Microscale Investigation of the Influence of Interparticle Cohesion on the Macro-Behaviour of Soil

Despite the growing focus on understanding the micro-mechanisms governing soil behaviour in recent years, particularly through advanced computational methods such as discrete element method (DEM), cohesive interactions between soil particles are often neglected and simplified. This thesis aims to address this critical gap by considering the cohesive behaviour in DEM and CFD-DEM simulations and investigating the influence of interparticle cohesion on fundamental soil behaviour such as the formation of angle of repose, shearing under loading condition and clogging behaviour when fluid is involved. Different levels of cohesion between particles are integrated in numerical models and the results are validated against well-known experimental and analytical methods. The results show that neglecting the cohesive behaviour in DEM simulations would result in a substantial underestimation of the flowing, shearing and clogging behaviour, and ultimately leading to an inaccurate representation of geomaterial behaviour. The innovation of this study is to explore the integral role of micro-parameters such as cohesion and rolling friction (i.e., representing the shape effect), and others on the multi-faceted nature of soil. Finally, this study indicates that DEM and CFD-DEM coupling is a powerful approach to enhance the microscale understanding of soil behaviour with respect to complex particle-particle and fluid-particle interactions.

Author dc:creator

• Doan, Thi Truc Thao

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
• The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
• © 2024 Thi Truc Thao Doan
• au.edu.uts.lib/cph

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/181023

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opus.lib.uts.edu.au:10453/181023