Numerical modeling of anisotropic granular media

Résumé

Granular materials are multi-particle systems involved in many industrial process and everyday life. The mechanical behavior of granular media such as sand, coffee beans, planetary rings and powders are current challenging tasks. In the last years, these systems have been widely examined experimentally, analytically and numerically, and they continue producing relevant and unexpected results. Despite the fact that granular media are often composed of grains with anisotropic shapes like rice, lentils or pills, most experimental and theoretical studies have concerned spherical particles. The aim of this thesis has been to examine numerically the behavior of granular media composted by spherical and non-spherical particles. Our numerical implementations have permitted the description of the macroscopic properties of mechanically stable granular assemblies, which have been experimentally examined in a framework of the projects "Estabilidad y dinámica de medios granulares anisótropos" (FIS2008- 06034-C02-02) University of Girona and "Interacciones entre partículas y emergencia de propiedades macroscópicas en medios granulares" (FIS2008-06034-C02-01) University of Navarra