Data-driven breakage mechanics
This paper presents a model-free data-driven framework for breakage mechanics. In contrast with continuum breakage mechanics, the de facto approach for the macroscopic analysis of crushable granular media, the present work bypasses the need for constitutive models and phenomenological assumptions, relying on material behavior that is known only through empirical data. For this purpose, we revisit the recent developments in model-free data-driven computing for history-dependent materials and extend the main ideas to materials with particle breakage. A systematic construction of the modeling framework is presented, starting from the closed-form representation of continuum breakage mechanics and arriving at alternative model-free representations. Simulations of a real experimental test in crushable sand are conducted, where the data is furnished by lower-scale simulations, indicating that the proposed framework is able to accurately predict the mechanics of crushable materials including the state of comminution. 