Abstract
Abstract The Thornton-Ning (TN) contact model, originally designed for self-adhesive spherical particles, was implemented into the Aspherix® commercial software, and then modified to simulate the behavior of cemented sandstone material. During the initial phase of software development, the implementation of the TN model underwent successful validation. In the subsequent phase, the TN model was adapted to replicate the characteristics of a weak cemented sandstone material. Three new assumptions were used: 1) bond breakage was defined as the point of maximum negative force, 2) bonding occurred only once during the formation of the geological material in the sample preparation, and 3) bond breakage occurred under subsequent loading conditions, any new contact was not bonded and hence modelled using the non-adhesive elastoplastic equation of the TN model. To simulate the diagenesis of sandstone material at significant reservoir depths, one-dimensional DEM compression was performed; the applied vertical stresses covered the stress range in an oil-gas reservoir. By employing an elastoplastic contact and bond model, a more realistic constitutive behavior can be achieved as compared to prior studies on the same material utilizing the purely elastic Hertz contact model.