Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society ISSN:1229-2427(Print) 2288-646X(Online) 한국지반공학회 논문집

Generally, conventional transport infrastructures consist of compacted granular materials. Their stiffness and response greatly depend on the particle sizes and distributions, and application of loading on the surface over a foundation may induce deformation in both the surface and the underlying foundations. Therefore, a better understanding of the deformation characteristics on granular materials and the prediction are needed. For this reason, an attempt to evaluate and predict deformation of coarse materials based on the discrete element method is presented in this paper. An algorithm for particle distribution curve analysis was formulated and incorporated into the discrete element program. The results show that the discrete element model with particle distribution curve is suitable for estimating stress deformation in a pre-peak response. Unlike conventional uniform or random particle distribution, the response can be obtained by the use of the proper model and approach.