Discrete Particle Simulation Model For Slaking Of Geomaterials Including Swelling Clay Minerals

The slaking of geomaterials often causes some unexpected geohazards, such as slope failures, debris flows, rockfalls, and so on. In particular, the process of slaking is highly enhanced when the geomaterials include swelling clay minerals such as montmorillonite and saponite. In order to investigate the mechanisms of the slaking phenomenon from a microscopic point of view, this study presents a particle simulation model based on the discrete element method (DEM) that can reproduce the slaking process of geomaterials that include swelling clay minerals. The properties of swelling and shrinking are modeled by changing the diameter of the DEM particles which are assumed to comprise the swelling clay minerals and several sand particles. A series of simulations of the deformation of mudstone under a wet-dry cyclic condition is performed in both two and three dimensions. As a result of the analyses, the applicability of the proposed model to the slaking phenomenon is confirmed.