Modeling the elastic behavior of granular materials by homogenization techniques

This paper discusses the capabilities of homogenization techniques to accurately represent the elastic behavior of granular materials considered as assemblies of randomly distributed particles. The stress-strain relationship for the assembly is determined by integrating the behavior of the inter-particle contacts in all orientations, using two different homogenization methods, namely the kinematic method and the static method. Comparisons between numerical and experimental results showed that the two models can represent accurately the elastic behavior of different granular materials under isotropic loading and are capable of a very precise account of the influence of the inherent anisotropy. However, the two models produce significantly different results along more general stress paths, in particular those with a change in the principal stress ratio and the kinematic hypothesis appears to be more suitable for modeling the evolution of the elastic constants of granular materials along anisotropic stress paths.