Effect of heterogeneity on shear zone formation during plane strain compression

Heterogeneity of granular materials triggers shear zone formation. In the paper, the FE-analysis of the effect of the material heterogeneity on the formation of a spontaneous shear zone inside of granular materials during a plane strain compression test is presented. The numerical calculations are performed with a finite element method on the basis of a hypoplastic constitutive law extended by polar quantities: rotations, curvatures and couple stresses. A mean grain diameter is used as a characteristic length. The constitutive law takes into account the effect of pressure, void ratio, direction of deformation rate and mean grain diameter on the behaviour of granular bodies. The heterogeneity in the granular body is assumed in the form of spots with a different initial void ratio. The spots are single or distributed randomly and stochastically with an exponential probability function. The single spots are distributed sparsely and densely in an initially dense and loose granular specimen. Special attention is focused on the effect of heterogeneity on the onset of shear localization and its thickness at residual state.