Mechanisms of Small-Strain Shear-Modulus Anisotropy in Soils
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 10
Abstract
In this paper, experimental studies using a true triaxial apparatus and a bender element system, and numerical simulations based on the discrete element method (DEM) were used to investigate the stress- and fabric-induced shear-stiffness anisotropy in soils at small strains. Verified by experiments and DEM simulations, the shear modulus was found to be relatively independent of the out-of-plane stress component, which can be revealed by the indistinctive change in the contact normal distribution and the normal contact forces on that plane in the DEM simulations. Simulation and experimental results also demonstrated that the shear modulus is equally contributed by the two principal stress components on the associated shearing planes. Fabric-induced stiffness anisotropy, i.e., the highest or , can be explained by simulation findings in which more contact normals prefer to distribute along the horizontal direction. The experiments and simulations also reveal that the fabric-induced stiffness anisotropy increases with an increasing aspect ratio of the particles. The assumption of transversely isotropic fabric in soils is valid based on the DEM simulation results; however, this assumption is not completely supported by the experimental results.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The writers would like to thank Professor X. S. Li for providing the Itasca software, and Dr. X. Li for giving valuable suggestions. The writers are also grateful to the reviewers for valuable comments.
References
Chang, C. S., Misra, A., and Sundaram, S. S. (1991). “Properties of granular packings under low amplitude cyclic loading.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 10(4), 201–211.
Chang, C. S., Sundaram, S. S., and Misra, A. (1989). “Initial moduli of particulated mass with frictional contacts.” Int. J. Numer. Analyt. Meth. Geomech., 13, 629–644.
Fioravante, V., Jamiolkowski, M., Lo Presti, D. C. F., Manfredini, G., and Pedroni, S. (1998). “Assessment of the coefficient of the earth pressure at rest from shear wave velocity measurements.” Géotechnique, 48(5), 657–666.
Hardin, B. O., and Black, W. L. (1966). “Sand stiffness under various triaxial stresses.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 94(SM2), 353–369.
Hardin, B. O., and Blandford, G. E. (1989). “Elasticity of particulate materials.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 115(6), 788–805.
Hardin, B. O., and Drnevich, V. P. (1972). “Shear modulus and damping in soils: Measurements and parameter effects.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 92(2), 603–624.
Hardin, B. O., and Richart, F. E., Jr. (1963). “Elastic wave velocities in granular soils.” J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., 89(1), 33–65.
Ismail, M. A., Sharma, S. S., and Fahey, M. (2005). “A small true triaxial apparatus with wave velocity measurement.” Geotech. Test. J., 28(2), 1–10.
Itasca. (2003). Particle flow code manual, Itasca Consulting Group, Inc., Minn.
Iwasaki, T., Tatsuoka, F., and Takagi, Y. (1978). “Shear moduli of sands under cyclic torsional shear loading.” Soils Found., 18(1), 39–56.
Jovičić, V., and Coop, M. R. (1998). “The measurement of stiffness anisotropy in clays with bender element tests in the triaxial apparatus.” Geotech. Test. J., 21(1), 3–10.
Li, X. (2006). “Microscale investigation on the quasistatic behavior of granular material.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, HKSAR.
Lo Presti, D., and O’Neill, D. A. (1991). “Laboratory investigation of small strain modulus anisotropy in sand.” Calibration Chamber Testing: Proc., First Int. Symp. on Calibration Chamber Testing/ISOCCT1, Elsevier, New York, 213–224.
Mitchell, J. K., and Soga, K. (2005). Fundamentals of soil behavior, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Mok, C. M. B. (2007). “An investigation of strain localization in cemented sands and mechanisms of stiffness anisotropy using the DEM simulations.” MS thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, HKSAR.
Ng, T. T., and Petrakis, E. (1996). “Small-strain response of random arrays of spheres using discrete element method.” J. Eng. Mech., 122(3), 239–244.
