Page 305 - Mechanics of Asphalt Microstructure and Micromechanics

Applications of Discrete Element Method 297

(a) Cluster of small circles with equal radius is (b) Every four circles is replaced by a
used to represent the particle bigger circle

(c) Continue the above step until no four-circle-
group with the same radius can be found
FIGURE 9.11 Process of replacing small circles with larger ones (Burn Algorithm 2).

Z
Z

X
X

c) Bigger balls generated to fill the space
a) Small balls shown in z-x plane between two layers (shown in z-x plane)

Y
Y

X
X

c) Bigger balls generated to fill the space between two
b) Small balls shown in x-y plane layers (shown in y-x plane)

FIGURE 9.12 Bigger balls are generated to fi ll the space between two separated layers.