  One of the major shortcomings of discrete element modelling (DEM) is the
computational cost required when the number of particles is huge, especially
for fine powders and/or industry scale simulations. This study investigates the
scaling of model parameters that is necessary to produce scale independent
predictions for cohesionless and cohesive solid under quasi-static simulation
of confined compression and unconfined compression to failure in uniaxial test.
A bilinear elasto-plastic adhesive frictional contact model was used. The
results show that contact stiffness (both normal and tangential) for loading
and unloading scales linearly with the particle size and the adhesive force
scales very well with the square of the particle size. This scaling law would
allow scaled up particle DEM model to exhibit bulk mechanical loading response
in uniaxial test that is similar to a material comprised of much smaller
particles. This is a first step towards a mesoscopic representation of a
cohesive powder that is phenomenological based to produce the key bulk
characteristics of a cohesive solid and has the potential to gain considerable
computational advantage for industry scale DEM simulations.
