A statistical study of fabric in a random assembly of spherical granules

Abstract

Abstract It is commonly accepted that the mechanical behaviour of granular masses is strongly affected by their microstructure, namely the relative arrangement of voids and particles, i.e. the granular fabric. Therefore, parameters which characterize the granular fabric are of paramount importance in a fundamental description of the overall macroscopic stresses and deformation measures. In this paper several measures of granular fabric are introduced for a random assembly of spherical granules, using a statistical approach. In particular, a second‐order symmetric tensor, F ij , emerges from this consideration, which seems to be of fundamental importance for the description of fabric, and which is closely related to the distribution of the contact normals in the assembly. The relation between fabric measures presented here and those discussed by other investigators is also discussed.