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Discrete element modelling of soil particle

fracture
Article in Gotechnique January 2002
DOI: 10.1680/geot.2002.52.2.131

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McDowell, G. R. and Harireche, O. (2002). Geotechnique 52, No. 2, 131135

TECHNICAL NOTE

Discrete element modelling of soil particle fracture

G . R . M c D OW E L L  a n d O. H A R I R E C H E 
KEYWORDS: numerical modelling and analysis; particle crushing/
crushability; sands; statistical analysis

DISCRETE ELEMENT MODELLING OF AGGLOMERATES

The discrete element approach was originally developed by

Cundall & Strack (1979). In their BALL model, each particle of
granular material was modelled as a ball. The balls could
overlap at the contact points, and the magnitude of the overlap
at each contact was related to the contact force via a constitutive law. Relative sliding of particles was permitted at the
contacts, but the program could not model particle fracture: the
balls could not break. Thornton et al. (1997) describe a
modied version of the TRUBAL code developed by Cundall
(1988), which they called GRANULE, and which is capable of
modelling the fracture of an agglomerate of spherical balls
bonded together. In this model, surface energy is ascribed to the
balls in the agglomerate, so that tensile forces between balls are
autoadhesive according to Johnson (1996). A general description
of the methodology used by Thornton et al. (1997) is given in
Thornton et al. (1996). However, Thornton et al. (1996, 1997)
did not examine the statistical variation in tensile strength for
agglomerates containing different distributions of aws. Furthermore, GRANULE was incapable of modelling an aggregate of
agglomerates.
Robertson (2000) used the program PFC3D (Itasca, 1999) to
model the fracture of soil grains. PFC3D has the capacity for
computation with approximately 105 balls with 128 MB RAM.
Each soil grain was modelled as a porous agglomerate of balls
bonded together. In the program, surface energies are not used
to create adhesion. Instead balls are bonded together with a
simple contact bond or a parallel bond. The contact bond is
innitesimally small, and the bond strength is specied in
Newtons for the normal and shear directions. When the strength
of the contact bond is exceeded in either tension or shear the
bond breaks. Parallel bonds can also resist moment, but are
more complex. Robertson (2000) used contact bonds, and found
that a Weibull distribution of strengths was best reproduced by
removing balls in the agglomerate to simulate aws. Robertson
(2000) used the same bond strength in shear and tension,
presumably because the bonding material should fracture under
the same stress in pure tension and pure shear if it contains a
wide distribution of aws. The use of a porous matrix of
bonded balls to model a solid particle is perfectly reasonable
when it is considered that at the atomic level, in real ceramics
atoms or ions bond together, often in regular arrays, to form a
solid, and a crack propagates under some critical induced tensile
stress as these bonds are torn apart. However, in a PFC3D
agglomerate, the size of each ball will be much larger than a
single atom, and a crack is simulated by the absence of a ball.
If several adjacent balls are removed from the agglomerate, then
more realistic crack shapes can form, which propagate when the
induced tensile stress is critical, as contact bonds are broken.
Robertson (2000) found that scaling ball contact stiffness and
bond strength by the same factor f resulted in failure at the
same strain at a fracture force scaled by f. This is presumably
because a prescribed platen displacement will scale induced
stresses by f for a given geometry, if linear-elastic contact
stiffnesses are used. Robertson (2000) did not examine the
effect of applying gravity to stabilise the agglomerate. Furthermore, he decided somewhat arbitrarily that the platen stiffness
should be 100 times that of a single ball, and that the platens
should be frictionless. In this paper considerable effort has been
expended to simulate a real soil particle crushing experiment,
with realistic input parameters, and gravity is used to stabilise
the agglomerate before the application of load. It can easily be

INTRODUCTION

The tensile strength of soil particles has been found to inuence

the macroscopic behaviour of granular materials (Billam, 1972;
Bolton, 1986; Lee, 1992). Following Jaeger (1967), the tensile
strength of a single soil grain is usually measured indirectly by
compressing the grain between at platens until failure occurs.
McDowell & Amon (2000) showed that for similar loading
geometries, Weibull statistics (Weibull, 1951) can be applied to
characterise soil particle strength. For grains of size d loaded
diametrically under a force F, they dened a characteristic
induced tensile stress as

