Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

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Computers and Geotechnics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compgeo

Technical Communication

A discrete element material model including particle degradation suitable T

for rockfill embankments
Ricardo de Frias Lopez⁎, Stefan Larsson, Johan Silfwerbrand
Dept. of Civil and Architectural Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: A material model for future implementation in high rockfill embankments has been developed using discrete
Discrete element modeling elements. Compared to previous modelling of railway ballast representing particles as clumps of spheres with
Granular materials bonded asperities, much simpler breakable clumps are used. This allows considering not only corner breakage
Rockfill embankment but also particle splitting without a prohibitive computational time, something unique when modelling three-
Particle-scale behavior
dimensional assemblies of particles. Moreover, breakage is controlled by values of contact forces and particle
Particle degradation
loading configuration, resulting in significantly fewer parameters and with a much clearer physical meaning. All
in all, it results in a more computationally efficient and robust model suitable for implementation in rockfill
embankments. Numerical monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests are performed under a range of low deviatoric to
confinement stress ratios, as anticipated for railway embankments. A comparable degree of resemblance to
empirical results as the previous modelling efforts with bonded asperities is observed when including de-
gradation. Results at particle level proved useful to partially explain the observed macroscopic responses;
however, these were substantially affected by breakage and none of the studied variables could, on its own,
satisfactorily fully explain the observed behaviour. As a matter of fact, a complex interdependency of different
factors, both at particle and macroscopic level, was identified that ultimately explained the macroscopic re-
sponse. The key contribution is thus presenting an efficient and realistic material model specifically aimed at
modelling high rockfill embankments including degradation, something not attempted to date.

1. Introduction
For rockfill railway embankments, i.e. embankments constructed
with blasted and/or crushed rock of relatively large particle size, there
is an entailed level of uncertainty on the development of settlements
due to traffic loading within the rockfill. This can be critical, especially
for slab-track configurations, where possibilities for routine inexpensive
maintenance are rather limited once settlements reach a certain
threshold. This uncertainty is due to the complexity of granular matter,
mainly stemming from its discrete nature. This becomes especially re-
levant when particle size becomes meaningful in relation to the con-
sidered structure, as is the case with rockfill embankments. In this
sense, the so called discrete element method (DEM) allows to explicitly
consider the discrete nature of the material and study the effect of
different processes at particle level on the macroscopic response of the
material.
The main processes at particle level responsible for settlements in
granular layers are rearrangement and degradation. Breakage of ballast
mainly takes place in the form of corner breakage, although particle
splitting can also be observed [1,2]. These processes are greatly influ-
enced by the magnitude of the applied force. Particle coordination
number, i.e. number of contacts with neighbouring particles, which
relates to the particle loading configuration, also plays a significant role
in particle splitting [3,4]. There are DEM examples of 2D models in-
cluding splitting as a function of contact forces and coordination
number [5,6] where particles were idealized as single discs. An inter-
mediate breakage process rather resembling corner breakage was in-
cluded in [7] by using clumps of discs and releasing discs out of these.
Resulting single discs were then liable to splitting following [5,6]. Re-
garding 3D modelling, corner breakage was included in [8,9] by
modelling particles as ten-ball tetrahedral unbreakable clumps of
spheres, representing the bulk of the particle, and to which eight
smaller size spheres were bonded representing large scale asperities
liable to experience corner breakage. The use of unbreakable clumps for
the bulk of the particle resulted in omission of particle splitting. The
main reason for this was the extensive computational time demands

