Virtual Experiments on Coarse-Grained Soil Using X-Ray CT and Finite Element Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital Rock Physics; Finite Element Analysis; X-Ray Computed Tomography

Abstract

Digital rock physics combines imaging and numerical techniques to study the mechanical properties of granular materials without extensive physical experiments. This paper introduces a workflow for processing X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) data and using it in numerical simulations, demonstrated through the compression of coarse-grained soil. High-resolution CT scans capture the 3D structure of soil, with noise reduction, binarization, and segmentation isolating individual particles. Particle shapes and size distributions are extracted and used to create finite element models comprising approximately 500 particles. The models are meshed with varying fineness to balance computational efficiency and shape accuracy, with finer meshes at particle surfaces and coarser meshes internally. Numerical simulations of uniaxial compression exhibit qualitative agreement with laboratory data, though the simulation predicts higher stiffness. Frictional interactions - sliding, rotation, and rolling - are identified as dominant deformation mechanisms. This workflow demonstrates an efficient method for integrating CT data into simulations, providing a foundation for future improvements to better align simulations with laboratory-scale experiments.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mohamed Abdennadher
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/07
TI  - Virtual Experiments on Coarse-Grained Soil Using X-Ray CT and Finite Element Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 115
EP  - 122
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_11
ID  - Abdennadher2025
ER  -