The study of the mechanical behaviour of granular soils subjected to cyclic loadings is of fundamental importance for understanding long-term serviceability conditions of many structures. For example, foundations of offshore wind turbines must withstand cyclic environmental loads and maintain the required operational level throughout their intended design life.
Recently the discrete element method (DEM) was proved to be able to simulate basic macroscopic behaviour of granular soils such as grain densification and ratcheting phenomena ().