Abstract: The correlation of stress paths in natural rock and soil during loading is a basic characteristic of rock and soil material. At present, there is no clear study proving that the discrete element particle set also has stress path correlation, which impairs the reliability of simulating natural rock and soil using discrete element method. In view of this, we construct a set of particles with intergranular cementation in the PFC2D particle discrete element software and further simulate many groups of dual-axial compression test on the discrete element particle sets by a self-developed program which could simulate different stress paths through a customized Fish language. The simulation results suggest that discrete element particle sets are also of stress path correlation. In the condition of the same bonding strength between particles and under the same confining pressure, the peak strength of particle sets induced by stress path of declining confining pressure is smaller than that by unchanged confining pressure. Under the influence of different stress paths, the discrete element particle sets vary in strength characteristics and failure characteristics, which is similar to those of real rock materials, indicating that discrete element particles can be used to simulate natural geotechnical materials.

Key words: geotechnical materials, particle collection, discrete elements, stress paths, mechanical properties