Investigation into macroscopic and microscopic behaviors of bonded sands using distinct element method

This paper presents an investigation into the inter-particle bonding effects on the mechanical behaviors of structured sands using the distinct element method (DEM) incorporating measured inter-particle mechanical behaviors. The inter-particle mechanical behaviors are first studied by testing on idealized bonded granules under designed loading paths, which demonstrates a linear pre-failure force–displacement relationship and normal force-dependent shear strength of bonded particles. Then a modified contact model is proposed by employing different force–displacement laws for pre-failure and post-failure bonded particles, in which a failure criterion is introduced to describe the inter-particle debonding. The third part deals with the DEM numerical simulation of isotropic and biaxial compression tests to investigate the bonding effects on the mechanical behaviors of bonded sands, where the proposed model has been verified capable of capturing the main mechanical behaviors of bonded sands. In addition, the investigation into the microscopic responses quantitatively figures out the effects of inter-particle cementation on the mechanical behaviors and the loss of soil structure.