Multiscale analysis of shear failure of thick-walled hollow cylinder in dry sand

A novel hierarchical multiscale model has been applied to simulate the thick-walled hollow cylinder tests in dry sand and to investigate the corresponding shear failures. The combined finite-element method and discrete-element method (FEM/DEM) model employs the FEM as a vehicle to advance the solution for a macroscopic non-linear boundary value problem incrementally. It is, meanwhile, free of conventional macroscopic phenomenological constitutive law, which is replaced by discrete-element simulations conducted with representative volume elements (RVEs) associated with the Gauss quadrature points of the FEM mesh. Numerical simulations proposed by the authors indicate that this multiscale approach is capable of replicating the evolution of cavity pressure during cavity expansion – before and after the onset of strain localisation – in qualitative agreement with laboratory tests. In particular, the curvilinear shear bands observed from experiments have been reproduced numerically. The information provided by the mesoscale DEM and the macroscale FEM reveals a close linkage between significant particle rotations taking place inside the dilative shear bands and the highly anisotropic microstructural attributes of the associated RVEs.