Experimental Characterizations of an Aging Mechanism of Sands
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 2
Abstract
Sands age and their engineering properties often improve significantly during performance life cycles and are of practical interest to engineers. Although various hypothesized aging mechanisms have been proposed, experimental evidences identifying the underlying mechanisms have not yet been provided. The experiment of this study, using a true triaxial apparatus equipped with the bender element and tactile pressure sensor, is therefore designed to complement this missing part. The experimental results show a distinct and continuous increase in the measured small-strain shear modulus of a dry, predominately quartz sand sample, subjected to a constant confining pressure for 30 days of aging, during which the measured volumetric strain is negligible. In addition, the measured contact normal forces (by the tactile pressure sensor) continuously redistribute and ultimately become uniform over time, i.e., the process of contact force homogenization. Sand particles in the weak force network gradually share the forces that are redistributed from the strong force network. These findings indicate that the weak contact force network in sand is gradually strengthened, thus reinforcing the soil structure and giving rise to a higher small-strain shear modulus during aging.
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 (HKUST06/CRF/12R) and the HKUST Post-Doctoral Fellowship Matching Fund. The writers are grateful to the reviewers for valuable comments.
References
Anderson, D. G., and Stokoe, K. H., II (1978). “Shear modulus: A time-dependent soil property.”, Denver, CO, 66–90.
Axelsson, G. (2000). “Long-term set-up driven piles in sands.” Ph.D. thesis, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Baxter, C. D. P., and Mitchell, J. K. (2004). “An experimental study on the aging of sands.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1051–1062.
Bullock, P. J., Schmertmann, J. H., McVay, M. C., and Townsend, F. C. (2005a). “Side shear setup I: Test piles driven in Florida.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 292–300.
Bullock, P. J., Schmertmann, J. H., McVay, M. C., and Townsend, F. C. (2005b). “Side shear setup II: Results from Florida test piles.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 301–310.
Charlie, W. A., Rwebyogo, M. F. J., and Doehring, D. O. (1992). “Time-dependent cone penetration resistance due to blasting.” J. Geotech. Eng., 1200–1215.
Chow, F. C., Jardine, R. J., Brucey, F., and Nauroy, J. F. (1998). “Effects of time on capacity of pipe piles in dense marine sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 254–264.
Gao, Y., and Wang, Y. H. (2013). “Calibration of tactile pressure sensors for measuring stress in soils.” Geotech. Test. J., 36(4), 568–574.
Gao, Y., Wang, Y. H., and Su, J. C. P. (2013). “Mechanisms of aging-induced modulus changes in sand under isotropic and anisotropic loading” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 470–482.
Jardine, R. J., Standing, J. R., and Chow, F. C. (2006). “Some observations of the effects of time on the capacity of driven piles in sand.” Géotechnique, 56(4), 227–244.
Mesri, G., Feng, T. W., and Benark, J. M. (1990). “Postdensification penetration resistance of clean sands.” J. Geotech. Eng., 1095–1115.
Michalowski, R. L., and Nadukuru, S. S. (2012). “Static fatigue, time effects, and delayed increase in penetration resistance after dynamic compaction of sands” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 564–574.
Mitchell, J. K. (1986). “Practical problems from surprising soil behavior.” J. Geotech. Eng., 255–289.
Mitchell, J. K., and Soga, K. (2005). Fundamentals of soil behavior, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Mitchell, J. K., and Solymar, Z. V. (1984). “Time-dependent strength gain in freshly deposited or densified sand.” J. Geotech. Eng., 1559–1576.
Persson, B. N. J. (2000). Sliding friction: Physical principles and applications, 2nd Ed., Springer, Berlin.
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.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1991). “The mechanical aging of soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 1288–1330.
Wang, Y. H., and Tsui, K. Y. (2009). “Experimental characterization of dynamic property changes in aged sands.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 259–270.
Wang, Y. H., Xu, D., and Tsui, K. Y. (2008). “Discrete element modeling of contact creep and aging in sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 1407–1411.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 6, 2014
Accepted: Jul 26, 2015
Published online: Sep 7, 2015
Published in print: Feb 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Feb 7, 2016
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.