Computational Modeling of Brittle Polycrystalline Materials Based on Discrete Element Method

Saleme Ruiz, K., & Stone, T.W. (2013). Computational Modeling of Brittle Polycrystalline Materials Based on Discrete Element Method. ERDC Interim Report #2. Mississippi State University: Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems. 1(1), 1-52.

Abstract

The United States Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center (USACE- ERDC) is conducting research on high performance materials. This report provides a detailed des- cription on how to perform mechanical analysis of digital microstructures for brittle polycrystalline materials. This work is contributing to the development of the computational nanomaterials test-bed under the ERDC’s project on “Discrete Nano-Scale Mechanics and Simulations”. This 2nd interim report provides the user with guidance on how to use the ERDC’s in-house Discrete Element Model (DEM ) software to model a digitally generated microstructure that is representative of brittle polycrystalline materials, such as ceramics and nacre. Additionally, in this report it is ex- plained how to export an externally-generated microstructure to DEM for mechanical analysis. This report covers five main points: 1. Explanation of the steps to build the model. 2. Instructions on how to compile the code. 3. Instructions on how to run a simulation. 4. Visualization of the results 5. Mining information from the results.