In this planning visit supported by the Europe and Eurasia Program of the Office of International Science and Engineering, Profs. Beena Sukumaran and Shreekanth Mandayam together with a graduate student will visit Prof. Ali Daouadji in the Civil Engineering Department at Université Paul Verlaine in Metz, France, to a joint experimental, numerical and theoretical study of the crushing of granular geologic materials. The proposed research will involve a combination of x-ray computed tomography imaging, discrete element modeling, and a theoretical model that can reproduce the stress-strain behavior of granular materials. This planned multidisciplinary investigation would involve US and French investigators with complementary expertise.
The technical impact of this investigation is likely to benefit geotechnical engineering research as well as other fields that depend on an understanding of granular mechanics. The research effort would also enhance scientific collaboration between French and U.S. scientists and provide students with an international research experience in an important activity. Rowan University is a primarily undergraduate institution with considerable success in training women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.
Collapse behavior of Sands Intellectual Merit: Sands subjected to sudden loadings especially during an earthquake event can lose all its strength and collapse providing a weak foundation for the structures that is built on them. In this research study, the PI and her team at Rowan University in Southern New Jersey are collaborating with their French partners in the University of Paul Verlaine, Metz, France to collaboratively study the mechanics governing such failures using a combination of experimental modeling, numerical modeling and theoretical analyses. This will enable a better understanding of the collapse behavior of sands to be obtained so that damages during earthquake and other such sudden load events can be mitigated. It has been seen during the study that instability in loose sand can lead to catastrophic collapse of earth structures. An appropriate theoretical model to accurately predict the strength response for both dense and loose sands has been developed using a micromechanical approach. The models are applied to simulate behaviour of loose sand and numerical results were compared to experimental results to lend confidence to the modelling effort. The study has also provided insights on interactions of individual particles, which can then be used to obtain a better understanding of the large scale performance of loose sand. Broader Impacts: This project has laid the foundation for international research opportunities with the Engineering Mechanics Department at Université Paul Verlaine in Metz, France, as well as ongoing research for two graduate students. Several undergraduate students have also been trained using the opportunities afforded by the grant. In addition, it has also led to long term collaborations between the two institutions which have complementary skill sets to better understand collapse behavior of loose sand at the micro to the macro level. The project has also enabled the PI to develop outreach activities for elementary school students, which exposes young students to the positive societal impacts of the engineering profession and promotes interest in the STEM disciplines as they proceed through school.
