Distribution of the contact forces inside a granular material

The contact forces are one of the aspects to be taken into account for a better understanding of the microstructurally behaviour of granular materials. So, we are led to study the distribution of contact forces by two dimensional model of Schneebeli using biaxial apparatus. The measurement technique of the contact forces was developed in Clermont-Ferrand. A number of numerical experiments (using Trubal program of Cundall) was performed with the objective of reproducing the distribution of contact forces observed by experimentation and calculated by analytical method (based on Hertz’s law). This present paper shows the comparison between the results obtained, under isotropic stress, by the three approaches.