The application of mesh-free discrete element method (DEM) for modeling of macroporous inverse opals is proposed. The developed and implemented DEM-based strategy is applied to analyze stiffness and strength of inverse opals made of pure silica and inverse opals coated with titania layers of various thicknesses. Also, the influence of the porosity of the initial packing on the properties of the material is investigated. Simulation results have shown that due to the heterogeneous macroscopic structure and unequal material distribution in nodes, struts or near interstitial pores, strong inhomogeneities of the stress distribution arise. Spots of localized stresses located near the interpore openings are the sources of initial defects and small interpore cracks. Reducing the overall porosity or an additional coating of the structure with a titania layer allows to partially homogenize and improve its mechanical properties.

It was shown that the obtained simulation results are in very good agreement with previous studies. Despite large computational effort, the performed analysis confirms the high efficiency of the proposed DEM-based approach and demonstrates its great potential for use in problems of a similar class: for modelling of complex-structured multicomponent materials.

提出了无网格离散元方法 (DEM) 在大孔反蛋白石建模中的应用。开发和实施的基于 DEM 的策略用于分析由纯二氧化硅制成的反蛋白石和涂有不同厚度二氧化钛层的反蛋白石的刚度和强度。此外，还研究了初始填料的孔隙率对材料性能的影响。模拟结果表明，由于节点、支柱或间隙孔附近的宏观结构不均匀和材料分布不均，导致应力分布出现强烈的不均匀性。位于孔间开口附近的局部应力点是初始缺陷和小孔间裂纹的来源。

结果表明，获得的模拟结果与先前的研究非常吻合。尽管进行了大量计算工作，但所执行的分析证实了所提出的基于 DEM 的方法的高效率，并展示了其在类似问题中的巨大潜力：用于复杂结构的多组分材料建模。