A method for the generation of 3D representative models of granular based materials

The morphology of many naturally occurring and man-made materials at different length scales can be modelled using the packing of correspondingly shaped and sized particles. The mechanical behaviour of this vast category of materials – which includes granular media, particle reinforced materials and foams - depends strongly upon the shape and size distribution of the particles. This paper presents a method for the generation and packing of arbitrarily shaped polyhedral particles. The algorithm for the generation of the particles is based on the Voronoi tessellation technique, whilst the packing is performed using a geometrical approach, which guarantees the non-overlapping of the bodies without relying upon any, otherwise typically computationally expensive, contact detection and interaction algorithm. The introduction of three geometrical parameters allows to control the shape, size and spacial density of the polyhedral particles, which are used to build numerical models representative of densely packed granular assemblies, granular reinforced materials and closed-cell foams. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.