Following atomistic-continuum coupling methods for lattice-structured materials [1, 2] , a method for coupling particle to continuum regions of particulate materials is presented. The particle region is modeled using particle mechanics and the discrete element method, whereas the continuum region is modeled using linear micropolar elasticity and the finite element method. The formulation for coupling particle and continuum degrees of freedom as well as partitioning kinetic and potential

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... in the overlapping domain is presented. Details of the numerical implementation and numerical examples will follow in a forthcoming paper. The method is developed to model particulate materials at their physical length scale (particle size) in regions of large relative particle motion in a computationally tractable manner.