A tangential force-displacement model for elastic frictional contact between particles in triaxial test simulations

A tangential contact model for three-dimensional discrete element simulations is proposed and used in the micro-mechanical simulation of a drained triaxial test. In this model, the dependence of the tangential contact force on the contact loading history is accounted for. A representative volume element with spherical discrete elements and periodic boundary conditions is used in the simulations to reduce the computation costs. Numerical results of a triaxial test obtained with a linear and the proposed tangential contact model are compared. The results for both contact models are qualitatively in agreement with theory. The linear contact model needs calibration as the used parameters lack physical meaning, while the proposed contact model only uses physical properties of the particles.