Strain localization in the standard triaxial tests of granular materials: Insights into meso- and macro-scale behaviours

The standard triaxial tests cease to be valid as material tests since the homogeneity of the granular mass is lost when localized failures such as shear bands occur requiring a different approach to interpreting and analyzing material responses at the meso scale from the macro behaviour. This study sheds light on the above issue by analyzing the standard triaxial tests of the granular specimens undergoing localized failure at different scales using DEM. For the first time, the behaviour of material inside and outside of the shear band as well as the entire sample are quantitatively quantified through DEM simulations. The results enable confirmation of various theoretical hypotheses and experimental observations on the localized failure in granular materials. For example, by quantifying the inter-particle contact forces of materials inside and outside the shear band zone, it is confirmed that the material outside the localization band undergoes inelastic unloading beyond the bifurcation point, while those inside the localization band experience inelastic shearing to reach the critical state. Moreover, the analysis in this study suggests that if the volume of the localization zone can be precisely measured from the experiment, the mesoscale constitutive responses that truly represent the inelastic behaviour can be quantified. This gives rise to a more appropriate method to obtain inelastic constitutive responses of granular materials from specimens undergoing localized failure in triaxial tests.