A new algorithm to identify contact types between arbitrarily shaped polyhedral blocks for three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis.pdfVIP

Computers and Geotechnics 80 (2016) 1–15 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers and Geotechnics journal homepage: /locate/compgeo Research Paper A new algorithm to identify contact types between arbitrarily shaped polyhedral blocks for three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis Hong Zhang a, Shu-guang Liu a, Zheng Han b,?, Lu Zheng c, Ying-bin Zhang d,e, Yan-qiang Wu f, Yan-ge Li b, Wei Wang g a College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China b School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China c Sichuan University – The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, China d Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China e Department of Geotechnical Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China f First Crust Deformation Monitoring and Application Center, CEA, Tianjin 300180, China g Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan article info Article history: Received 4 December 2015 Received in revised form 1 June 2016 Accepted 12 June 2016 Available online 23 June 2016 Keywords: 3-D DDA Contact detection Contact type Neighbouring blocks Dominant contact Face-to-face contact abstract In the contact theory for three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis (3-D DDA), the ?rst step is to identify the types of contacts between the blocks. This paper presents a new algorithm to identify contact types between arbitrarily shaped polyhedral blocks for 3-D DDA. First, pairs of neighbouring blocks that are close enough to possibly be in contact are recognized using their axis-aligned bounding boxes. Four types of dominant contacts (i.e., vertex-to-vertex, vertex-to-edge, vertex-to-face and crossing edge-to-edge contacts)