Discrete element method (DEM) has become a preeminent numerical tool for investigating the mechanical behavior of granular soils. However, traditional DEM uses sphere clusters to approximate realistic particles, which is computationally demanding when simulating many particles. This paper demonstrates the potential of using a physics engine technique to simulate realistic particles. The physics engines are originally developed for video games for simulating physical and mechanical processes that occur in the real world to produce realistic game experiences. The simulation accuracy and efficiency of physics engines have been significantly improved in the last two decades allowing them to be used as a scientific tool in many disciplines. This paper introduces modeling methodologies of physics engine including realistic particle representation and the contact model. Then, oedometer tests are simulated using realistic particles scanned by X‐ray computed tomography (X‐ray CT). The simulation results agree well with experimental results. This paper demonstrates that physics engines can output contact parameters for geotechnical analysis and force chains for visualization.

中文翻译：

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使用物理引擎在里程表测试中模拟真实的颗粒土壤

离散元方法（DEM）已成为研究粒状土壤力学行为的出色数值工具。但是，传统的DEM使用球面群集近似逼真的粒子，在模拟许多粒子时，这在计算方面要求很高。本文演示了使用物理引擎技术模拟逼真的粒子的潜力。物理引擎最初是为视频游戏开发的，用于模拟现实世界中发生的物理和机械过程，以产生逼真的游戏体验。在过去的二十年中，物理引擎的仿真精度和效率得到了显着提高，使其可以在许多学科中用作科学工具。本文介绍了物理引擎的建模方法，包括逼真的粒子表示和接触模型。然后，使用X射线计算机断层扫描（X射线CT）扫描的真实粒子模拟里程表测试。仿真结果与实验结果吻合良好。本文证明了物理引擎可以输出接触参数以进行岩土分析，并可以输出力链以进行可视化。