Capturing the failure of a cohesive granular step

Abstract

A Contact Dynamics algorithm is applied to simulate the failure of 2-dimensional granular steps. Focussing on one single value for both the adhesive force threshold and the contact friction, we track the signature of the failure in the cumulative displacement of the grains. The introduction of a displacement threshold allows for the identification of the onset of a rapid failure and the formation of the corresponding shear band. The latter gives access to an estimation of the failure orientation. The robustness of the measure thus performed for one single run is assessed by carrying out a series of 10 additional simulations, showing a fairly reproducible behaviour.