Parametric Sensitivity Study of Particle Shape Effect Through 3D Printing

Particle morphology is an important index property at the grain scale that governs the macroscopic behavior of granular soils. There have been major research efforts to realistically model the particle shapes to enhance the predictive capabilities in discrete element simulation. However, significant computational cost is generally required due to the geometric complexity of particle shapes. Therefore, considerably simplified particle shapes have been adopted in the simulations, without really understanding the degree of simulation fidelity that is achieved. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of fidelity in the modeled particle morphology on the simulation fidelity in estimating soil behavior. This paper introduces a systematic approach that develops a shape spectrum of different geometric complexities for morphometric sensitivity study and uses 3D printed synthetic particles to physically simulate the soil behavior while bypassing the use of discrete element simulation due to high computational costs. The initial results on the synthetic particles’ influence on soil behavior will be highlighted and discussed.