The importance of coordination number in using agglomerates to simulate crushable particles in the discrete element method

Recent years have seen intensive application of discrete element modelling (DEM) (first pioneered by Cundall & Strack, 1979, for uncrushable particles) to simulate crushable soil in order to study the micromechanics of soil behaviour (Robertson, 2000; McDowell & Harireche, 2002b; Cheng et al., 2004; Lim & McDowell, 2005) under stresses where particle fracture is likely to occur. The discrete element program PFC^3D (Itasca, 1999) has often been employed for this purpose. This program uses two basic entities (i.e. balls and walls), and offers a means of modelling entire boundary value...