Estimates of elastic moduli for granular material with anisotropic random packing structure (Q675526)

For randomly packed spheres, the packing structure can be characterized by a fabric tensor representing the orientation distribution of inter-particle contacts. The densities of inter-particle contacts are generally not the same for all inter-particle orientations, exhibiting the anisotropy of a packing structure. Utilizing the fabric tensor, elastic moduli of granular material with anisotropic packing structures are derived explicitly in terms of inter-particle properties. The derivation is based on two different methods, namely the kinematic method and the static method. Results derived from kinematic and static methods provide, respectively, the upper and lower estimates of elastic moduli.