Study of mechanical behavior and strain localization of methane hydrate bearing sediments with different saturations by a new DEM model

This paper presents a numerical investigation into mechanical behavior and strain localization in methane hydrate (MH) bearing sediments using the distinct element method (DEM). Based on the results of a series of laboratory tests on the bonded granules idealized by two glued aluminum rods and the available experimental data of methane hydrate samples, a pressure and temperature dependent bond contact model was proposed and implemented into a two-dimensional (2D) DEM code. This 2D DEM code was then used to numerically carry out a series of biaxial compression tests on the MH samples with different methane hydrate saturations, whose results were then compared with the experimental data obtained by Masui et al. [9]. In addition, stress, strain, void ratio and velocity fields, the distributions of bond breakage and averaged pure rotation rate (APR) as well as the evolution of strain localization were examined to investigate the relationships between micromechanical variables and macromechanical responses in the DEM MH samples. The numerical results show that: (1) the shear strength increases as methane hydrate saturation SMH increases, which is in good agreement with the experimental observation; (2) the strain localization in all the DEM MH samples develops with onset of inhomogeneity of void ratio, velocity, strain, APR, and distortion of stress fields and contact force chains; and (3) the methane hydrate saturation affects the type of strain localization, with one shear band developed in the case of 40.9% and 67.8% methane saturation samples, and two shear bands formed for 50.1% methane saturation sample.