Oda, M., Nemat-Nasser, S., and Konishi, J. (1985). “Stress-induced anisotropy in granular masses.” Soils Found., 25(3), 85–97.
Ouadfel, H., and Rothenburg, L. (2001). “‘Stress-force-fabric’ relationship for assemblies of ellipsoids.” Mech. Mater., 33, 201–221.
Pennington, D. S., Nash, D. F. T., and Lings, M. L. (1997). “Anisotropy of shear stiffness in Gault clay.” Géotechnique, 47(3), 391–398.
Radjai, F., Jean, M., Moreau, J.-J., and Roux, S. (1996). “Force distributions in dense two-dimensional granular systems.” Phys. Rev. Lett., 77(2), 274–277.
Roesler, S. K. (1979). “Anisotropic shear modulus due to stress anisotropy.” J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., 105(GT7), 871–880.
Rothenburg, L., and Bathurst, R. J. (1989). “Analytical study of induced anisotropy in idealized granular materials.” Géotechnique, 39(4), 601–614.
Rothenburg, L., and Bathurst, R. J. (1992). “Micromechanical features of granular assemblies with planar elliptical particles.” Géotechnique, 42(1), 79–95.
Sánchez-Salinero, I., Roesset, J. M., and Stokoe, K. H., II. (1986). “Analytical studies of body wave propagation and attenuation.” Geotechnical Engineering Rep. No. GR86-15, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tex.
Santamarina, J. C., and Cascante, G. (1996). “Stress anisotropy and wave propagation: A micromechanical view.” Can. Geotech. J., 33, 770–782.
Santamarina, J. C., Klein, A., and Fam, M. A. (2001). Soils and waves, Wiley, New York.
Seed, H. B., Wong, R. T., Idriss, I. M., and Tokimatsu, K. (1986). “Moduli and damping factors for dynamic analyses of cohesionless soils.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 112(11), 1016–1032.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Hwang, S. K., Lee, J. N. K., and Andrus, R. D. (1995). “Effects of various parameters on the stiffness and damping of soils at small to medium strains.” Prefailure Deformation of Geomaterials: Proc., Int. Symp. on Pre-Failure Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials, Balkema, Rotterdam, 785–816.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Lee, J. N. K., and Lee, S. H. H. (1991). “Characterization of soil in calibration chambers with seismic waves.” Calibration Chamber Testing: Proc., First Int. Symp. on Calibration Chamber Testing/ISOCCT1, Elsevier, New York, 363–376.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Lee, S. H. H., and Knox, D. P. (1985). “Shear moduli measurements under true triaxial stresses.” Proc., Advances in the Art of Testing Soils under Cyclic Conditions, ASCE, Reston, Va., 166–185.
Wang, Y. H., Lo, K. F., Yan, Y. M., and Dong, X. B. (2007). “Measurement biases in the bender element test.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 133(5), 564–574.
Wang, Y. H., Yan, Y. M., and Lo, K. F. (2006). “Damping-ratio measurements by the spectral-ratio method.” Can. Geotech. J., 43(11), 1180–1194.
Yamashita, S., Hori, T., and Suzuki, T. (2003). “Effects of initial and induced anisotropy on initial stiffness of sand by triaxial and bender elements tests.” Geomechanics: Testing, modeling, and simulation (GSP 143), A. J. Yamamuro and J. Koseki, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 350–369.
Yimsiri, S., and Soga, K. (2000). “Micromechanics-based stress-strain behaviour of soils at small strains.” Géotechnique, 50(5), 559–571.
Yimsiri, S., and Soga, K. (2002). “Application of micromechanics model to study anisotropy of soils at small strains.” Soils Found., 42(5), 15–26.
Yu, P., and Richart, F. E. (1984). “Stress ratio effects on shear modulus of dry sands.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 110(3), 331–345.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 3, 2007
Accepted: Feb 20, 2008
Published online: Oct 1, 2008
Published in print: Oct 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.