Sustainability

At a material point scale, the stress and strain condition of granular systems has a major impact
on their sustainability. As kinetic energy increases and second-order work W2 decreases, the
concept of loss of sustainability has been created the appearance of sliding at the micro-scale as
contact is a sign of diminished sustainability. Single element sustainability is viewed as a change
in topological and geometrical properties at the mesoscopic scale. When bulking or collapsing
occurs, force chains lose their sustainability. An individual loop is sustainable if it maintains its
initial composition and does so for a long time; the inverse is true if it loses sustainability (Liu et
al., 2018).

Effective approach of sustainability

Three different approaches of sustainability is discussed by Seager, Selinger and Wiek (2012).
Out of these following approach is effective. Repackaging incremental research and development
as something that contributes to making the world a better place is the most prevalent way to
ensuring long-term sustainability. “This kind of thinking tends to be too bullish about the
potential of technology to enhance human life. To put it another way, it assumes that the addition
of new capabilities would inevitably lead to betterment in terms of the environment, society, and
economy. This method generally ignores environmental and social issues, especially those that
may only become apparent at large sizes, and it may even overlook crucial economic aspects.
What matters most is that new skills are created through scientific research, regardless of the
broader context in which it takes place.

Consequences of the sustainability: Positive and negative

When discussing frictional granular materials, shear bands are typically described as bifurcation
problems. The shear banding problem, in contrast to the homogeneous pattern of diffuse failure,
is linked to non-affine deformation, which has difficulty in constitutive homogeneity at the
macroscopically scale. At the microscopic level, for example, particle rolling and contact sliding
have been highlighted. Only their discrete mechanical behaviours can be used to define granular
materials, and the macroscopic processes have no bearing on this. The word mesostructures
suggests that there may be a link between microscopic and macroscale features of granular
materials. All of the following structures are examples of this sort of structure: force chain,
contact-based loop, Voronoi cell, Dirichlet cell, and interfacial transition zone for non-convex
aggregates (Antony et al., 2004) (Antony and colleagues, 2004) A random aggregate model
(RAM) was used to investigate the mesoscopic behaviour of three-phase fully graded materials
in 3D situations (RAM). There are additional studies on meso-structures that link local
mechanical and deformation properties available for granular materials (Vardoulakis 1980). In
1980, Vardoulakis wrote

Laboratory testing is a tried-and-true method for determining the intricacies of soils' mechanical
properties. Laboratory data from microscopic and mesoscopic examinations may now be
collected and examined in great detail thanks to technological advances like computed
tomography and digital image correlations (Vardoulakis, 1978). According to Vardoulakis,
Discrete numerical simulation has proven to be a useful technique for simulating granular
media's multiscale behaviour since it is easy to obtain microscale data and the macroscopic
reactions are so closely aligned with laboratory tests. The Discrete Element Method (DEM),
which has been widely used to evaluate the strain distribution in granular materials, can be used
to study disc and sphere assemblies. Modified DEM techniques can also be used to investigate
the effects of irregular shape and particle breaking on shear banding.

Models based on statistical mechanics, Eshel by's equivalent inclusion theory, effective medium
theories containing variational principle, and the model including differential effective medium
theory have all been presented to explain the microscopic multiphase properties of granular
materials (Sun e al., 2010). Sun and colleagues (2010).

The contact network of granular materials can be divided into two distinct subnetworks with
complementary mechanical properties: a strong contact network and a weak contact network,
according to several studies. Mesoscale force chains and loops characterise the two systems in
2D analysis. The elastic component of the assembly is primarily represented by these force
chains, which bear the majority of the assembly's stresses (Rechenmacher, 2010). In the words of
Rechenmacher (2010) The weak contact network of a 2D loop, which includes sliding contacts,
is the cause of the granular assembly's plasticity to the extent that it includes any contacts. For
example, 2D loop exchanges could be seen as an indication that the internal structure is in
decline. Microscopic failures are crucial to understanding how granular materials behave in
terms of their constitutive behaviour and monitoring the microscopic genesis of shear bands.
Rearrangement of the mesostructure relies heavily on sliding and rotation. Since the main
mechanism for plastic energy dissipation in most DEM simulations is contact sliding, it is
expected to play an important role in the mesostructural rearrangements of granular assemblies
(Iwashita et al., 2000). (2000) (Iwashita and colleagues).