⁎
Corresponding author at: KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Dep. of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Div. Soil and Rock Mechanics, Brinellvägen 23, SE-100
44 Stockholm, Sweden.
E-mail addresses: rdfl@kth.se (R. de Frias Lopez), stefan.larsson@byv.kth.se (S. Larsson), johan.silfwerbrand@byv.kth.se (J. Silfwerbrand).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2019.103166
Received 24 January 2019; Received in revised form 12 June 2019; Accepted 8 July 2019
Available online 30 August 2019
0266-352X/ © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
R. de Frias Lopez, et al.
associated with modelling the whole particle as a cluster of bonded
spheres. There are also examples on modelling of fouled ballast [10,11].
However, these do not include degradation as fouling due to external
coal fines rather than resulting from internal degradation was targeted.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the work of [8,9] still remains as
state of the art resulting in the most realistic behaviour yet for ballast
under triaxial loading including particle breakage.
There are examples where the ballast layer has been modelled using
DEM [5,10] showing the significance of particle degradation on track
settlement. Examples can also be found in connection with geogrid
reinforced ballast [12,13] where particle degradation was not included
due to extensive computational time. Examples of 3D modelling of full
embankments can be found regarding rockfall protection in [14,15].
Even considering that a single impact loading cycle was modelled,
numerous compromises were needed to limit computational time, in-
cluding omission of particle breakage. To the best of the authors’
knowledge, no attempt to model a full railway embankment under
traffic loading, that besides includes particle degradation, has been
undertaken to date due to its extensive computational time demands.
A material model intended for its future implementation in model-
ling rockfill railway embankments is presented. Compared to [8,9],
particles consist of much simpler four-ball breakable tetrahedral clumps
with four asperities each. The use of breakable clumps allows to con-
sider not only corner breakage but also particle splitting without the
prohibitive computational time demands associated with bonded
models. Breakage processes are controlled by values of contact forces
and coordination number, resulting in fewer parameters (3 instead of
12 as in the bonded models in [8,9]) and with a much clearer physical
meaning. All in all, this results in a more computationally efficient and
robust model ideal for implementation in rockfill embankments. Nu-
merical monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests are performed and results
compared with the response of railway ballast [2,16] for a range of
stress levels closer to those anticipated in the main body of the em-
bankment. Bigger particle sizes than common practice for ballast were
chosen with the intent of using similar sizes to the ones in embank-
ments. Results at particle level are also obtained and analysed in order
to explain the observed macroscopic responses. The key aim of this
article is presenting a material model including degradation specifically
aimed at modelling high rockfill embankments, something not at-
tempted to date.
2. Degradation
A degradation algorithm incorporating both corner breakage and
particle splitting has been developed and implemented in PFC3D [17].
The algorithm is intended for particles represented as clumps of
spheres. Internal contacts within clumps are ignored during calcula-
tions [17] resulting in considerable reductions in computational time
needs compared to the use of clusters of bonded spheres. Particles are to
be formed by a simple four-ball tetrahedral clump, constituting the bulk
or main body of the particle, and to which four smaller size spheres are
added on its contour, constituting the asperities, altogether forming a
rigid breakable clump, like the one shown in Fig. 1. This simple
breakable clump results in a considerable reduction in computational
Fig. 1. Tetrahedral clump with 4 asperities.
2
Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166
time compared to the ten-ball tetrahedral clump with eight asperities in
[8,9] where moreover asperities are bonded to the clump. This is
paramount when the intended application is modelling embankments.
Asperities have a radius of 0.35 the radius of the balls comprising the
clump body similarly to [8,9].
The type of breakage, i.e. corner breakage alternatively particle
splitting, is clearly differentiated depending on the particle geometry
around the contact, characterized by the type of sphere, i.e. asperity or
clump body. This is a novelty when compared with previous approaches
in 2D [5–7]. As corner breakage is heavily dependent on the magnitude
of the applied contact force (strictly speaking, on the applied stress, e.g.
[18], which depends on the local contact geometry too), it is modelled
by simply releasing the sphere representing the asperity from the clump
if the normal component of the applied contact force fn acting on the
asperity exceeds a selected value referred to as fracture normal contact
force fn,u (see Fig. 2(a)). For the case of particle splitting due to induced
tensile stresses, other than the magnitude of the applied force, co-
ordination number is also known to play a significant role [3,5,6].
Contact forces due to contacting neighbouring particles induce tensile
stresses. If the coordination number is low, these tensile stresses could
break the particle similarly to an indirect tensile strength test config-
uration, whereas if the coordination number is high, the confinement
induced by the neighbouring particles can prevent splitting. Therefore,
for the splitting of a clump to happen, two simultaneous conditions are
needed. Firstly, that the applied contact force fn acting over a sphere
belonging to the clump body exceeds the selected value fn,u for the
considered sphere. Secondly, that the particle coordination number
does not exceed a given minimum clump coordination number Cn,min
above which particle splitting is prevented. Splitting is then im-
plemented by releasing all spheres from the clump. In particular, this
type of particle splitting, characterized by two distinctive fragment
sizes as schematized in Fig. 2(b), has been observed in real ballast
particles [6].
The algorithm starts by assigning a single value of fn,u to every
sphere. These values can in principle be based on experimental prob-
abilistic distributions similarly to the ones in [18] for indentation
testing of granite at monotonically increasing loads until fracture. The
selected distribution (more on this in Section 3.2) is applied over all the
spheres independently of the clump they belong to. Consequently, balls
belonging to the same clump will have different fn,u values and hence
adding inhomogeneity within the particle itself. This means that for a
given normal contact force fn , some asperities may be liable to breakage
while others not, depending on their unique value of fn,u . The same
applies to particle splitting depending on the particular sphere of the
body of the clump and its unique value of fn,u . In fact, although
homogeneous values of bond strengths were implemented throughout
the specimen in [8,9], it was suggested in [9] that using a distribution
should result in a more realistic model. In this regard, consideration of
spatial variability of the material strength has been shown to sig-
nificantly influence the overall shear strength of geo-constructions in
[19], where homogenous strength fields resulted in overestimation of
the overall stability. Inhomogeneity happens also to be the case for real
granular materials, not only from a petrological point of view but also
due to shape inhomogeneity which affects the local contact geometry
and hence fn,u as indicated above. Additionally, a value of Cn,min
common to all clumps needs to be specified. Furthermore, the algorithm
keeps record of the maximal normal contact force for each individual
sphere fn,max .
Throughout the simulations, for every single contact, normal con-
tact forces fn are compared with the value of the maximal recorded
normal contact forces fn,max (generally set to zero on the onset of
loading) for each of the contacting entities after every calculation step.
If fn fn,max , then no further action is taken. Otherwise, the degrada-
tion algorithm activates, distinguishing the cases presented in Table 1.
The implemented degradation only produces primary particle
splitting. The particles resulting from these processes could in principle
R. de Frias Lopez, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

(a) Corner breakage (b) Particle splitting

Fig. 2. Example of (a) corner breakage and (b) particle splitting in DEM model. Spheres representing asperities in red; spheres representing the body of the clump in
pale orange. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Table 1
Summary of the implemented degradation algorithm (to be read in conjunction with Fig. 2).
Case Type of sphere Action

fn < fn,u Any type of sphere Updating of fn,max to fn

fn fn,u Asperities Corner breakage: the sphere representing the asperity is released from the clump, as in Fig. 2(a), mimicking the breakage of angular projections;
the value of fn,max is updated to fn,u for the asperity.
Clump body Cn Cn,min : Particle splitting implemented by releasing all balls from the clump, resulting in two fragment sizes as in Fig. 2(b). The value of
fn,max is updated to fn,u only for the considered sphere.
Cn > Cn,min : fn,max is updated to fn without splitting.