F
d2

(1)

and showed that the survival probability Ps (d) of a particle of

size d is given by
"   #
m
Ps (d) exp
(2)
o
where m is the Weibull modulus and o is the value of for
particles of size d such that 37% survive. McDowell & Amon
(2000) showed that o is proportional to and approximately
equal to the average tensile strength av , and is a function of
particle size d according to the equation
o / av / d

3= m

(3)

McDowell & Amon (2000) also showed that data for calcareous
Quiou sand particles could be described by Weibull, and
McDowell (2002) and Voo (2000) showed that Weibull could be
applied to silica sand. McDowell (2001) has also shown the
importance of the number of particles tested for a given size: if
the true Weibull modulus is about 3, the true standard deviation
can be determined to within about 25% at 95% condence with
30 tests, while the mean can be determined to within 1015%.
The size effect on strength in equation (3) is of fundamental
importance. McDowell et al. (1996) showed that because smaller soil particles are statistically stronger, this provides the
hardening law for soil under plastic compression, as small
particles become smaller and stronger. In order to model the
degradation of aggregates numerically, to provide micro mechanical insight, it is therefore essential to model soil particle
fracture with the correct size effect on strength. This paper
examines discrete element modelling of the fracture of soil
particles compressed between at platens. The major contribution of this paper is to show that it is possible to obtain the
correct size effect on strength.

Manuscript received 5 June 2001; revised manuscript accepted 6

November 2001.
Discussion on this paper closes 1 September 2002, for further details
see p.ii.
 University of Nottingham, UK.

131

132

McDOWELL AND HARIRECHE

shown that the effects of changing the ratio of the platen to ball
stiffness or platen coefcient of friction are small. However, the
application of gravity before the application of load is particularly useful because it allows the load to increase from the
beginning of the test, and a well-dened peak strength is
obtained at fast fracture: that is, when the critical aw propagates unstably through the agglomerate under the induced
tensile stress. This paper shows that it is possible to model
particle crushing experiments that give the required average
strength and variation in strength for agglomerates of a given
size. It is found, however, that the Robertson (2000) approach
leads to almost no size effect on agglomerate strength, and it is
proposed that this is due to differences in geometry between
agglomerate sizes. It will be shown that, if some of the
regularity of the initial array of balls is removed, it is possible
to achieve the correct size effect on strength.

MODELLING THE FRACTURE OF SILICA SAND

Table 1 gives data produced by McDowell (2002) from

particle crushing tests on silica sand grains by Voo (2000).
Thirty particles were tested for each size. The 37% strengths
follow equation (3) with m 3:3, and the average m  3 in
Table 1, so Weibull applies. The variation in m between particle
sizes has been explained mathematically by McDowell (2001).
The objective in this paper is to reproduce the variation in o
with size in Table 1 and equation (3), with m  3, using PFC3D.
Figure 1 shows an agglomerate of diameter 05 mm comprising 135 balls of diameter 0074 mm in hexagonal close packing
(h.c.p.), bonded together with contact bonds. This is intended to
model a 05 mm diameter silica sand particle. In Fig. 1, the
agglomerate has been given a random rotation, and some balls
(in this case 11) have then been removed to simulate aws. The
agglomerate is then stabilised under gravity for 30 000 time
steps. Because the time step is of the order 109 s, a gravitational eld of 9:81 3 105 m=s2 has been applied so that the
agglomerate stabilises in an acceptable number of time steps.
To prevent the agglomerate from shattering during this process,
the bond strength is temporarily set to a very high value
(1015 N in this case). Once the agglomerate has stabilised, the
gravitational eld is reduced to 9:81 m=s2 and the bond strength
reduced to the desired value. Robertson (2000) found that
results for h.c.p. agglomerates with random rotation were more
repeatable than for f.c.c. (face-centred cubic) or b.c.c. (bodycentred cubic) packing, and consequently h.c.p. has been
adopted here. Note that h.c.p. and f.c.c. give maximum possible
ball density, with 74% of the total volume of a unit cell
Table 1. Results of particle crushing tests on silica sand grains
(McDowell, 2002)

