The 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 soil particles, which is not efficient in simulating realistic particles. This paper demonstrates the potential of using a physics engine technique to address limitations of the DEM method. Physics engines are originally developed for video games for simulating physical and mechanical processes that occur in the real world to create an immersive and realistic gaming experience. Physics engines use triangular face tesselations to represent objectives, which provides higher accuracy for modeling realistic particle geometries. This paper has three objectives. First, this paper introduces the physics engine technique to the geotechnical community. Second, this paper develops a series of pre-processing, servo-controlling, and post-processing functions embedded into physics engine to generate soil specimens with designed packing densities, perform direct shear tests, and output simulation results including stress–strain relations, fabrics, and force chains. Third, this paper develops a miniature direct shear test that can be scanned by X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) for evaluating the simulation accuracy of the physics engine. The numerical results agree well with experimental results. This study provides DEM modelers with physics engine as one more option for simulating realistic particles.

离散元法（DEM）已成为研究粒状土壤力学行为的卓越数值工具。但是，传统的DEM使用球团簇来近似土壤粒子，这在模拟真实粒子时效率不高。本文演示了使用物理引擎技术解决DEM方法局限性的潜力。物理引擎最初是为视频游戏而开发的，用于模拟现实世界中发生的物理和机械过程，以创造身临其境的逼真的游戏体验。物理引擎使用三角面细分来表示目标，这为建模逼真的粒子几何形状提供了更高的准确性。本文有三个目标。首先，本文向岩土工程界介绍了物理引擎技术。第二，本文开发了一系列嵌入到物理引擎中的预处理，伺服控制和后处理功能，以生成具有设计堆积密度的土壤标本，进行直接剪切试验，并输出包括应力-应变关系，织物和结构的模拟结果。强制链。第三，本文开发了一种可通过X射线计算机断层扫描（X射线CT）进行扫描的微型直接剪切试验，以评估物理引擎的仿真精度。数值结果与实验结果吻合良好。这项研究为DEM建模人员提供了物理引擎，作为模拟现实粒子的另一种选择。执行直接的剪切测试，并输出包括应力-应变关系，织物和力链的模拟结果。第三，本文开发了一种可通过X射线计算机断层扫描（X射线CT）进行扫描的微型直接剪切试验，以评估物理引擎的仿真精度。数值结果与实验结果吻合良好。这项研究为DEM建模人员提供了物理引擎，作为模拟现实粒子的另一种选择。执行直接的剪切测试，并输出包括应力-应变关系，织物和力链的模拟结果。第三，本文开发了一种可通过X射线计算机断层扫描（X射线CT）进行扫描的微型直接剪切试验，以评估物理引擎的仿真精度。数值结果与实验结果吻合良好。这项研究为DEM建模人员提供了物理引擎，作为模拟现实粒子的另一种选择。