Complex behavior models (plasticity, crack, visco-elascticity) are facing several theoretical difficulties in determining the behavior law at the continuous (macroscopic) scale. When homogenization fails to give the right behavior law, a solution is to simulate the material at a mesoscale using the discrete element model (DEM) in order to directly simulate a set of discrete properties that are responsible for the macroscopic behavior. Originally, the discrete element model was developed for granular material.

This book, the second in the Discrete Element Model and Simulation of...