Technical Papers
Oct 18, 2019

Elastic Dynamic Young’s Modulus and Poisson’s Ratio of Sand–Silt Mixtures

Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 1

Abstract

The significant influence of silica nonplastic fines content on the small-strain Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio of silty sands has been evaluated through a comprehensive set of resonant column tests in the flexural mode of excitation. It is demonstrated that at low fines contents, sand properties have a significant impact on the dynamic behavior of the soil; however, the silt inclusion is the predominant feature controlling Young’s modulus beyond a specific proportion of fines content. Based on the flexural resonant column tests performed on the sand–silt mixture specimens with variable parent sand materials in terms of uniformity coefficient and particle shape, a new expression is established for the evaluation of the small-strain dynamic Young’s modulus of silty sands using the concept of equivalent granular void ratio. Having a typical micromechanical discussion, the influence of confining pressure, particle shape, and fines content on the small-strain stiffness of sand–silt mixtures are thoroughly described. Furthermore, invoking the theory of elasticity, the variation of Poisson’s ratio with fines content for sand–silt mixtures is discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

ASTM. 2015. Standard test methods for modulus and damping of soils by fixed-base resonant column devices. ASTM D4015. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
Bui, M. T. 2009. “Influence of some particle characteristics on the small strain response of granular materials.” Ph.D. dissertation, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Southampton.
Cascante, G. 1996. “Low strain measurements with mechanical waves in geomaterials—Experimental micromechanics.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Waterloo.
Cascante, G., C. Santamarina, and N. Yassir. 1998. “Flexural excitation in a standard torsional-resonant column.” Can. Geotech. J. 35 (3): 478–490. https://doi.org/10.1139/t98-012.
Cho, G. C., J. Dodds, and J. C. Santamarina. 2006. “Particle shape effects on packing density, stiffness, and strength: Natural and crushed sands.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 132 (5): 591–602. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2006)132:5(591).
Choo, H., and S. E. Burns. 2015. “Shear wave velocity of granular mixtures of silica particles as a function of fine fraction, size ratios and void ratios.” Granular Matter 17 (5): 567–578. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-015-0580-2.
Gao, Y., Y. H. Wang, and J. C. P. Su. 2015. “Experimental characterization of the influence of fines on the stiffness of sand with inherent fabric anisotropy.” Soils Found. 55 (5): 1148–1157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2015.09.015.
Georgiannou, V. N., J. B. Burland, and D. W. Hight. 1990. “The undrained behaviour of clayey sands in triaxial compression and extension.” Geotechnique 40 (3): 431–449. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1990.40.3.431.
Goudarzy, M., D. König, and T. Schanz. 2016a. “Small strain stiffness of granular materials containing fines.” Soils Found. 56 (5): 756–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2016.08.002.
Goudarzy, M., N. Rahemi, M. M. Rahman, and T. Schanz. 2017. “Predicting the maximum shear modulus of sands containing nonplastic fines.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 143 (9): 06017013. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001760.
Goudarzy, M., M. M. Rahman, D. Konig, and T. Schanz. 2016b. “Influence of non-plastic fines content on maximum shear modulus of granular materials.” Soils Found. 56 (6): 973–983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2016.11.003.
Gu, X., J. Yang, and M. Huang. 2013. “Laboratory measurements of small strain properties of dry sands by bender element.” Soils Found. 53 (5): 735–745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2013.08.011.
Hardin, B. O., and F. E. Richart Jr. 1963. “Elastic wave velocities in granular soils.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div. 89 (1): 33–65.
He, H., M. Payan, and K. Senetakis. 2018. “The behaviour of a recycled road base aggregate and quartz sand with bender/extender element tests under variable stress states.” Eur. J. Environ. Civ. Eng. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2018.1521749.
Iwasaki, T., F. Tatsuoka, and Y. Takagi. 1978. “Shear moduli of sands under cyclic torsional shear loading.” Soils Found. 18 (1): 39–56. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.18.39.
Krumbein, W. C., and L. L. Sloss. 1963. Stratigraphy and sedimentation. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Freeman and Company.
Kuerbis, R., D. Negussey, and Y. P. Vaid. 1988. “Effect of gradation and fines content on the undrained response of sand.” In Hydraulic fill structures, 330–345. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Lashkari, A. 2014. “Recommendations for extension and re-calibration of an existing sand constitutive model taking into account varying non-plastic fines content.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng. 61 (Jun–Jul): 212–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2014.02.012.
Lashkari, A. 2016. “Prediction of flow liquefaction instability of clean and silty sands.” Acta Geotech. 11 (5): 987–1014. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-015-0413-9.
