Numerical Study of Rock-Soil Aggregate by Discrete Element Modeling

Rock-soil aggregate (RSA) is a kind of special geo-engineering material which is widely distributed in China. Discontinuity and heterogeneity are the main characteristics represented by RSA because of its internal complicated structure. PFC (particle flow code) 3D from Itasca is employed for the numerical study of RSA based on discrete element method (DEM) because of its obvious discontinuity. A new simplified model generation approach based on Monte Carlo method is put forward in this paper to simulate the complicated structure of RSA. The models with varied rock content are built and undergo the shearing test under normal pressure. The deformation and failure characteristics of RSA are summarized at the end of paper.