The discrete material, which belongs to the category of soft materials, is one of the most prevalent forms of matter in nature and engineering fields. These materials often exhibit abundant and complex mechanical prop...The discrete material, which belongs to the category of soft materials, is one of the most prevalent forms of matter in nature and engineering fields. These materials often exhibit abundant and complex mechanical properties which are still far from being perfectly understood. From the view of multi-scale framework concentrated on the ＇bridge＇ role in the macro-micro relation, this review mainly introduces some theoretical investigations of mechanical behaviors in discrete materials, including the continuum constitutive model based on the macroscopic phenomenological approach and coupled micro-macro approach, the statistical analysis of some microscopic physical quantities involved contacted forces between particles and its transmission within the whole system, and the statistical analysis for some microscopic processes in aeolian landform systems involving the grain-bed impact, the transportation and sedimentation of wind-blown sand flux, et al. Finally, some further worthwhile challenges in these fields are suggested.展开更多
基金Project supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2009CB421304)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 10872082 and 11002064)Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Research Project(No. 308022)
文摘The discrete material, which belongs to the category of soft materials, is one of the most prevalent forms of matter in nature and engineering fields. These materials often exhibit abundant and complex mechanical properties which are still far from being perfectly understood. From the view of multi-scale framework concentrated on the ＇bridge＇ role in the macro-micro relation, this review mainly introduces some theoretical investigations of mechanical behaviors in discrete materials, including the continuum constitutive model based on the macroscopic phenomenological approach and coupled micro-macro approach, the statistical analysis of some microscopic physical quantities involved contacted forces between particles and its transmission within the whole system, and the statistical analysis for some microscopic processes in aeolian landform systems involving the grain-bed impact, the transportation and sedimentation of wind-blown sand flux, et al. Finally, some further worthwhile challenges in these fields are suggested.
