Résumé
Many granular materials are composed of particles of various shapes, including non-convex shapes. In this work, we investigate the mechanical and microstructural properties of the hexapod-shaped particle packings using an in-house DEM code. These particles are characterized by their aspect ratio (ratio of their extension to thickness). By varying this parameter, the particle shapes change from sphere to thin hexapods. Spherical agglomerates are built by means of radial compaction for different values of aspect ratio and friction coefficient. We investigate the influence of aspect ratio and friction coefficient on the microstructure and geometrical properties such as packing fraction, connectivity and elastic bulk modulus.