be liable to further splitting as in [5]. Given the concerns in computa- Table 2

tional time, splitting was limited to the primary one in order not to Main input micromechanical parameters for triaxial specimen generation.
excessively increase the number of resulting particles. In this regard, Property Value
the study in [5] resulted in no more than a third generation of crushing.
Additionally, studies indicate that, although present in ballast mate- Particle size ratio PSR = Dmax /Dmin [-] 1.2
rials, splitting is not generally the dominating mechanism [1,2]. Spherical particle minimum diameter Dmin [mm] 192
Specimen height Hspc [mm] 3000
Specimen diameter Dspc [mm] 1500
3. DEM modelling 2500
Particle density [kg/m3 ]
Contact elastic modulus Ec [MPa] 400
3.1. Specimen generation Particle normal to shear stiffness ratio kn /k s [-] 1.0
Platen-wall normal stiffness multiplier [-] 2.0
A semi-compacted mixture of tetrahedral clumps is generated by Sleeve-wall normal stiffness multiplier [-] 0.2
Input porosity no [-] 0.45
particle inflation within a frictionless cylindrical vessel based on the
Initial target stress pot [kPa] 10
material-genesis algorithm described in [17] with modifications. A
Particle friction coefficient during generation µg [-] 0.06
linear elastic contact law with Coulomb friction is implemented with
Particle friction coefficient after generation µ [-] 0.6
particle normal stiffness k n based on a scaling relation:
k n = 4Ec R (1)
porosity by hampering particle rearrangement and leading to a less
where R is the particle’s radius and Ec a contact elastic modulus. A compacted configuration. On completion of generation, the final fric-
modulus value Ec of 400 MPa is chosen, representative of the results tion coefficient µ is assigned to all particles. A value of 0.6 is chosen
from the tests in [2]. The default local damping coefficient of 0.7 in based on an interparticle friction angle of 31 for clean ballast from a
[17] was applied throughout the whole simulation in order to absorb previous numerical study [10].
vibration energy and reach mechanical equilibrium within a reasonable
number of computational cycles (more on this in Section 3.2). A gravity
acceleration of 9.81 m/s2 was acting throughout the whole simulation. 3.2. Triaxial loading
The main input micromechanical properties for specimen genera-
tion are summarized in Table 2, where several parameters are chosen in After generation, the specimen is subjected to monotonic loading
order to result in a scaled-up version of the triaxial tests in [2,8,9]. The under confinement pressures ranging between 60 and 240 kPa. Cyclic
minimum spherical particle diameter Dmin before substitution for triaxial loading of the specimens is also performed for a total of 500
clumps is chosen in order to obtain clump particles with an average load cycles (10 conditioning cycles followed by 490 full load cycles)
diameter of roughly 240 mm, where particle diameter is estimated as where the deviatoric stress is cycled between a minimum d,min and
twice the diameter of the spheres comprising the body of the clump. maximum d,max value within the same range of confinement pressures
Vessel dimensions are a compromise between computational time and c as for the monotonic tests. Stress levels for the cyclic triaxial loading
size dependency of the system behaviour. tests are shown in Table 3. These are selected within the range of the
The main difference with the material-genesis algorithm in [17] is ones in the experimental tests in [2] with the lowest d,max / c ratios, as
that inter-particle friction during generation µg is included right after even lower ratios are anticipated for embankments. Furthermore, it has
substitution of frictionless balls by clumps. This controls the final to be considered that, for granular materials, permanent axial strains

