concluded that the DEM asphalt mixture specimens with similarity principle could be used to predict the temperature variation for a given condition. It is observed that the void ratio has critical effect on prediction of temperature variation. Comparing the prediction for a 4 mm particle specimen with a mixed particle specimen, it is also concluded that predicting the mixed particle specimen temperature is much more efficient considering the number of particles that are directly associated with computational time in DEM analysis.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.665-678
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• 2014

In discrete element modeling, 2D software has been widely used in order to gain further insights into the fundamental mechanisms with less computational time. The porosities used in 2D DEM studies should be determined with appropriate approaches based on 3D laboratory porosities. This paper summarizes the main approaches for converting porosities from 3D to 2D for DEM studies and theoretical evaluations show that none of the current approaches can be widely used in dealing with soil mechanical problems. Therefore, a parabolic equation and a criterion have been suggested for the determination of 2D porosities in this paper. Moreover, a case study has been used to validate that the 2D porosity obtained from the above suggestion to be rational with both the realistic contact force distribution in the specimen and the good agreement of the DEM simulation results of direct shear tests with the corresponding experimental data. Therefore, the parabolic equation and the criterion are suggested for the determination of 2D porosities in a wide range of polydisperse particle systems, especially in dealing with soil mechanical problems.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.379-386
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• 2018

The present study addresses the direct and indirect methods of determining the mode-I fracture toughness of concrete using experimental tests and particle flow code. The direct method used is compaction tensile test and the indirect methods are notched Brazilian disc test, semi-circular bend specimen test, and hollow center cracked disc. The experiments were carried out to determine which indirect method yields the fracture toughness closer to the one obtained by the direct method. In the numerical analysis, the PFC model was first calibrated with respect to the data obtained from the Brazilian laboratory test. The crack paths observed in the simulated tests were in reasonable accordance with experimental results. The discrete element simulations demonstrated that the macro fractures in the models are caused by microscopic tensile breakages on large numbers of bonded particles. The mode-I fracture toughness in the direct tensile test was smaller than the indirect testing results. The fracture toughness obtained from the SCB test was closer to the direct test results. Hence, the semi-circular bend test is recommended as a proper experiment for determination of mode-I fracture toughness of concrete in the absence of direct tests.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.495-501
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• 2018

Geogrid application that has proved to be an effective and economic method of reinforcing particles, is widely used in geotechnical engineering. The discrete element method (DEM) has been used to investigate the micro mechanics of the geogrid deformation and also the interlocking mechanism that cannot be easily studies in laboratory tests. Two types of realistically shaped geogrid models with square and triangle apertures were developed using parallel bonds in PFC3D. The calibration test simulations have demonstrated that the precisely shaped triangular geogrid model is also able to reproduce the deformation and strength characteristics of geogrids. Moreover, the square and triangular geogrid models were also used in DEM pull-out test simulations with idealized shape particle models for validation. The simulation results have been shown to provide good predictions of pullout force as a function of displacement especially for the initial 30 mm displacement. For the granular material of size 40 mm, both the experimental and DEM results demonstrate that the triangular geogrid of size 75 mm outperforms the square geogrid of size 65 mm. Besides, the simulations have given valuable insight into the interaction between particle and geogrid and also revealed similar deformation behavior of geogrids during pullout. Therefore, the DEM provides a tool which enable to model other possible prototype geogrid and investigate their performance before manufacture.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.313-330
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• 2021

In this study, the dynamic interaction between an Arctic Spar and drifting level ice is examined in time domain using the newly developed ice-hull-mooring coupled dynamics program. The in-house program, CHARM3D, which is the hull-riser-mooring coupled dynamic simulator is extended by coupling with the open-source discrete element method (DEM) simulator, LIGGGHTS. In the LIGGGHTS module, the parallel-bonding method is implemented to model the level ice using an assembly of multiple bonded spherical particles. As a case study, a spread-moored Artic Spar platform, whose hull surface near waterline is the inverted conical shape, is chosen. To determine the breaking-related DEM parameter (the critical bonding strength), the four-point numerical bending test is used. A series of numerical simulations is systematically performed under the various ice conditions including ice drift velocity, flexural strength, and thickness. Then, the effects of these parameters on the ice force, platform motions, and mooring tensions are discussed. The simulations reveal various features of dynamic interactions between the drifting ice and moored platform for various ice conditions including the novel synchronous resonance at low ice speed. The newly developed simulator is promising and can repeatedly be used for the future design and analysis including ice-floater-mooring coupled dynamics.