Strength anisotropy of granular material consisting of perfectly round particles

The strength anisotropy of granular materials deposited under gravity has mostly been attributed to elongated particles' tendency to align long axes along the bedding plane direction. However, recent experiments on near‐spherical glass beads, for which preferred particle alignment is inapplicable, have exhibited surprisingly strong strength anisotropy. This study tests the hypothesis that certain amount of fabric anisotropy caused by the anisotropic stress during deposition under gravity can be locked in a circular‐particle deposit. Such locked‐in fabric anisotropy can withstand isotropic consolidation and leads to significant strength anisotropy. 2D discrete element method simulations of direct shear tests on circular‐particle deposits are conducted in this study, allowing for the monitoring of both stress and fabric. Simulations on both monodispersed and polydispersed circular‐particle samples generated under downward gravitational acceleration exhibit clear anisotropy in shear strength, thereby proving the hypothesis. When using contact normal‐based and void‐based fabric tensors to quantify fabric anisotropy in the material, we find that the intensity of anisotropy is discernible but low prior to shearing and is dependent on the consolidation process and the dispersity of the sample. The fact that samples with very low anisotropy intensity measurements still exhibit fairly strong strength anisotropy suggests that current typical contact normal‐based and void‐based second‐order fabric tensor formulations may not be very effective in reflecting the anisotropic peak shear strength of granular materials. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.