A Comparison of Discrete Element Modeling, Finite Element Analysis, and Physical Experiment of Granular Material Systems in a Direct Shear Cell

In order to design future equipment to operate in a lunar environment, the ability to simulate such equipment using computer aided engineering (CAE) is essential. The conditions of lunar gravity cannot be reproduced on earth, thus the virtual environment is the only way to test design concepts for lunar applications. Traditional CAE for handling granular materials relies on finite element analysis (FEA), which is challenged by the lack of reliable constitutive laws. This challenge is met by using Discrete Element Modeling (DEM). However the current state‐of‐the‐art in DEM has two major limitations which must be overcome to improve the usefulness to NASA and the commercial sector applications: the computational intensive nature of the software, and the lack of an established methodology to determine the particle properties to accurately model a given physical system. We present a three‐way parallel study, physical/FEA/DEM of a direct shear test for two materials to compare the differences and similarity of...