Internship 2020

Generation of real grain shapes and Discrete Element Modelling

Creation of a real collection of morphological properties

Profile: Master internship

Key words: Mechanic, R&D, Geophysics, rock mechanic

Skills:
- Curiosity and dynamism
- Mechanic and Geomechanic skills (Simulation, tribology, geology, rock mechanics…)
- Interested in numerical simulations
- Autonomy and decision-making

Duration: 4-6 months

Location: Laboratoire LaMCoS (INSA Lyon – 21 bis Avenue Jean Capelle, Bat ; S. Germain, 69621
Villeurbanne cedex).

CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT

With recent climate changes and energetic transition’s laws, research on Enhanced Geothermal Systems
is increasingly relevant. If we put aside the construction’s costs, one of the key obstacles of the
development of the technology around the world is the induced seismicity. To study this seismicity we
have to focus on the existing fracture network:

Picture 1 : Schema of the working of Enhanced Geothermal Systems and generation of micro-seismicity

In order to study the slip mechanism, we have simulated a 2D granular fault gouge with Discrete Element
Method (DEM), which is one of the most relevant approaches to simulate granular materials, in
particular in soil and rock mechanics.
 Picture 2 : Discrete Element Modelling Simulations used in the project, [1]

The simulation uses angular grains based on grain shapes observed in the literature. This is in contrast
with most of the existing simulations, which use discs (2D) or spheres (3D) to reproduce particles, due
to the simplicity of generation and contacts detection. However, over-simplifications of particle shape
do not represent the complexity of the assembly, as grains have angular and faceted shapes, which should
be introduced.
PARTICLE GENERATION

To create these granular shapes, a Fourier-Voronoi Method is used with the code Packing2D [2] . The
packing is made in 2D, using a Constrained Voronoi Tessellation with prescribed statistic in terms of
cell size and orientations. To fill the cells we can play with Fourier Descriptors to modify the roundness,
roughness and regularity of the particles.

Picture 3 : Particle generation with packind2D

However, reproducing what we observe by playing with some numerical variables is only an
approximation of the reality.
OBJECTIVES

Working with a PhD student, the objective of this project is to create a spectrum of grain shapes extracted
from real tomography or microscope images. With this collection of shapes, we will be able to build a
random, but realistic sample of particles with the same morphological properties that we can find in an
existing fracture network.
The main tasks of the internship will be:

• The creation of a bibliography about the typical materials/rocks present into the existing fracture
network and the selection of the most interesting one for the project. → Bibliographic research
• The selection of pictures from granular gouges sample (Microscope) and/or from tomography
images and the extraction of the corresponding grains shapes. → Image processing

• The generation of numerical packings of grains with the spectrum created (with Packing2D) →
Matlab code
• The comparison of the samples coming from real shapes (previously created) and the samples
coming from numerical modifications (Fourier descriptors) → Comparative studies
• Simulation of a slip triggering with DEM (code MELODY) with the different samples
generated, analyses and comparisons of the results → Simulations and analyses

Contacts: nathalie.casas@insa-lyon.fr and guilhem.mollon@insa-lyon.fr

[1] G. Mollon, A multibody meshfree strategy for the simulation of highly deformable granular
materials, Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. (2016). doi:10.1002/nme.
[2] G. Mollon, J. Zhao, Fourier-Voronoi-based generation of realistic samples for discrete
modelling of granular materials, Granul. Matter. (2012) 621–638. doi:10.1007/s10035-012-
0356-x.