Micromechanical description of the compaction of soft pentagon assemblies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how soft pentagon assemblies compact under stress, revealing microstructural evolution, the influence of particle shape and friction, and proposing a predictive model for the compaction process.

Contribution

It introduces a micromechanical model that predicts compaction behavior of soft pentagon assemblies based on particle shape, connectivity, and stress evolution.

Findings

Packing fraction increases and approaches a maximum value.

Particle rearrangements occur beyond the jammed state.

The model accurately predicts compaction from jamming to high densities.

Abstract

We analyze the isotropic compaction of assemblies composed of soft pentagons interacting through classical Coulomb friction via numerical simulations. The effect of the initial particle shape is discussed by comparing packings of pentagons with packings of soft circular particles. We characterize the evolution of the packing fraction, the elastic modulus, and the microstructure (particle rearrangement, connectivity, contact force and particle stress distributions) as a function of the applied stresses. Both systems behave similarly; the packing fraction increases and tends asymptotically to a maximum value $\phi_{max}$, where the bulk modulus diverges. At the microscopic scale we show that particle rearrangements occur even beyond the jammed state, the mean coordination increases as a square root of the packing fraction and, the force and stress distributions become more homogeneous as the packing fraction increases. Soft pentagons present larger particle rearrangements than circular ones, and such behavior decreases proportionally to the friction. Interestingly, the friction between particles also contributes to a better homogenization of the contact force network in both systems. From the expression of the granular stress tensor, we develop a model that describes the compaction behavior as a function of the applied pressure, the Young modulus and the initial shape of the particles. This model, settled on the joint evolution of the particle connectivity and the contact stress, provides outstanding predictions from the jamming point up to very high densities.