During shear band development, granular materials undergo micro and mesoscopic changes, and
the role of contact sliding in these mesostructural changes is highlighted here. It is widely
accepted that granular materials undergo a systematic rearrangement and development of
heterogeneity during the shear band formation process. This study examines the sustainability of
a dense granular building at tiny scales by conducting numerical DEM biaxial testing at macro
and micro levels. Shear band width, the relationship between force chain buckling and contact
sliding, and loop structure topology change are all specified and assessed using a mesoscale
technique.

It is possible to extrapolate from macroscopic reactions and spatial heterogeneity that

heterogeneity evolves over time until a final shear band occurs. Both microscopic and
mesoscopic deviatoric strain are reflected in the distribution of contact sliding as well as force
chain buckling and loop transformation. However, prior to the establishment of a shear band,
there are already some temporal shear slips that can produce different domains. It's important to
look at the inclination and width of these pre-localization patterns in the future (Iwashita, 2000).
(Iwashita, 2000). Force chains begin to collapse at the most compressive conditions, which may
lead to a reduction in sliding contacts and a localization of these contacts. Prior to the
macroscopic stress peak, this is what happens: This time period is also reflected in the fluctuating
rate of loops, which show similar shifts.” There are two ways that internal localization can be
explained: first, force chains fail at some points, causing the accumulation of plastic dissipative
zones; and second, localised strains emerge from these failure points and merge to form a shear
band just as stress reaches its highest point, creating an internal shear band (Radjai et al., 1998).
(Radjai and colleagues, 1998). Topological transformations can be constant, dilutive, or
contractive, depending on whether loops L3 and L6 are affected first. There are many contractive
exchanges within a shear band, but only a few beyond it. A shear band is formed when the
volume gradually rises and falls.
Because contact sliding is a form of micro-structural failure, it is connected to the process of
meso-structural evolution. Loop transformations necessitate a larger sliding ratio, especially for
the dilative exchanges, due to the buckling of the force chains. Meso-scale dilatancy depends on
the dissipation of plastic, as this occurrence shows. To learn how the mesostructure loses its self-
sustaining ability, researchers have studied the sliding process at all scales, from the micro to the
meso. Despite this, contact rolling is a crucial characteristic that consumes energy when rolling
friction is addressed. The possibility of contact rolling, which will be studied in the future,
should be considered. Even though tessellation of contact-based loops is well-known in 2D,
further research based on past discoveries is needed to extend it to 3D. (Sun et al., 2010). Sun
and colleagues (2010).
References:

1. Liu, J., Nicot, F., & Zhou, W. (2018). Sustainability of internal structures during shear
band forming in 2D granular materials. Powder technology, 338, 458-470.
2. Antony, S. J., Hoyle, W., & Ding, Y. (Eds.). (2004). Granular materials: fundamentals
and applications. Royal Society of Chemistry.
3. Vardoulakis, I. (1980). Shear band inclination and shear modulus of sand in biaxial
tests. International journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics, 4(2),
103-119.
4. Vardoulakis, I., Goldscheider, M., & Gudehus, G. (1978). Formation of shear bands in
sand bodies as a bifurcation problem. International Journal for numerical and analytical
methods in Geomechanics, 2(2), 99-128.
5. Sun, Q., Jin, F., Liu, J., & Zhang, G. (2010). Understanding force chains in dense
granular materials. International Journal of Modern Physics B, 24(29), 5743-5759.
6. Rechenmacher, A., Abedi, S., & Chupin, O. (2010). Evolution of force chains in shear
bands in sands. Géotechnique, 60(5), 343-351.
7. Iwashita, K., & Oda, M. (2000). Micro-deformation mechanism of shear banding process
based on modified distinct element method. Powder technology, 109(1-3), 192-205.
8. Radjai, F., Wolf, D. E., Jean, M., & Moreau, J. J. (1998). Bimodal character of stress transmission
in granular packings. Physical review letters, 80(1), 61.