Evolution of Soil Fabrics toward Critical State for Granular Soils: A Comprehensive Investigation
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 150, Issue 5
Abstract
The critical-state theory (CST) serves as the foundation of modern soil mechanics and has gained widespread acceptance for explaining the behavior of granular materials. The classical CST does not address the fabric anisotropy of granular materials, leading to questions about the uniqueness of the critical state when considering such anisotropy. Recently, the development of anisotropic critical-state theory (ACST) highlights that fabric anisotropy of granular materials should reach a unique normalized value at the critical state. However, ACST does not specify which fabric tensor is used to characterize the microstructure of soils. In this study, we present a comprehensive characterization of various soil fabrics, including contact-based fabric tensor, void-based fabric tensor, and particle–void fabric, respectively. We employ three-dimensional clumped particles to approximate different shapes of Toyoura sand particles, which makes the characterization of soil fabric more accurate. Discrete element method simulations of conventional triaxial compression tests under both drained and undrained conditions are conducted on soil samples with different initial confining pressures and void ratios. The evolution of various fabrics toward the critical state is compared and discussed. Moreover, we establish relationships among contact-based fabric, void-based fabric, particle–void fabric, mean effective stress, and void ratio at the critical state. The study provides new insights into understanding the relations between the critical state and the microstructure of granular soils.
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Data Availability Statement
The models, codes, or analyzed data sets that support the findings of the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The work is supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFC3081500), the General Program from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52179134), and Technological Project (Grant No. DZTWWW-YX-003) from the Power China Guiyang Engineering Corporation Limited, which are gratefully acknowledged.
Author contributions: Siyuan Yang: Methodology, Writing, Software, Formal analysis, Data Curation. Duruo Huang: Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 150 • Issue 5 • May 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 11, 2023
Accepted: Dec 21, 2023
Published online: Feb 28, 2024
Published in print: May 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Jul 28, 2024
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