Aggregates composed of cohesive fine particles are encountered in many natural and industrial processes, where their mechanical strength is strongly influenced by particle morphology. In this work, we investigate the microstructure, elastic response, and cohesive strength of aggregates composed of platelet-shaped particles by means of discrete element simulations. Dense jammed aggregates are generated by isotropic radial compaction of frictionless pentagonal platelets with different degrees of flatness. We show that the packing fraction varies non-monotonically with platelet flatness due to the competition between mutual inclusion and steric exclusion effects. Increasing flatness promotes local nematic ordering and the formation of face-face contacts, which play a major role in force transmission. The distributions of contact forces become increasingly heterogeneous with flatness, and the strongest force chains are preferentially sustained by face-face interactions. By introducing cohesion and friction and performing diametral compression tests, we show that both the bulk modulus and the compressive strength increase strongly with platelet flatness, despite the decrease of packing fraction for thin platelets. These results highlight that platelet geometry governs aggregate microstructure and mechanical strength primarily through interlocking and force-chain stabilization rather than through packing density.
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Tran et al. (2026) studied this question.