3
R. de Frias Lopez, et al.
Table 3
Stress levels for the cyclic triaxial tests.
[kPa] d,min [kPa] d,max [kPa]
c d,max / c
60 45 230 3.8
90 45 230 2.6
120 45 230 1.9
180 45 230 1.3
240 45 230 1.0
can be correlated to the level of applied stress in relation to its shear
strength [20,21] and strength is known to be closely related with par-
ticle angularity and surface texture [22]. Therefore it follows that for
high d/ c ratios, i.e. stress levels closer to the material shear strength,
adequate consideration of angularity and roughness is essential. This is
a challenge when modelling particles with clumps of spheres, especially
if the number of spheres constituting a particle is intended to be kept
relatively low. Even with high number of spheres, there are limitations
to how angular the particle and how rough its surface can be. In fact,
this very same challenge was already observed by [8,9], where these
limitations were implicitly accommodated by using interparticle weak
bonds to increase shear strength. The present study tries to keep to a
minimum the number of spheres constituting the particle and to avoid
the use of bonds. Therefore the model is not intended to be used for
higher levels of d/ c than the ones in Table 3. Such higher levels do not
nevertheless apply for the main body of rockfill railway embankments,
this means at a certain depth from the track. For the considered stress
levels, a series of tests not including degradation, labelled hereafter as
“unbreakable”, and another series of test including degradation, cor-
respondently “breakable”, are performed starting from identical speci-
mens for both monotonic and cyclic tests.
First, friction is added to the platens and confinement sleeve
(Table 4). The specimen is then seated by applying a confinement
pressure c in the radial and axial directions. An additional pressure of
d,min is applied in the axial direction for the case of the cyclic tests.
Pressures are applied using a numerical servo-control mechanism acting
on all walls [17]. Target stresses are attained within a relative tolerance
of 0.01, where macroscopic stresses are measured using wall-based
values with correction for differences in wall surfaces throughout the
loading procedure [17]. Corrections in wall dimensions for effective
ball-wall overlap, as is set as default in [17], were not conducted. The
reason for this is that ball-wall overlaps represent the elastic or re-
coverable part of the deformation at the wall-particle contacts, the same
as ball-ball overlap represents the elastic deformation at inter-particle
contacts when using PFC3D [17], and therefore was included as part of
the wall-based dimensions. After seating, degradation is activated for
the breakable series and the specimen cycled for 100 calculation steps
to allow to accommodate the breakage resulting from the current stress
level before the onset of loading. For monotonic loading, specimens are
then progressively loaded until reaching an axial strain of 0.1. For
cyclic loading, specimens are firstly cyclically loaded up to the specified
maximum deviator d,max throughout 10 conditioning loading cycles,
where the deviatoric load is cycled between d,min and progressively
increasing values of d until reaching the desired d,max in Table 3. This
is followed by 490 loading cycles where the deviator is fully cycled
Table 4
Main loading parameters for the triaxial tests.
Property Value
Platen-wall friction coefficient µ p [-] 0.5
Sleeve-wall friction coefficient µs [-] 0.2
Platen-wall normal to shear stiffness ratio kn,p/ ks,p [-] 1.0
Sleeve-wall normal to shear stiffness ratio kn,s/k s,s [-] 1.0
Maximum axial strain rate a,max [s 1] 0.005
4
Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166
between d,min and d,max . Deviatoric stresses d for both monotonic and
cyclic loading are applied using a platen-based strain application
scheme [17] where the top and bottom walls act as loading platens by
progressively being accelerated up to a maximum axial strain-rate a,max
of 0.005 s 1. Once the axial strain rate reaches its maximum value a,max ,
loading continues at a constant axial rate until reaching the specified
maximum axial strain of 0.1 for the monotonic case. For the cyclic
loading, once d,max is reached, the unloading-phase is performed by
reversing the direction of the loading platens movement in similar
conditions to the loading phase until the specified d,min . The radial
confinement is kept constant to c at all times by controlling the radial
direction with the servo-mechanism. The selected maximum rate of
loading a,max is low enough to avoid load rate dependency of the me-
chanical response (see below). Maximum historical contact forces fn,max
are continuously recorded for each particle (see Section 2). The main
loading parameters are summarized in Table 4.
It has been empirically shown that, for conventional speeds, load
frequency does not significantly affect the accumulation of permanent
strains in the ballast layer [23]. Only the higher range of frequencies
specific to high-speed lines (speed > 225 km/h) would result in a sig-
nificant effect [24]. Additionally, in this regard, the model target is the
main body of rockfill railway embankments, i.e. at a certain depth from
the track, meaning that dynamic effects are expected to be attenuated by
intermediate layers like frost protection layers and hence of a lesser
magnitude than directly below the track. The above, combined with the
associated extensive computational time demands when modelling true
dynamic behaviour with DEM, leads to modelling cyclic loading as load
rate independent. Under such conditions, the use of the default local
damping coefficient of 0.7 [17] to reduce computational time is also
deemed as appropriate. This is a reasonable compromise in order to
make feasible working with large numbers of particles under large
numbers of loading cycles. It should also be observed that this is common
practice when working with DEM (e.g. good agreement with tests results
was obtained for triaxial texting and geocell-reinforced ballast layers in
[12], where high damping and slow loading rates were implemented).
Fracture loads fn,u are assigned to all balls by following the log-
normal distribution shown in Fig. 3, representative of the experimental
distributions reported in [18]. Deviations in particle size between
model and experimental tests should in principle be accounted for,
together with deviations in loading contact geometries and breakage
mechanisms. However, some studies show that breakage is not so much
influenced by particle size but rather by angularity [25]. Furthermore,
considering the level of simplifications embedded in the model, to-
gether with uncertainties on the above factors, the distribution in Fig. 3
is implemented without further adjustments. In case of unrealistic re-
sults at macroscopic level, calibration of the parameters defining the
distribution of fn,u can be undertaken. The coordination number value
above which particle splitting is inhibited Cn,min is set to 3 in accordance
with a configuration equivalent to an indirect tensile strength test [6].
All input degradation parameters are summarized in Table 5.
1
cumulative distribution [-]
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
fracture load fn,u [kN]
Fig. 3. Distribution of fracture loads among balls in numerical specimens.
R. de Frias Lopez, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

