Microscale Descriptors for Particle-Void Distribution and Jamming Transition in Pre- and Post-Liquefaction of Granular Soils
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 144, Issue 8
Abstract
Micromechanical modeling provides significant insight into the fundamental mechanism of soil liquefaction. In this study, a series of undrained cyclic simple shear simulations were conducted by using discrete element method (DEM). The particle-scale information provided by DEM was used to quantify the local void distribution around particles. Two microscale descriptors, named as the shape-elongation descriptor () and the orientation-anisotropy descriptor (), were proposed to quantify the overall anisotropy of local void distribution in the granular packing. Before initial liquefaction, the particle-void distribution remains to be globally isotropic for isotropically consolidated samples. An irreversible development of anisotropy in terms of and mainly occurs in the post-liquefaction stage. In addition, jamming transition of the liquefied soil is determined by using these descriptors because a unique hardening state line (HSL) is found in the space that can differentiate a post-liquefaction flow state from a hardening or jamming state. Furthermore, large post-liquefaction flow strains are found to be closely correlated to the descriptors.
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Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by Theme-based Research Scheme Grant No. T22-603-15N and General Research Fund No. 16213615 from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Initiation Grant No. IGN17EG01 from the University Grants Committee (UGC). The support is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 144 • Issue 8 • August 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 6, 2017
Accepted: Jan 23, 2018
Published online: Jun 4, 2018
Published in print: Aug 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Nov 4, 2018
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