A novel implicit integration scheme for the Discrete Element Method (DEM) based on variational integrator approach is presented. The numerical solver provides a fully dynamical description that, notably, reduces to an energy minimisation in quasi-static limit. detailed derivation of method presented Hookean contact model and tested against established open source DEM package that uses velocity-...

We present a new numerical model describing the transformation of powder crystalline particles into dense poly-crystalline material. It is based on key phenomena sintering: shrinkage and grain coarsening driven by minimization free energy. Representing each truncated sphere, takes account complex changing shape grains for determining thermodynamic driving forces associated kinetic coefficients....

This paper endows the recently-proposed granular element method (GEM) with the ability to perform 3D discrete element calculations. By using non-uniform rational B-Splines to accurately represent complex grain geometries, we proposed an alternative approach to clustering-based and polyhedra-based discrete element methods whereby the need for complicated and ad hoc approaches to construct 3D gra...