title: Bonded-cell model for particle fracture.
abstract: Particle degradation and fracture play an important role in natural granular flows and in many applications of granular materials. We analyze the fracture properties of two-dimensional disklike particles modeled as aggregates of rigid cells bonded along their sides by a cohesive Mohr-Coulomb law and simulated by the contact dynamics method. We show that the compressive strength scales with tensile strength between cells but depends also on the friction coefficient and a parameter describing cell shape distribution. The statistical scatter of compressive strength is well described by the Weibull distribution function with a shape parameter varying from 6 to 10 depending on cell shape distribution. We show that this distribution may be understood in terms of percolating critical intercellular contacts. We propose a random-walk model of critical contacts that leads to particle size dependence of the compressive strength in good agreement with our simulation data.
authors.affiliation: Université de Montpellier, CNRS, LMGC, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France.|CEA, DEN, DEC, SPUA, LCU, F-13108 Saint Paul lez Durance, France.
authors.forename: Duc-Hanh
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Université de Montpellier, CNRS, LMGC, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Emilien
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Azéma
authors.affiliation: CEA, DEN, DEC, SPUA, LCU, F-13108 Saint Paul lez Durance, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sornay
authors.affiliation: Université de Montpellier, CNRS, LMGC, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France.|MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment, UMI 3466 CNRS-MIT, CEE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Farhang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Radjai