Lo Presti, D., O. Pallara, R. Lancellotta, M. Armani, and R. Maniscalco. 1993. “Monotonic and cyclic loading behavior of two sands and strains.” Geotech. Test. J. 16 (4): 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ10281J.
Madhusudhan, B. N., and K. Senetakis. 2016. “Evaluating use of resonant column in flexural mode for dynamic characterization of Bangalore sand.” Soils Found. 56 (3): 574–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2016.04.021.
Mitchell, J. K. 1976. Fundamentals of soil behavior. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Mohammadi, A., and A. Qadimi. 2014. “A simple critical state approach to prediction the cyclic and monotonic response of sands with different fines contents using the equivalent intergranular void ratio.” Acta Geotech. 10 (5): 587–606. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0318-z.
Payan, M., A. Khoshghalb, K. Senetakis, and N. Khalili. 2016. “Effect of particle shape and validity of Gmax models for sand: A critical review and a new expression.” Comput. Geotech. 72 (Feb): 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2015.11.003.
Payan, M., K. Senetakis, A. Khoshghalb, and N. Khalili. 2017a. “Characterization of the small-strain dynamic behaviour of silty sands; Contribution of silica non-plastic fines content.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng. 102 (Nov): 232–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2017.08.008.
Payan, M., K. Senetakis, A. Khoshghalb, and N. Khalili. 2017b. “Effect of gradation and particle shape on small-strain Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio of sands.” Int. J. Geomech. 17 (5): 04016120. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000811.
Rahman, M. M., S. R. Lo, and M. A. L. Baki. 2011. “Equivalent granular state parameter and undrained behaviour of sand–fines mixtures.” Acta Geotech. 6 (4): 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-011-0145-4.
Rahman, M. M., S. R. Lo, and C. T. Gnanendran. 2008. “On equivalent granular void ratio and steady state behaviour of loose sand with fines.” Can. Geotech. J. 45 (10): 1439–1456. https://doi.org/10.1139/T08-064.
Saxena, S. K., and K. R. Reddy. 1989. “Dynamic moduli and damping ratios for Monterey No. 0 sand by resonant column tests.” Soils Found. 29 (2): 37–51. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.29.2_37.
Senetakis, K., A. Anastasiadis, and K. Pitilakis. 2012. “Small strain shear modulus and damping ratio of quartz and volcanic sands.” Geotech. Test. J. 35 (6): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ20120073.
Senetakis, K., and B. N. Madhusudhan. 2015. “Dynamics of potential fill-backfill material at very small-strains.” Soils Found. 55 (5): 1196–1210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2015.09.019.
Senetakis, K., and M. Payan. 2018. “Small strain damping ratio of sands and silty sands subjected to flexural and torsional resonant column excitation.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng. 114 (Nov): 448–459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2018.06.010.
Thevanayagam, S. 1998. “Effect of fines and confining stress on undrained shear strength of silty sands.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 124 (6): 479–491. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(1998)124:6(479).
Thevanayagam, S., and G. R. Martin. 2002. “Liquefaction in silty soils—Screening and remediation issues.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng. 22 (9–12): 1035–1042. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0267-7261(02)00128-8.
Wichtmann, T., M. A. Navarrete Hernandez, and T. Triantafyllidis. 2015. “On the influence of non-cohesive fines content on small-strain stiffness, modulus degradation and damping ratio of quartz sand.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng. 69 (Feb): 103–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2014.10.017.
Wichtmann, T., and T. Triantafyllidis. 2009. “Influence of the grain-size distribution curve of quartz sand on the small strain shear modulus Gmax.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 135 (10): 1404–1418. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000096.
Yang, J., and X Liu. 2016. “Shear wave velocity and stiffness of sand: The role of non-plastic fines.” Geotech. 66 (6): 500–514. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.15.P.205.
Yang, J., L. M. Wei, and B. B. Dai. 2015. “State variables for silty sands: Global void ratio or skeleton void ratio.” Soils Found. 55 (1): 99–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2014.12.008.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32Issue 1January 2020

History

Received: Nov 26, 2018
Accepted: Jun 28, 2019
Published online: Oct 18, 2019
Published in print: Jan 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Mar 18, 2020

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Guilan, 4199613776 Rasht, Iran (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-7915. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Mohammad Khoshini
Ph.D. Candidate, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW 2033, Australia.
Reza Jamshidi Chenari
Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Guilan, 4199613776 Rasht, Iran.

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.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share