A meshless particle method created to represent the constitutive behaviour of soils and rocks
Can deal with large deformations as well as discontinuous behaviours such as fractures
Applications of DEM include the analysis of the bearing capacity of soils, prediction of structural failure, and post-failure risk assessment for slopes
The image represents the results of hydraulic fracturing simulations, in which a highly pressurised LBM fluid fractures a DEM block that is properly calibrated
