Effects of Moving Side Walls on Confined Granular Packings

• Main Authors: Ram Chand, Zubair Ahmed Memon, Abdul Qadir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mehran University of Engineering and Technology 2011-07-01
• Series: Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering and Technology
• Subjects: Granular Materials; Granular Solids; Stress Transmission.
• Online Access: http://publications.muet.edu.pk/research_papers/pdf/pdf128.pdf

Granular materials have numerous industrial and geophysical applications. However, many phenomenon exhibited by granular media are not yet fully explained. Nowadays simulation has emerged as an important tool to investigate the complex properties exhibited by granular media. The influence of side walls movement of a granular column is investigated by discrete element, molecular dynamics simulations. The evolution of stress profile and deflection of vertical stresses is due to different bead sizes, coefficient of friction between grains and confining wall is investigated by using large-scale discrete element MD simulations in 3D. In such a configuration, it is found that apparent mass systemically increases with the increase in diameter of granules. As soon as the wall stops moving, the column attains equilibrium. The stress profiles are in good agreement with the Janssen form for high friction coefficient, while some deviations remain for smaller values of friction coefficient. The wall movement augments the number of particle-wall and particle-particle forces at the Coulomb criterion. The results indicate the variation in shielding of vertical stresses in granular column; it can be attributed to the fiction between the beads and the confining walls of the container.