A Boundary-Spheropolygon Element Method for Stress Determination and Breakage Modelling of Particles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel boundary-spheropolygon element method (BSEM) that combines boundary integral and discrete element methods to accurately and efficiently determine sub-particle stresses and model breakage in irregular particles.

Contribution

The paper develops and validates a new BSEM framework that improves accuracy and efficiency in stress analysis and breakage modeling of particles compared to existing methods.

Findings

BSEM provides accurate sub-particle stress calculations for irregular particles.

The method achieves a good balance between computational efficiency and accuracy.

Particle aspect ratio, coordination number, and heterogeneity significantly affect stress distribution.

Abstract

We present a boundary-spheropolygon element method (BSEM), that combines the boundary integral method (BIM) and the spheropolygon-based discrete element method (SEM). The interaction between particles is simulated via the SEM, and the sub-particle stress (stress inside the grains) is calculated by BIM. The framework of BSEM is presented. Then the accuracy and efficiency of the method are analysed by comparison with both analytical solutions and a well-established finite element method (ABAQUS). The results demonstrate that BSEM could efficiently provide instant sub-particle stress for irregular particles with an optimized compromise between computational time and accuracy. The effect of particles aspect ratio, coordination number and heterogeneity on the sub-particle stress are discussed through parametric studies. Key conclusions on particle breakage are derived based on the analysis of the distribution of the sub-particle tensile stress. The simulation results suggest that BSEM could overcome most of the disadvantages of existing numerical methods and must be used for advanced simulations of particle breakage