Table 5
Main input degradation parameters for the triaxial tests.
Property Value

Median for fracture load fn,u [kN] 13.5

Standard deviation for fn,u [kN] 0.35
Minimum coordination number Cn,min [-] 3

4. Results and discussion

The main volumetric properties of the generated specimen are

summarized in Table 6, where results from [9] also are included for
comparison. A porosity value of 0.51 is obtained, close to the 0.49 in
[9]. Two different gradations, namely A and B (see Fig. 4), were tested
in [16], with porosities ranging from 0.44 to 0.46 and 0.42 to 0.45
respectively. Porosities in [2] ranged from 0,42 to 0,43. For both nu-
merical specimens, porosities are therefore higher than for the labora-
tory specimens in [16] and [2]. However, for any given level of com-
paction energy or locked internal stresses, porosity is highly influenced
by particle shape and hence porosity values for numerical specimens
should not be directly compared to experimental ones. It can also be
seen that, although the number of particles is very similar in both nu-
merical studies, the present study uses a significantly lower number of
spheres (4 899 compared to 11 124 in [9]) hence clearly resulting in Fig. 5. Numerical specimen for triaxial testing after generation. Different col-
significant reductions in computational time demands. Furthermore, ours to indicate different clumps.
asperities are part of the clumps instead of being bonded to the contour,
therefore allowing further reductions by skipping these internal con- together with the level of simplifications and uncertainties embedded in
tacts throughout the calculations. Fig. 4 shows the particle size dis- the model, the results from the experimental tests in [16] and [2] are
tribution PSD for the numerical mixture together with the experimental used as a benchmark to establish a behaviour representative of rockfill
specimens in [16] and [2]. It can be seen that the numerical mixture is a material under monotonic respectively cyclic loading without further
scaled-up version of the experimental PSDs. Scale gradation is known to adjustments. The generated specimen is shown in Fig. 5.
affect the mechanical response of the material. However, its effect on Fig. 6 shows the evolution of deviatoric stress d with axial strain a
permanent strains is highly inconsistent [26]. Considering the latter, under monotonic loading for the unbreakable and breakable tests and
allows to compare with the experimental results in [16]. Results for
Table 6 gradation B in [16] are chosen instead of for gradation A, as porosities
Triaxial specimen volumetrics on generation completion. Result for bonded are closer to the ones for the specimens used for cyclic testing in [2]
model in [9] added for comparison. (see paragraph above). Results for the DEM model in [9] using bonds
Property Value Bonded model after are also shown. Analogously, results for volumetric strain v are pre-
[9] sented in Fig. 7. A significant effect of including degradation, both in
terms of shear strength and volumetric response, is observed, resulting
Minimum clump particle equivalent diameter 220 40
in a much more realistic response. Regarding deviatoric response,
Dmin [mm]
Maximum clump particle equivalent diameter 264 40 breakage significantly reduces shear strength, especially at higher
Dmax [mm] confinements, resulting in a response quite similar to the experimental
Total number of spheres Nsph,t [-] 4 899 11 124 results. Compared with the bonded model, the breakable series shows
Number of spheres in clump body Nsph,cl [-] 2 634 6 180 an average higher level of resemblance to the experimental results,
Number of spheres in asperities Nsph,as [-] 2 265 4 944 especially at higher confinements. Regarding volumetric response, the
Total number of clumps Ncl [-] 671 618
unbreakable series results in unrealistically high dilation. Breakage
Initial porosity no [-] 0.51 0.49
partly inhibits dilation resulting in a closer response to the experimental
one. The observed contractile effect of breakage is in agreement with
100 the results in [8,9]. In this case, the breakable assemblies do not result
numerical in a closer response to the experimental results than the bonded model.
80 exp. A [16] The evolution of permanent axial strains a, p with the number of
percentage passing

exp. B [16] loading cycles for the breakable series is shown in Fig. 8. Higher levels
60 exp. [2] of axial deformations are observed during the first few cycles and the
specimen response becomes more stable as the load progresses until
40 shakedown is achieved similarly to [2], with the exception of the lowest
confinement level. For numerical specimens, shakedown is achieved
20 within the applied 500 load cycles (approximately after 100 cycles)
whereas for the experimental tests this happened after approximately
0 10 000 cycles of the applied 50 000 cycles. This is in agreement with
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
the previous modelling effort in [9], where an even more rapid sha-
sieve size [mm]
kedown is observed (less than 10 cycles out of a total of 100 cycles). In
Fig. 4. Numerical and experimental particle size distribution PSD before fact, it is common practice when modelling three-dimensional assem-
triaxial testing. Experimental (exp.) PSD after [16] for gradations A and B, exp. blies of particles with DEM to use a reduced number of cycles, e.g.
A and B respectively, and after [2]. [10,12,27]. Additionally, by the time of publication of [9], none other

5
R. de Frias Lopez, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

3000 3000

Deviator stress σ d [-]

Deviator stress σ d [-]

2000 2000

1000 1000

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Axial strain εa [-] Axial strain εa [-]
(a) Unbreakable (b) Breakable

3000 3000
Deviator stress σ d [-]

Deviator stress σ d [-]

2000 2000

1000 1000

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Axial strain εa [-] Axial strain εa [-]

(c) Experimental (d) Bonded

Fig. 6. Deviator stress against axial strain under cyclic triaxial loading for (a) unbreakable assemblies, (b) breakable assemblies, (c) experimental results for gradation
B in [16] and (d) bonded model in [9].

-0.2 -0.2

-0.15 -0.15
Volumetric strain εv

Volumetric strain εv

-0.1 -0.1

-0.05 -0.05

0 0

0.05 0.05
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Axial strain εa [-] Axial strain εa [-]
(a) Unbreakable (b) Breakable

-0.2 -0.2
240 kPa
-0.15
Volumetric strain εv

-0.15
Volumetric strain εv

120 kPa
90 kPa
-0.1 -0.1
60 kPa
-0.05 -0.05

0 0

0.05 0.05
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Axial strain εa [-] Axial strain εa [-]
(d) Experimental (d) Bonded

Fig. 7. Volumetric strain against axial strain under cyclic triaxial loading for (a) unbreakable assemblies, (b) breakable assemblies, (c) experimental results for
gradation B in [16] and (d) bonded model in [9].

