Generation of irregular particle packing with prescribed statistical distribution, spatial arrangement, and volume fraction

Abstract

A method for packing irregular particles with a prescribed volume fraction is proposed. Furthermore, the generated granular material adheres to the prescribed statistical distribution and satisfies the desired complex spatial arrangement. First, the irregular geometries of the realistic particles were obtained from the original particle images. Second, the Minkowski sum was used to check the overlap between irregular particles and place an irregular particle in contact with other particles. Third, the optimised advance front method (OAFM) generated irregular particle packing with the prescribed statistical distribution and volume fraction based on the Minkowski sum. Moreover, the signed distance function was introduced to pack the particles in accordance with the desired spatial arrangement. Finally, seven biaxial tests were performed using the UDEC software, which demonstrated the accuracy and potential usefulness of the proposed method. It can model granular material efficiently and reflect the mesostructural characteristics of complex granular materials. This method has a wide range of applications where discrete modelling of granular media is necessary.

Keywords

• Minkowski sum
• Optimised advance front method (OAFM)
• Spatial arrangement
• Irregular particle packing
• Statistical distribution