occupied by balls. It should be noted that the generated time

step calculated by PFC3D is inversely proportional to ball
stiffness. For this reason, Robertson (2000) used differential
density scaling, which modies the inertial mass of each ball at
the start of each cycle so that the critical time step for the
system is unity. This means that his simulations were static:
only the nal steady-state solution is valid. However, differential
density scaling is unnecessary. A given piece of information
requires a xed number of time increments to propagate through
the agglomerate. All that is required then is that the platen
velocity should not be so large that the results are affected.
Figure 2 shows a typical result for a forcestrain plot for an
agglomerate of 135 balls, subjected to random rotation, then
removal of some balls (in this case 24), followed by stabilisation under gravity and then loading. Following stabilisation
under gravity the top platen is located at the highest point of
the agglomerate, and then moved downwards at constant velocity. In Fig. 2 three different velocities have been used on the
same agglomerate. It can be seen that a velocity of 0:64 m=s
can be applied, without signicantly affecting the strength, and
this also gives an acceptable number of time steps for loading
of 50 000 for this agglomerate. The total computation time for
stabilisation and loading of each agglomerate was about 15 min.
Because the platen velocity of 1:28 m=s appears to inuence
the behaviour signicantly after fast fracture, a platen velocity
of 064 m/s was used in all subsequent tests. In all tests, the
particle was subjected to random rotation, removal of balls and
stabilisation under gravity prior to loading.
The parameters that need to be dened in the model are: the
ball normal and shear stiffnesses, k n , k s (assuming a linearelastic contact stiffness; Hertzian contact may also be used),
and bond strengths, bn , bs ; the ball coefcient of friction, b ;
the ratio of platen stiffness to ball stiffness, r; and the platen
coefcient of friction, . The stiffness at a contact is calculated
assuming that the stiffnesses of the two contacting objects act
in series, and the coefcient of friction at a contact is assumed
to be the lesser of the coefcients of friction of the contacting
objects. Initial values of stiffness and bond strength for the
silica sand in Table 1 were determined approximately using the
procedure documented in the PFC3D manuals (Itasca, 1999), as
k n k s 14:8 3 106 N=m, bn bs 0:72 N. In all tests these
values have all been subsequently scaled by a factor f where
appropriate to obtain the desired 37% strength. Robertson
(2000) used r 100 and 0 (smooth platens). However, the
Young's moduli of quartz and of steel are comparable, so r 1
would be more appropriate. Furthermore, if Hertzian contact
mechanics were to be used, the inuence of friction between
two contacting objects would be strongly affected by a difference in material stiffnesses (Johnson, 1996). In this paper we
follow the approach of Thornton et al. (1997) and use equal

