Stress distribution in conical sandpiles formed with ellipsoidal particles

The properties of a sandpile such as angle of repose and stress distribution are affected by many variables, among which particle shape is one of the most important ones. In this work, ellipsoids which can represent a large range of shapes varying from disk- to cylinder-type are used. The discrete element method (DEM) is employed in order to conduct controlled numerical experiments. The results show that 3D conical sandpiles have similar properties as 2D ones reported in the literature. It demonstrates that particle shape affects the magnitude of the contact force network significantly, with spheres being the smallest. As expected, the pressure distribution underneath sandpiles is featured with a relatively small pressure in the centre, and ellipsoids have a more significant stress dip region than spherical particles.