Discrete–element modelling: methods and applications in the environmental sciences

This paper introduces a Theme Issue on discrete–element modelling, based on research presented at an interdisciplinary workshop on this topic organized by the National Institute of Environmental e–Science. The purpose of the workshop, and this collection of papers, is to highlight the opportunities for environmental scientists provided by (primarily) off–lattice methods in the discrete–element family, and to draw on the experiences of research communities in which the use of these methods is more advanced. Applications of these methods may be conceived in a wide range of situations where dynamic processes involve a series of fundamental entities (particles or elements) whose interaction results in emergent macroscale structures. Indeed, the capacity of these methods to reveal emergent properties at the meso– and macroscale, that reflect microscale interactions, is a significant part of their attraction. They assist with the definition of constitutive material properties at scales beyond those at which measurement and theory have been developed, and help us to understand self–organizing behaviours. The paper discusses technical issues including the contact models required to represent collision behaviour, computational aspects of particle tracking and collision detection, and scales at which experimental data are required and choices about modelling style must be made. It then illustrates the applicability of DEM and other forms of individual–based modelling in environmental and related fields as diverse as mineralogy, geomaterials, mass movement and fluvial sediment transport processes, as well as developments in ecology, zoology and the human sciences where the relationship between individual behaviour and group dynamics can be explored using a partially similar methodological framework.