The flow behaviours of cohesive particles in the ring shear test were simulated and examined using discrete element method guided by a design of experiments methodology. A full factorial design was used as a screening design to reveal the effects of material properties of partcles. An augmented design extending the screening design to a response surface design was constructed to establish the relations between macroscopic shear stresses and particle properties. It is found that the powder flow in the shear cell can be classified into four regimes. Shear stress is found to be sensitive to particle friction coefficient, surface energy and Young’s modulus. A considerable fluctuation of shear stress is observed in high friction and low cohesion regime. In high cohesion regime, Young’s modulus appears to have a more significant effect on the shear stress at the point of incipient flow than the shear stress during the pre-shear process. The predictions from response surface designs were validated and compared with shear stresses measured from the Schulze ring shear test. It is found that simulations and experiments showed excellent agreement under a variety of consolidation conditions, which verifies the advantages and feasibility of using the proposed “Sequential Design of Simulations” approach.

在实验设计方法的指导下，使用离散元方法模拟和检查了环剪切试验中粘性颗粒的流动行为。使用全因子设计作为筛选设计来揭示颗粒材料特性的影响。构建了将筛选设计扩展到响应面设计的增强设计，以建立宏观剪切应力和颗粒特性之间的关系。发现剪切单元中的粉末流动可分为四种状态。发现剪切应力对颗粒摩擦系数、表面能和杨氏模量敏感。在高摩擦和低内聚力状态下观察到相当大的剪切应力波动。在高凝聚力制度下，与预剪切过程中的剪切应力相比，杨氏模量似乎对初始流动点处的剪切应力具有更显着的影响。响应面设计的预测得到验证，并与舒尔茨环剪切试验测量的剪切应力进行比较。结果表明，模拟和实验在各种固结条件下表现出极好的一致性，这验证了使用所提出的“模拟序列设计”方法的优势和可行性。