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SUMMARY:Evolution of microstructure and the critical state of granular mat
 erials - Prof Leo Rothenburg\, Chair\, Dept of Civil and Environmental Eng
 ineering\, University of Waterloo
DTSTART:20071016T150000Z
DTEND:20071016T163000Z
UID:TALK8059@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Zelda Stuck
DESCRIPTION:Microstructure of unbound granular materials\, i.e. the system
  of inter-granular contacts\, evolves in response to loading. Much of the 
 knowledge on the relationship between the state of microstructure and appl
 ied loads comes from numerical simulations in which the system of inter-pa
 rticle contacts and its evolution can be explicitly determined. The lectur
 e will focus on the theoretical framework within which various macroscopic
  measures of microstructure are introduced and their evolution is traced i
 n the course of numerical simulations. It will be demonstrated that in num
 erical experiments with monotonic loading paths the microstructure evolves
  towards a state characterized by the limiting value of the average co-ord
 ination number and by the limiting degree of anisotropy in contact orienta
 tions. This observation sheds a new light on the critical state of granula
 r materials which may correspond to the limiting degree of anisotropy in t
 he microstructure\, in addition to the critical void ratio.  \n
LOCATION:Engineering Department - LR5
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