We model the mechanical behavior of cohesive materials by considering their underlying microstructure and inter-granular force-displacement relations inspired by the atomistic-level particle interactions. The underlying material microstructure is conceptualized as a collection of interacting grains modeled by inter-granular force-displacement relationships. These force-displacement relationships may be used to derive the incremental stiffness at the grain-scale, and, consequently, obtain the sample-scale stress–strain relationship of a representative volume of the material. The derived relationship between grain-scale and continuum scales is utilized to study the stress–strain and failure behavior of cohesive materials under multi-axial loading conditions. These calculations are compared with experimentally measured data for cohesive materials.
