Abstract
There is a need for a unified strength criterion, which is a variable suitable for describing the different strength properties of different types of geomaterials. There have been efforts to develop unified strength criteria; however, they are usually based on a mechanistic approach with adjustable failure planes and complex expressions. This study presents an alternative mechanistic approach to developing a simple unified strength theory by an adjustable characteristic stress. The characteristic stress is unique for a certain geomaterial. The frictional rule is used to explain the failure mechanism of geomaterials, and by defining the shear strength as a proportion function of normal stress acting on the failure plane, a new nonlinear unified strength theory is developed, which is similar to the Drucker-Prager strength theory. The strength curves of this theory are a series of continuous and smooth conical loci, which are located between Drucker-Prager and Matsuoka-Nakai strength curves in the deviatoric plane in the principal stress space. Another main advantage of the developed strength theory is that its three parameters (, , and ) have clear physical meanings and can be determined based on simple laboratory tests. Verifications between the developed theory and experimental data from triaxial tests available from the literature show that this theory is able to reasonably reflect the three-dimensional (3D) strength properties of a variety of geomaterials.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51522802, 51278012, 91215301, and 51421005), the National Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (8161001), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB013600), and the China Scholarship Council.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 17 • Issue 2 • February 2017
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 22, 2015
Accepted: May 2, 2016
Published online: Jun 30, 2016
Discussion open until: Nov 30, 2016
Published in print: Feb 1, 2017
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