Aggregate composites: a contact based modeling

A 3D model for elastic aggregate composites such as bituminous materials is presented. In this model, rigid angular particles are embedded into an elastic matrix; inter-particle contacts are modeled by a linear interface constitutive equation; Dirichlet tessellation and its dual Delaunay network are used to generate the particles and to connect them. The predictions of the model are compared with finite element estimates on periodic unit cells consisting of polyhedral particles. Simulations on several realizations of random materials are used for the determination of the minimum representative volume element (RVE) size.