Weibull
modulus, m

37% tensile
strength,
o : MPa

16

05
1
2

344
234
314

1474
667
417

14

v = 128 m/s

12

v = 064 m/s

10

v = 016 m/s

Force: N

Nominal size:
mm

8
6
4
2
0

Fig. 1. Typical 05 mm diameter agglomerate subjected to random

rotation, removal of balls and stabilisation under gravity

002

004

006
Strain

008

010

012

Fig. 2. Typical forcestrain plot for 05 mm diameter agglomerate

for different platen velocities

SOIL PARTICLE FRACTURE

platen and ball stiffness: this permits the overall stiffness of the
agglomerate to be much less than that of the platen. In addition,
following Thornton, we use b 0:5, which is more
realistic than assuming the platens to be perfectly smooth.
It can be seen in Fig. 2 that there is a well-dened peak
strength. At this peak strength fast fracture of the agglomerate
occurs (Fig. 3). It was found that removing 025% balls
initially (the proportion is a uniformly distributed random variable between 0 and 25) gave m  3 with 30 tests (Fig. 4(a)).
Increasing the range of the number of balls removed increases
variability and reduces m (Robertson, 2000). Fig. 4(a) gives the
results for the 05 mm diameter agglomerate, and in Table 2
the number of balls removed for each agglomerate tested in Fig.
4(a) is given, together with the failure stress and the survival
probability Ps. The survival probabilities are calculated as the
mean rank values: that is, if there are N tests, the survival
probabilities under increasing stress are N =(N 1), (N 1)=
(N 1) . . . 1=(N 1), following Davidge (1979). It can be seen
that increasing the number of balls removed does not necessarily reduce the survival probability: the failure stress also
depends on the location of the removed balls and the random
rotation applied to the particle. For the 05 mm agglomerate in
Fig. 4(a) the Weibull modulus, m, is 25 and the 37% strength
o , is 936 MPa. To reproduce the data in Table 1 for 05 mm
diameter soil particles the bond strength and ball and platen
stiffnesses were scaled by f 147=93:6 1:57 and the tests
repeated, giving m 2:9 and o 145 MPa (Fig. 4(b)). For
these tests the seed of the random number generator was
constant so that the same geometries could be tested with
different bond strengths and stiffnesses.

133

Table 2. Number of balls removed, failure stress and survival

probability for each test in Fig. 4(a)
Number of balls
removed

Failure stress:
MPa

Survival probability,
Ps

22
31
23
26
17
20
28
27
20
27
21
20
20
15
16
18
20
11
10
6
4
8
12
13
7
9
8
11
9
4

228
321
359
413
463
565
582
582
596
631
658
677
787
866
884
907
908
947
999
1007
1015
1037
1047
1059
1077
1116
1160
1204
1247
1295

30/31
29/31
28/31
27/31
26/31
25/31
24/31
23/31
22/31
21/31
20/31
19/31
18/31
17/31
16/31
15/31
14/31
13/31
12/31
11/31
10/31
9/31
8/31
7/31
6/31
5/31
4/31
3/31
2/31
1/31

SIZE EFFECT ON STRENGTH

Figure 5 shows a 1 mm diameter agglomerate initially containing 1477 balls of diameter 0074 mm with 025% balls (in
this case 113) subsequently removed. Fig. 6 shows the Weibull

Fig. 3. Final fracture of a typical 05 mm diameter agglomerate,

showing intact contact bonds

0
0

In

0
0
1

y = 29455x 14657
R2 = 09662
m = 29; o = 145 MPa

In[In(I/Ps)]

In[In(I/Ps)]

y = 25385x 11521
R2 = 09748
m = 25; o = 936 MPa

plot based on 30 tests with 025% balls removed. In each case

gravity was applied for 30 000 time steps followed by loading
for 120 000 time steps. It is seen that m 2:8 and
o 154 MPa, which comparing with o 145 MPa for the
05 mm diameter agglomerate is the opposite size effect to that
in Table 1 and predicted by equation (3). It was considered that
this was due to differences in geometry between agglomerate
sizes caused by h.c.p. and random rotation. In an attempt to
remove the effect of regular geometry, a dense random packing
was considered: in this conguration balls occupy 64% of total
volume (Ashby & Jones, 1986). Comparing with 74% for h.c.p.,
it was decided that [1 (64=74)] 13:5% balls should initially
be removed from an h.c.p. agglomerate at random to attempt to
partly replicate a dense random packing and introduce aws,
before removing an additional 025% balls. Thirty tests were
rst performed for the h.c.p. 05 mm diameter agglomerate with
no scaling factor on stiffness or strength. For each test the same

(a)

In

(b)

Fig. 4. Weibull probability plot for 05 mm diameter agglomerate with stiffnesses and bond strength: (a) unscaled, f
scaled f 1:57

1; (b)

134

McDOWELL AND HARIRECHE

Fig. 5. Typical 1 mm diameter agglomerate initially containing 1477

balls, with 025% balls subsequently removed

y = 27522x 13854
R2 = 09449
m = 28; o = 154 MPa

In[In(I/Ps)]

