A COMBINED EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL SCHEME FOR THE DETERMINATION OFCONTACT LOADS BETWEEN CEMENTED PARTICLES

A hybrid experimental/numerical scheme has been developed to compute t he complete stress field within cemented particles subject to normal l oads. The method combines a theoretical solution of the problem with t he experimental technique of photoelasticity. The resulting over-deter mined set of equations are solved using the Newton-Raphson method and non-linear least squares techniques. In the analysis, the stress distr ibution between the center and the edge of the cement bond is approxim ated with a power law equation. Excellent agreement, within 10%, betwe en the experimental and computed contact loads has been shown. In addi tion to the contact load, the entire stress field in the particle can also be reproduced with reasonable accuracy.