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Volume 118
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A note on various tensorial descriptors of anisotropy in granular materials by DEM simulations
Ashkan Ghollasimood, Mehdi Veiskarami *, Mojtaba Jahanandish
School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
10.1016/j.partic.2026.08.032
Volume 118, November 2026, Pages 185-207
Received 9 July 2026, Revised 24 August 2026, Accepted 31 August 2026, Available online 2 September 2026, Version of Record 16 September 2026.
E-mail: mveiskarami@shirazu.ac.ir
Highlights

• DEM triaxial simulations with a flexible membrane boundary reproduce the macroscopic response of three benchmark sands.

• Rolling resistance parameters calibrated in the literature transfer to an independent model without any re-calibration.

• The force-direction contact fabric remains coaxial with stress, whereas the void-based fabric remains nearly orthogonal.

• A single scalar coefficient of about 2.6 links stress anisotropy to fabric across all sands and confining pressures.


Abstract

Various descriptors have been introduced to describe and predict the anisotropy of granular materials. Among many, common descriptors often related to the microstructure of granular materials, are typically based on the particles orientation, the void spaces and the contact force. In addition, the evolution of anisotropy, also called the induced anisotropy, is primarily related to the stress state. At least, such a relation is more desirable for practical purposes when the original state and the stress path are known. Since experimental measurements on the evolution of anisotropy are very difficult, often accompanied by errors, the widely accepted and practically applied DEM simulation has been implemented in this work to study the intensity and trends of induced anisotropy captured by the void-based and contact-based fabrics due to axial loading. The coaxiality of various descriptors with the stress tensor along with the evolution of the anisotropy of the granular materials have been studied and compared based on some available experimental data on renowned sands. Results indicated that contact-based descriptors are closely coaxial with the stress tensor while the void-based descriptor is orthogonal, i.e. a particular type of coaxiality. A linear mapping from the contact-based descriptors to the stress tensor has been conducted to clarify their relationship and evaluate if they can estimate the anisotropy with sufficient accuracy.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Anisotropy; DEM; Fabric tensor; Granular materials; Microstructure; Sand
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