A domain decomposition method for granular dynamics using discrete elements and application to railway ballast

The paper is devoted to the development of a non overlapping domain decomposition method suited to granular dynamics. The formulation and the efficiency of such a method are well established for structural mechanics. In order to extend this approach to granular systems a so-called primal splitting of the domain is chosen because it is a less intrusive method for software development. Once the interface problem is defined and the solver is slightly enriched with some extra numerical parameters, the method is tested on railway ballast simulations for improving the maintenance of railway tracks.