1
0
0

In

2
3
4

Fig. 6. Weibull probability plot for 1 mm diameter agglomerate,

with 025% balls removed ( f 1:57)

agglomerate there was a single large peak force at which

catastrophic fracture occurred.
From the results of the initial tests, the scaling factor f was
then deduced to obtain a 37% strength of 147 MPa, and the
tests were repeated with scaling factor applied for both the
05 mm and 1 mm diameter agglomerates. For the 1 mm diameter agglomerates, in some cases there was a single large peak
in the applied platen force, though it was difcult to observe a
physical fracture. This is presumably because it is sometimes
possible for particle fragments to remain connected by a small
number of contact bonds after maximum applied force
(Robertson, 2000). In other cases several large peaks in the
applied force were observed, so in all cases the strength was
taken to correspond to the maximum peak in the applied force.
The results are given in Table 3. There is only a small size
effect on strength. It is also worth noting that, with the scaling
factor applied, the desired 37% strength of 147 MPa for the
05 mm diameter agglomerate has not quite been achieved. This
is presumably because the removal of many balls is sufcient to
cause the geometry at failure to be slightly different for different scaling factors. In order to achieve a stronger size effect on
strength, 20% balls were removed initially before removing a
further 025%. The results are given in Table 3. There is a
more satisfactory size effect, comparing with Table 1.
Following this analysis, 30% balls were initially removed,
followed by 025%. The results are given in Fig. 7 for peak
strength for the 05 mm and 1 mm agglomerates, with scaling
factor f 4:24. The 37% strengths of 133 MPa and 79 MPa for
the 05 mm and 1 mm agglomerates respectively are now close
enough to the results of 147 MPa and 67 MPa obtained experimentally in Table 1. It seems that it is possible to model the
Weibullian behaviour of real soil grains using the discrete
element method.
CONCLUSIONS

random 135% balls were removed before applying random

rotation, then removing 025% balls at random, followed by
stabilisation under gravity. In all tests for the 05 mm diameter

The fracture of soil grains has been modelled using the

discrete element method, to attempt to observe a size effect on
tensile strength. A soil particle is modelled as an agglomerate
of balls bonded together. Following Robertson (2000), it is

Table 3. Effect of initially removing balls followed by a further 025% balls. Results are
calculated using peak strengths

% balls removed
before removing
025%

Scaling
factor,
f

Weibull
modulus,
m

37% strength,
o : MPa

05
1
05
1

135
135
20
20

282
282
322
322

29
29
24
35

137
125
135
89

y = 26962x 13188
R2 = 09813
m = 27; o = 133 MPa

0
0
1

In

0
0
1

y = 21326x 93203
R2 = 09513
m = 21; o = 79 MPa

In[In(I/Ps)]

In[In(I/Ps)]

Agglomerate
diameter:
mm

(a)

In

(b)

Fig. 7. Weibull probability plot for (a) 05 mm and (b) 1 mm diameter agglomerates: 30% balls initially removed followed by
removal of 025% balls ( f 4:24)

SOIL PARTICLE FRACTURE

possible to obtain a distribution of strengths with the desired
Weibull modulus by initially removing a random number of
balls within prescribed limits, to obtain a distribution of aws.
The required 37% strength can be obtained by scaling ball and
platen stiffness and bond strength. Here, realistic particle parameters have been used, and gravity has been applied to stabilise
the agglomerate prior to loading in order to replicate, as well as
possible, real soil particle crushing experiments. It has been
found that with h.c.p. agglomerates there is almost no size
effect on strength when 025% balls are removed form the
agglomerate. It is believed that this is due to differences in
geometry between agglomerate sizes produced by the regular
h.c.p. geometry. If more balls are initially removed to partly
remove the regular geometry and introduce aws, the correct
variation in 37% strength with size can be obtained. This is
crucial if the degradation of aggregates is to be modelled
correctly.

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