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R. de Frias Lopez, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

0.05 450

permanent axial strain εa,p [-]

240 kPa

resilient modulus Mr [MPa]

180 kPa
0.04 350
120 kPa
90 kPa
0.03 250
60 kPa
Brk.
0.02 150
Unbrk.
Exp.
0.01 50
0 1 2 3 0 50 100 150 200 250
10 10 10 10
confinning stress σ c [kPa]
number of cycles [-]
Fig. 8. Evolution of axial permanent strains under cyclic triaxial loading for Fig. 10. Effect of confinement on the final resilient modulus for breakable
breakable tests under a range of confining pressures. (Brk.), unbreakable (Unbrk.) and experimental [2] (Exp.) cyclic triaxial tests.
Linear regression lines included as solid, dotted and dashed lines respectively.

work in 3D including particle degradation over anything like as many

as 100 cycles could be found. The same could be stated nowadays re- axial strains respectively at higher levels for volumetric strains.
garding the 500 implemented cycles. All the above indicates that re- The resilient response, characterized by the resilient modulus, is
arrangement and degradation develop considerably faster in numerical shown in Fig. 10. The modulus is estimated as the secant modulus
specimens and hence a reduced number of load cycles could represent a during unloading. Linear stiffening with confinement can be observed
larger one in reality (a ratio of approximately 1–100 is observed in this for both the breakable and unbreakable series, in accordance with the
study), a reasonable compromise when relative rather than absolute experimental results. A good agreement between numerical and ex-
evolutions of settlements are investigated, especially when shakedown perimental results can be appreciated at higher confinements, whereas
takes place. This is especulated to be partly caused by the chosen for lower confinements the numerical results underestimate the ex-
loading rate (see Section 3.2) that maximizes rearrangement under each perimental ones. In this case, the effect of breakage is much less pro-
load cycle. The limited number of large asperities and ignoring the nounced than for axial and volumetric strains. This indicates that
effects of fatigue and slow crack growth were also indicated as causes in breakage mainly affects the permanent component of the strains, as
[9]. may have been anticipated being breakage an irreversible process, and
Fig. 9 allows to compare the final axial and volumetric strains for has a lesser effect on the resilient or reversible one. No results on re-
the breakable and unbreakable tests together with the experimental silient response were reported for the bonded model under cyclic
results. Results for the DEM model in [9] using bonds after 100 loading loading in [9]. Therefore, no comparison on how does the resilient
cycles are also included. All tests were cycled between deviatoric values response of the presented model stands against the previous modelling
of 45–230 kPa. A significant effect of including degradation can be effort with bonds has been possible. In fact, the authors know not of any
observed. Regarding axial strains, the breakable series shows an work on modelling of granular materials under triaxial loading using
average response close to the experimental one and with the same de- DEM where both the permanent strain and resilient response are pre-
gree of resemblance as the bonded model. The breakable series results sented. The only exception to this may be combining the works of [28]
in a more realistic response than the unbreakable, especially at lower and [29] where the resilient response and the permanent deformation
confinements, where a nearly flat response together with lower de- are respectively studied over the same numerical specimens under the
formation values are observed for the latter. Regarding volumetric re- same loading conditions. However, these studies were performed over
sponse, the breakable series again results in a more realistic response assemblies of spheres rather than clumps and therefore comparison
than the unbreakable, especially at higher confinements, where a more with real granular materials was done only at a behavioural level.
contractile response is observed. Furthermore, in this occasion, the The rest of the article will focus on results at particle level for the
breakable series results in a higher degree of similarity to the experi- case of cyclic loading, as the intended future implementation of the
mental results than the previous model with bonds. It can be concluded model is for the case of rockfill embankments under cyclic loading.
that degradation increases permanent strains and contractibility, being Fig. 11(a) shows the final experienced degradation for the breakable
its effect more significant at lower confinement levels when modelling test series. This is complemented by Table 7 where the degradation
permanent volumetric strain εv,p [-]
permanent axial strain εa,p [-]

Brk. 0.03
0.06
Unbrk.
0.02
Exp.
0.04 Bonded 0.01
Brk.
0
0.02 Unbrk.
-0.01 Exp.
Bonded
0 -0.02
0 50 100 150 200 250 0 50 100 150 200 250
confinning stress σ c [kPa] confinning stress σ c [kPa]
(a) Axial strain (b) Volumetric strain

Fig. 9. Effect of confinement on final permanent strains for (a) axial strains and (b) volumetric strains for unbreakable (Unbrk.), breakable (Brk.), experimental [2]
(Exp.) and bonded model in [9] (Bonded) cyclic triaxial tests. Experimental tests results for axial strains in (a) represented by dotted regression line a, p = 0, 30 c 0,51
following [2]. Solid regression line of type a, p = a c b added for breakable tests (Brk.) in (a).

7
R. de Frias Lopez, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

No. events rel. to No. clumps [%]

No. events. rel. to No. clumps [%]
240 kPa
40 released asp. 40
180 kPa
released clp. 120 kPa
30 30 90 kPa
60 kPa
20 20

10 10

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3

confinning stress σ c [kPa] Number of cycles [-]

(a) Effect of confinement (b) Evolution of corner breakage

Fig. 11. Degradation under cyclic triaxial loading for breakable tests: (a) effect of confinement on final values and (b) evolution of corner breakage under a range of
confining pressures.

