A Sphere Filling Algorithm for Irregular Aggregate Particle Generation based on Nonlinear Optimization Method

The angularity of particles has important effects on the mechanical properties of asphalt mixture and other granular materials. To simulate these effects, the glue-sphere method was usually used to create an arbitrary polyhedron particle. Unlike other studies, this paper aims to efficiently fill a polyhedron with as few spheres as possible through optimization technology in order to reduce the cost of calculation during mixture simulation. Four contents are mainly discussed here: a) how to produce non-spherical aggregates and control their sizes with the minimal bounding box; b) how to fill convex non-spherical particles with the fewest balls as possible using the constrained nonlinear optimization method; c) how to compute the typical shape factors of these particles; and d) how the control parameters affect the filling effect. The algorithm for this study was programmed by MATLAB software and was proven to have better filling performance and less computational cost compared to other methods.

[1]  T. Ng,et al.  A three-dimensional discrete element model using arrays of ellipsoids , 1997 .

[2]  Yu Liu,et al.  Three-dimensional discrete element modeling of asphalt concrete: Size effects of elements , 2012 .

[3]  M. K. Chang,et al.  INFLUENCE OF COARSE AGGREGATE SHAPE ON THE STRENGTH OF ASPHALT CONCRETE MIXTURES , 2005 .

[4]  Andy Collop,et al.  Use of the Distinct Element Method to Model the Deformation Behavior of an Idealized Asphalt Mixture , 2004 .

[5]  J. Santamarina,et al.  Role of Particle Angularity on the Mechanical Behavior of Granular Mixtures , 2013 .

[6]  Frederico W. Tavares,et al.  Influence of particle shape on the packing and on the segregation of spherocylinders via Monte Carlo simulations , 2003 .

[7]  Tae Sup Yun,et al.  Particle shape effect on thermal conductivity and shear wave velocity in sands , 2017 .

[8]  Tae Sup Yun,et al.  Quantification of bulk form and angularity of particle with correlation of shear strength and packing density in sands , 2017 .

[9]  John R. Williams,et al.  A linear complexity intersection algorithm for discrete element simulation of arbitrary geometries , 1995 .

[10]  E. Forssberg,et al.  REVIEW OF APPLIED PARTICLE SHAPE DESCRIPTORS AND PRODUCED PARTICLE SHAPES IN GRINDING ENVIRONMENTS. PART I: PARTICLE SHAPE DESCRIPTORS , 2005 .

[11]  J. Santamarina,et al.  Closure of "Particle Shape Effects on Packing Density, Stiffness, and Strength: Natural and Crushed Sands" , 2006 .

[12]  P. Cundall.  A computer model for simulating progressive, large-scale movements in blocky rock systems , 1971 .

[13]  William G. Buttlar,et al.  Micromechanical Fracture Modeling of Asphalt Mixture Using the Discrete Element Method , 2005 .

[14]  P. Barrett.  The shape of rock particles, a critical review , 1980 .

[15]  Ching S. Chang,et al.  DISCRETE ELEMENT ANALYSIS FOR ACTIVE AND PASSIVE PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION ON RETAINING WALL , 1994 .

[16]  Sumit Basu,et al.  Numerical simulation of mechanical behaviour of asphalt mix , 2008 .

[17]  Glenn R. McDowell,et al.  A method to model realistic particle shape and inertia in DEM , 2010 .

[18]  A. A. Mirghasemi,et al.  Numerical simulation of breakage of two-dimensional polygon-shaped particles using discrete element method , 2006 .

[19]  D G Tunnicliff,et al.  EFFECTS OF CRUSHED STONE AGGREGATE SIZE AND SHAPE ON PROPERTIES OF ASPHALT CONCRETE (WITH DISCUSSION) , 1982 .

[20]  Zhanping You,et al.  Visualization and Simulation of Asphalt Concrete with Randomly Generated Three-Dimensional Models , 2009 .

[21]  N. Page,et al.  Selection of Descriptors for Particle Shape Characterization , 2003 .

[22]  Sariel Har-Peled,et al.  Efficiently approximating the minimum-volume bounding box of a point set in three dimensions , 1999, SODA '99.

[23]  Ali Asghar Mirghasemi,et al.  Numerical simulation of 3D semi-real-shaped granular particle assembly , 2012 .

[24]  Kamyar C. Mahboub,et al.  FLAT AND ELONGATED AGGREGATES IN SUPERPAVE REGIME , 2000 .

[25]  William G. Buttlar,et al.  Discrete Element Modeling of Asphalt Concrete: Microfabric Approach , 2001 .

[26]  Fatih Hattatoglu,et al.  Correlation between Shape of Aggregate and Mechanical Properties of Asphalt Concrete , 2011 .

[27]  Mahmood A. Khwaja,et al.  An ellipse-based discrete element model for granular materials , 1993 .

[28]  David P. Dobkin,et al.  The quickhull algorithm for convex hulls , 1996, TOMS.

[29]  Changming Wang,et al.  Comparison of a 3-D DEM simulation with MRI data , 2001 .

[30]  Paul Langston,et al.  Distinct element modelling of non-spherical frictionless particle flow , 2004 .