This research demonstrates capturing different stress states and history dependency in a cohesive bulk material by DEM simulations. An automated calibration procedure, based on the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm, is applied. It searches for the appropriate simulation parameters of an Elasto-Plastic Adhesive contact model such that its response is best fitted to the shear stress measured in experiments. Using this calibration procedure, the optimal set of DEM input parameters are successfully found to reproduce the measured shear stresses of the cohesive coal sample in two different pre-consolidation levels. The calibrated simulation resembles the stress history dependent values of shear stress, bulk density and wall friction. Through the case study of the ring shear tester, this research demonstrates the robustness and accuracy of the calibration framework using multi-objective optimization on multi-variable calibration problems irrespective of the chosen contact model. (C) 2020 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.