Table 7
Degradation after seating for breakable tests.
c [kPa] No. broken asperities [-]
60 5 0
90 5 0
120 7 0
180 11
240 41
after seating and just before the onset of cyclic loading (see Section 3.2)
is presented. Corner breakage and particle splitting are presented as
number of events relative to the initial number of clumps in Fig. 11
whereas absolute values are presented in Table 7. Particle splitting after
seating is nearly non-existent and, when presented as number of events
relative to clumps, corner breakage varies between 0.06 and 0.007, i.e.
up to two orders of magnitude lower than the one resulting from cyclic
loading in Fig. 11. Under loading, corner breakage is dominant for all
stress levels, as expected for angular ballast materials [1,2]. Fig. 11(b)
shows the evolution of corner breakage. A distinct parallelism can be
established with the evolution patterns of axial strains in Fig. 8 for the
breakable tests. It could be said that trends in the evolution of corner
breakage, rather than absolute values, can explain developments in
deformation of the tested specimens. The same type of parallelism was
observed in [9], where particle splitting was not included. Hence the
current study supports the conclusion that for ballast materials, where
corner breakage is dominant, this mechanism can largely explain trends
in axial strain accumulation.
Fig. 12 shows the final average coordination number for both the
breakable and unbreakable tests. is obtained as:
12
avg. coordination No. Cn [-]
2Nc
Cn =
Np (2)
No. split clumps [-]
where Nc refers to the total number of contacts and Np to the total
number of particles. For the breakable series, Np at any instant is the
addition of the surviving clumps and spherical particles resulting from
split clumps together with released asperities due to corner breakage.
0
1 For unbreakable tests, grows with the level of confinement, indicative
of a denser state. This growth is more pronounced at low levels of
confinement, where additional confinement greatly contributes in
preventing the disruption of the initially denser bearing skeleton (see
below). At higher levels, growth abates as the level of packing becomes
closer to its maximum achievable level and the disrupting effect of the
loading is minimized. However, for breakable tests, spheres resulting
from particle degradation produce an increase of number of particles
and hence a reduction of in a specimen that is dominated by clumps.
The reason for this is that smaller spherical particles resulting from
corner breakage and particle splitting have lower opportunities of es-
tablishing as many contact points with larger particles, i.e. clumps, as
clumps have. Overall, this translates into lower values. Additionally,
breakage results in an eventual decrease of at higher confinements, as
higher stress levels results in additional corner breakage (Fig. 11) that
ultimately counteracts the beneficial effects of the higher confinement
(more on this below). It can also be observed that is, for all cases, way
above the value of Cn,min of 3 governing particle splitting, explaining the
low splitting values in Fig. 11.
Fig. 13 shows the evolution of with the number of loading cycles for
both the breakable and unbreakable tests series. In all cases, the initial
is not much affected by the applied confinement during seating, in-
dicating that the initial bearing skeleton configuration is mainly a result
of the generation procedure, i.e. initial packing of the material. Co-
ordination number decreases throughout loading, illustrating that
cyclic loading results in different levels of disruption of the initially
dense bearing structures. However, for unbreakable tests, this decrease
is rather insignificant for intermediate to high confinements, as

Fig. 13(b) shows. Only a marked decrease can be seen for the lowest
10 confinement. When breakage is included, Fig. 13(a), distinctive re-
ductions in can be observed for all confinements. These reductions take
mainly place throughout conditioning, where the most rapid degrada-
8
tion is also observed in Fig. 11(b). Again, disruption is more significant
at the lowest level of confinement, whereas is at its lowest for inter-
6 mediate confinements instead for the highest one, as was the case for
Brk.
Unbrk. unbreakable assemblies. This is consequence of the reduced degrada-
4 tion observed at intermediate confinements in Fig. 11. Once a constant
0 50 100 150 200 250 loading value is repeated, i.e. after conditioning, changes are generally
confinning stress σ c [kPa] less pronounced. In fact, a rather stable configuration is achieved for
intermediate to high levels of confinement and only a more substantial
Fig. 12. Effect of confinement on the final average coordination number for reduction of is observed for the lowest level of confinement. This clearly
unbreakable and breakable triaxial test. suggests a stress history dependence of the material response, a factor

8
R. de Frias Lopez, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166

12 12

avg. coordination No. [-]

avg. coordination No. [-]
10 10

8 8 240 kPa
180 kPa
120 kPa
6 6 90 kPa
60 kPa

4 4
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Number of cycles [-] Number of cycles [-]
(a) breakable tests (b) unbreakable tests

Fig. 13. Evolution of average coordination number for (a) breakable tests and (b) unbreakable tests under a range of confining pressures.

