Evolution of the Water Retention Characteristics of Granular Materials Subjected to Grain Crushing
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper reports a series of experiments aimed at studying the effect of grain crushing on the water retention capacity of granular soils. Specimens of granular materials have been subjected to oedometric compression at high pressures, revealing that crushing causes significant alterations of both grain-size distribution (GSD) and soil water retention curve (SWRC). In particular, the experiments have shown that the suction air-entry value () changes considerably during crushing, thus controlling the shape of the SWRC in proximity of saturated conditions. Such evidence has been interpreted through a number of GSD-dependent retention models available in the literature. In particular, the results have been used to verify the hypotheses of a recently proposed hydromechanical model based on the breakage mechanics framework, which enables the prediction of simultaneous variations in void ratio, GSD, and SWRC through constitutive relations linking the to the predicted degree of particle breakage. Although all models suggest an upward shift of the SWRC with the accumulation of crushing, the change of its shape and location are captured by each model with different levels of accuracy. Most notably, the analytical relations predicted by the breakage mechanics theory are able to capture satisfactorily the observed changes of the suction air-entry point, therefore representing a convenient tool for the analysis of geotechnical systems made of unsaturated soils susceptible to breakage, such as transportation infrastructures and rockfill dams.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by Grant No. CMMI-1351534, awarded by the Geotechnical Engineering and Materials Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
References
Alonso, E., Olivella, S., and Pinyol, N. (2005). “A review of Beliche dam.” Géotechnique, 55(4), 267–285.
Arya, L. M., Leij, F. J., van Genuchten, M. T., and Shouse, P. J. (1999). “Scaling parameter to predict the soil water characteristic from particle-size distribution data.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 63(3), 510–519.
Arya, L. M., and Paris, J. F. (1981). “A physicoempirical model to predict the soil moisture characteristic from particle-size distribution and bulk density data.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 45(6), 1023–1030.
Arya, L. M., Richter, J. C., and Davidson, S. (1982). “A comparison of soil moisture characteristics predicted by the Arya-Paris model with laboratory-measured data.”, NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston.
Aubertin, M., Mbonimpa, M., Bussière, B., and Chapuis, R. (2003). “A model to predict the water retention curve from basic geotechnical properties.” Can. Geotech. J., 40(6), 1104–1122.
Buczko, U., and Gerke, H. H. (2005). “Evaluation of the Arya-Paris model for estimating water retention characteristics of lignitic mine soils.” Soil Sci., 170(7), 483–494.
Buscarnera, G. (2012). “A conceptual model for the chemo-mechanical degradation of granular geomaterials.” Géotech. Lett., 2(3), 149–154.
Buscarnera, G., and Einav, I. (2012). “The yielding of brittle unsaturated granular soils.” Géotechnique, 62(2), 147–160.
Chuhan, F. A., Kjeldstad, A., Bjørlykke, K., and Høeg, K. (2002). “Porosity loss in sand by grain crushing—Experimental evidence and relevance to reservoir quality.” Mar. Pet. Geol., 19(1), 39–53.
Daouadji, A., and Hicher, P. Y. (2010). “An enhanced constitutive model for crushable granular materials.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 34(6), 555–580.
DeJong, J. T., and Christoph, G. G. (2009). “Influence of particle properties and initial specimen state on one-dimensional compression and hydraulic conductivity.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 449–454.
Einav, I. (2007a). “Breakage mechanics—Part I: Theory.” J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 55(6), 1274–1297.
Einav, I. (2007b). “Breakage mechanics—Part II: Modelling granular materials.” J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 55(6), 1298–1320.
Fredlund, M. D., Wilson, G. W., and Fredlund, D. G. (2002). “Use of the grain-size distribution for estimation of the soil-water characteristic curve.” Can. Geotech. J., 39(5), 1103–1117.
Indraratna, B., Thakur, P. K., and Vinod, J. S. (2010). “Experimental and numerical study of railway ballast behavior under cyclic loading.” Int. J. Geomech., 136–144.
Jamei, M., Guiras, H., Chtourou, Y., Kallel, A., Romero, E., and Georgopoulos, I. (2011). “Water retention properties of perlite as a material with crushable soft particles.” Eng. Geol., 122(3), 261–271.
Kikumoto, M., Wood, D. M., and Russell, A. (2010). “Particle crushing and deformation behaviour.” Soils Found., 50(4), 547–563.
Lade, P. V., Yamamuro, J. A., and Bopp, P. A. (1996). “Significance of particle crushing in granular materials.” J. Geotech. Eng., 309–316.
Likos, W. J., and Jaafar, R. (2013). “Pore-scale model for water retention and fluid partitioning of partially saturated granular soil.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 724–737.
McDowell, G. (2002). “On the yielding and plastic compression of sand.” Soils Found., 42(1), 139–145.
McDowell, G., Bolton, M., and Robertson, D. (1996). “The fractal crushing of granular materials.” J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 44(12), 2079–2101.
Nakata, Y., Kato, Y., Hyodo, M., Hyde, A. F. L., and Murata, H. (2001). “One-dimensional compression behaviour of uniformly graded sand related to single particle crushing strength.” Soils Found., 41(2), 39–51.
Oldecop, L. A., and Alonso, E. (2001). “A model for rockfill compressibility.” Géotechnique, 51(2), 127–139.
Ovalle, C., Dano, C., and Hicher, P.-Y. (2013). “Experimental data highlighting the role of surface fracture energy in quasi-static confined comminution.” Int. J. Fract., 182(1), 123–130.
Russell, A. (2014). “How water retention in fractal soils depends on particle and pore sizes, shapes, volumes and surface areas.” Géotechnique, 64(5), 379–390.
Sammis, C., King, G., and Biegel, R. (1987). “The kinematics of gouge deformation.” Pure Appl. Geophys., 125(5), 777–812.
Schneider, C. A., Rasband, W. S., and Eliceiri, K. W. (2012). “NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis.” Nat. Methods, 9(7), 671–675.
Wang, F., Sassa, K., and Wang, G. (2002). “Mechanism of a long-runout landslide triggered by the August 1998 heavy rainfall in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.” Eng. Geol., 63(1), 169–185.
Yang, Z., Jardine, R., Zhu, B., Foray, P., and Tsuha, C. (2010). “Sand grain crushing and interface shearing during displacement pile installation in sand.” Géotechnique, 60(6), 469–482.
Zhang, Y. D., and Buscarnera, G. (2014). “Grainsize dependence of clastic yielding in unsaturated granular soils.” Granular Matter, 16(4), 469–483.
Zhang, Y. D., and Buscarnera, G. (2015). “Prediction of breakage-induced couplings in unsaturated granular soils.” Géotechnique, 65(2), 135–140.
Zhang, Y. D., Buscarnera, G., and Einav, I. (2016). “Grain size dependence of yielding in granular soils interpreted using fracture mechanics, breakage mechanics and Weibull statistics.” Géotechnique, 66(2), 149–160.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 9, 2015
Accepted: Jan 25, 2016
Published online: Apr 27, 2016
Published in print: Sep 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Sep 27, 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.