Arching Development in Transparent Soil during Multiple Trapdoor Movement and Surface Footing Loading
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 3
Abstract
Soil arching exists in many earth structures, such as pile-supported embankments, tunnels, buried pipes, and retaining walls. These earth structures are sometimes subjected to surface footing loading. Limited studies showed that surface footing loading weakened active soil arching formed in backfill material; however, this effect has not been well considered in the current design. In this study, two-dimensional (2D) trapdoor tests with transparent soil were carried out to investigate the development of active soil arching under static surface footing loading. The particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was adopted to monitor the deformations of soil particles due to multiple trapdoor movements and surface footing loadings. Soil arches with a triangular expanding pattern and a tower-shaped development pattern were observed in the cases with different fill heights. Under the surface footing load, soil arching first degraded locally (at its crown) and then gradually expanded to both sides of the arch with an increase of load magnitude until full degradation of soil arching globally. The model tests with active soil arching resulted in a larger surface settlement under a footing load than that without soil arching due to the volumetric expansion of the soil during the formation of soil arching. Two analytical methods were compared with the experimental results before local degradation and after global degradation of soil arching.
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Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the financial support provided by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 51478349, 41772281, and 51508408) and the Key Research and Development Project of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant No. 2016YFE0105800). This study was also financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 22120180106). This paper was prepared while the second author studied at the University of Kansas as a visiting Ph.D. student, sponsored by the China Scholarship Council.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 3 • March 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 15, 2020
Accepted: Sep 5, 2020
Published online: Dec 17, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2021
Discussion open until: May 17, 2021
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