that traditionally has not received much attention when studying per-
manent strain of granular materials [20]. For the lowest level of con-
finement, a more dramatic decrease of would in fact be expected given
that neither corner breakage nor permanent strain values are yet stable
(Figs. 11(b) and 8 respectively). However, the excess of corner breakage
ultimately contributes to increase the number of contacts and somehow
compensates up to a certain level for the increased number of particles.
Trends in in Fig. 13(a) can generally be partially correlated to trends
in corner breakage in Fig. 11(b), with the noticeable exception of the
lowest confinement as presented above. This means that trends in can
also partially be correlated to trends in permanent axial strains in Fig. 8.
Although trends in permanent strains seem to follow more closely the
evolutions of corner breakage than of , the relative proportions between
permanent strains seem to match more closely the proportions between
than corner breakage events. Therefore, neither corner breakage nor
can fully explain permanent axial strains, as a more complex interaction
of several factors is anticipated (more on this below).
Fig. 14(a) shows the median of the recorded maximum normal
contact forces fn,max . Contact forces are higher for breakable tests, in
agreement with a lower (Fig. 12) indicative of a poorer contact network
density. Combined with Figs. 11(a) and 12, a complex interaction be-
tween confinement, coordination number or bearing skeleton structure,
values of contact forces and particle degradation is observed that ulti-
mately defines the material performance as in Fig. 9(a). High levels of
corner breakage are recorded at the lowest confinement, where the
lower is indicative of a looser structure resulting from a marked dis-
ruption of its bearing skeleton throughout loading and producing high
force concentrations regardless of the lower stresses. This higher
breakage, combined with low confinement, greatly increases possibi-
lities for particle rearrangement resulting in higher axial strains. As
confinement increases, specimens initially benefit greatly from less
disrupted and hence denser bearing structures able to effectively and
efficiently distribute the applied stresses, hence resulting in the lowest
levels of degradation and a marked reduced deformation. After this
significant initial improvement, higher stress levels produce higher
contact forces that result in additional breakage and hence some ad-
ditional disruption of the bearing skeleton, however not enough to
overcome the stabilizing effect of the added confinement. This addi-
tional breakage seems to grow in a lineally controlled manner with the
additional confinement till the point of becoming extensive due to ex-
cessive stresses. At this point, a reduction on and hence weakening of an
otherwise strong bearing skeleton is observed. In other words, it
reaches the point where the additional stresses and associated corner
breakage fully overcome the positive densification effect. This higher
confinement, on the other hand, compensates for the loss of angularity
by greatly restricting the possibilities for particle rolling and sliding, i.e.
rearrangement, resulting in low axial strains. This interdependency of
bearing skeleton, degradation and performance depending on stress
levels can be correlated with the different degradation zones presented
in [1] and further studied in [2]: transition towards the dilatant, un-
stable degradation zone (DUDZ) at low confinement levels, optimum
degradation zone (ODZ) at intermediate levels and compressive, stable
degradation zone (CSDZ) with controlled growth of degradation for
higher levels.
Finally, Fig. 14(b) compares the obtained distributions of fn,max and
allows direct comparison with the implemented fn,u for breakable tests.
All test levels resulted in similar types of distributions, suggesting that
differences between distributions can be characterized by a nominal
value like the median. Indeed, a good agreement can be observed be-
tween median forces in Fig. 14(a) and corner breakage in Fig. 11(a),
highlighting its potential to characterize or explaining corner breakage
for the case of low particle splitting.
5. Concluding remarks and future work
A DEM material model suitable for its implementation in large

12 1
cumulative distribution [-]

Brk. 240 kPa

10 0.8
median of f n,max [kN]

Unbrk. 180 kPa

8 120 kPa
0.6
90 kPa
6
60 kPa
0.4
4 f
n,u
0.2
2

0 0
-1 0 1 2
0 50 100 150 200 250 10 10 10 10
confinning stress σc [kPa] Max. normal contact force f n,max [kN]

(a) Effect of confinement (b) Distribution for breakable tests

Fig. 14. Maximum normal contact forces fn,max for triaxial tests: (a) effect of confinement on median value for breakable and unbreakable tests and (b) distribution
for breakable tests under a range of confining pressures.

9
R. de Frias Lopez, et al.
constructions has been presented. Particles consist of simple breakable
clumps of spheres including asperities, where both corner breakage and
particle splitting are clearly differentiated depending on contact geo-
metry and allowed at any time. The breakage process itself is controlled
by contact forces and particle loading configuration, where the gov-
erning parameters have a clearer physical meaning than previous
modelling efforts using bonded spheres. All in all, it results in a more
computationally efficient and robust model liable to be applied over a
wider range of conditions than the ones calibrated for. This is especially
the case for conditions where so far computational time has been the
main limiting factor, as is the case of rockfill embankments.
Monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests, both for specimens including
and not including the presented degradation algorithm, are performed
under a range of confining pressures and results compared with the
response of railway ballast materials. The range of confining pressures
is selected avoiding high ratios of deviatoric to confinement stresses, as
the model is not suitable for such conditions and nevertheless those are
not anticipated in the main body of rockfill railway embankments.
Among some of the most significant conclusions, it was observed that
when the model included degradation, it resulted in a more realistic
deviatoric and volumetric response with a comparable degree of simi-
larity to empirical results as previous modelling efforts. Furthermore,
the resilient response under cyclic loading was also reported, showing
good agreement for higher confinement and a much lesser influence of
degradation. Corner breakage was the dominant degradation me-
chanism, as expected for angular ballast materials and explained by
high coordination number values. Different micromechanical para-
meters were used to explain the observed deformations. Breakage re-
sulted in substantial changes in the evolution of these parameters and
their effect on performance, resulting in none of these fully explaining
the observed behaviour. In fact, a complex interdependency of factors
at both at particle and macroscopic level could ultimately explain the
behaviour of the breakable assemblies. Additionally, clear signs of
stress history dependence were identified at particle level.
In summary, a model with a similar level of resemblance to em-
pirical results as the previous bonded model by [9] under a range of
stress levels closer to those anticipated for embankments has been
presented. This is accomplished in a more efficient and robust way,
allowing its implementation to model high rockfill embankments,
something unthinkable in practical terms with the model in [9]. It is the
intention of the authors to continue the current work by implementa-
tion of the breakable clumps model for the case of high railway rockfill
embankments under traffic load. The authors are aware of the nu-
merous simplifications and limitations embedded in the model. How-
ever, the model is deemed as a suitable tool to assess the order of
magnitude of macroscopic responses and their relative evolution to-
gether with the relative level of significance of influencing factors.
Moreover, contrasted against full-scale results, the model can be used to
provide explanations at particle level which experimental testing alone
will fail to provide, mostly due to difficulties in conducting compre-
hensive measurements at particle level. Therefore the key contribution
of this article is presenting a realistic material model specifically aimed
at modelling high rockfill embankments, furthermore including de-
gradation, something that has not been attempted to date.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following founding bodies
for their financial support: Swedish Transport Administration, Better
Interaction in Geotechnics BIG and the Development Fund of the
Swedish Construction Industry SBUF.
10
Computers and Geotechnics 115 (2019) 103166
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2019.103166.
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