Minkowski-Voronoi diagrams as a method to generate random packings of spheropolygons for the simulation of soils

Minkowski operators (dilation and erosion of sets in vector spaces) have been extensively used in computer graphics, image processing to analyze the structure of materials, and more recently in molecular dynamics. Here, we apply those mathematical concepts to extend the discrete element method to simulate granular materials with complex-shaped particles. The Voronoi-Minkowski diagrams are introduced to generate random packings of complex-shaped particles with tunable particle roundness. Contact forces and potentials are calculated in terms of distances instead of overlaps. By using the Verlet method to detect neighborhood, we achieve CPU times that grow linearly with the body's number of sides. Simulations of dissipative granular materials under shear demonstrate that the method maintains conservation of energy in accord with the first law of thermodynamics. A series of simulations for biaxial test, shear band formation, hysteretic behavior, and ratcheting show that the model can reproduce the main features of real granular-soil behavior.