Ranjan Dhakal

Research Interest:

The aim of my present research is to investigate the thermo-mechanical behaviour of granular materials at high consolidation stresses. This can be achieved by considering the continuum approach (e.g. FEM, FVM) that models the detailed mechanical response. I am using "foam-extend" (an extended version of OpenFOAM which uses finite volume method) for updating and developing libraries for contact analysis. This will not only allow me to predict the behaviour of particle deformation but also practicable to couple thermal stresses with an objective to quantify and characterize the heat generation or the energy dissipated due to the contribution from inter-particle friction as well as the particle itself generating heat due to plastic deformation. Subsequently, I will continue with the novel validation which counts for the individual grain deformation against the conventional assumption where bulk is considered as continuum as well as with other discrete approaches.