Experimental and numerical determination of representative elementary volume for granular plant materials

Joanna Wiacek, Marek Molenda, Jin Y. Ooi, John Favier

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

A series of physical and numerical tests were conducted to determine representative elementary volume of granular plant material. The load response of pea grain assembly poured into a cuboid test chamber and subjected to uniaxial confined compression was studied. The apparatus was equipped with adjustable side walls that allowed measurement of boundary stresses in samples of varying thickness. It was found that load distribution varied considerably in samples of thickness smaller than three times the size of the particle. Less pressure variation was observed in grain assemblies of thickness equaled to three, five and seven times the particle size. Comparison between experimental data and numerical DEM results have shown qualitative agreement. It was found that the specimen of dimension not smaller than five times the particle size can be used as a representative elementary volume in confined uniaxial compression test of granular plant materials.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)449-456
Number of pages8
JournalGranular Matter
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2012

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Sample size effect
  • Representative elementary volume
  • Grain bedding
  • Uniaxial confined compression
  • Discrete element method

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