A continuum model for the behavior of materials with granular microstructure is proposed. The material is considered as a collection of particles that interact with their nearest neighbors via pseudo particle potentials (Misra & Thiagarajan, 16th ASCE Engineering Mechanics Conference, 2003). An upscaling technique based on the Taylor expansion of the deformation mapping allows the derivation of a higher order gradient continuum model, microstructurally-informed. This model is employed for the description of the strain localization and fracture behavior of granular materials. For an efficient numerical simulation a mesh-free method, able to overcome the difficulties related to the presence of higher gradients, is proposed. It is shown that the model is capable to reproduce fine-scale mechanisms of strain localization and failure.
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