Résumé
We analyze the strength of agglomerates of wet frictional particles subjected to axial compression by means of particle dynamics simulations. The numerical model accounts for the cohesive and viscous effects of the binding liquid up to a debonding distance [1]. We show that wet agglomerates undergo plastic deformation due to the rearrangements of primary particles during compression [2]. The compressive strength is characterized by the plastic threshold before the onset of failure by the irreversible loss of wet contacts between primary particles [3]. The agglomerate plastic threshold is proportional to the characteristic cohesive stress defined from the liquid-vapor surface tension and the mean diameter of primary particles, with a pre-factor that is a nearly linear function of the debonding distance and increases with size span. We analyze the effect of particle size distribution and show that the plastic strength is an increasing function of the size ratio when the size of the particles in the largest size class is increased.References1. F. Radjai, F. Dubois, Discrete-element modeling of granular materials (Wiley-Iste, 2011)2. T-Trung. Vo, P. Mutabaruka, J-Y. Delenne, S. Nezamabadi, F. Radjai, EPJ Web Conf. 140, 08021 (2017)3. T-Trung. Vo, P. Mutabaruka, S. Nezamabadi, J.Y. Delenne, E. Izard, R. Pellenq, F. Radjai, Mechanics Research Communications 92, (2018)