Fracture Analysis of Cohesive Soils Using Bilinear and Trilinear Cohesive Laws
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 16, Issue 4
Abstract
Tensile cracking of soil is an important issue that affects the strength and permeability of soil in many geotechnical applications, such as in soil dams and landfill liners. When the size of the fracture process zone is not negligible compared to specimen dimensions, a nonlinear fracture mechanics approach, such as a cohesive crack model, should be used to simulate the experimental results. A critical issue in the simulation of cohesive failure mechanism is the definition of cohesive interactions along fracture surfaces. In this study, bilinear and trilinear cohesive laws are examined based on data sets available in the literature. The inverse method is used for the definition of the cohesive parameters. As a result of this study, some conclusions are established to assess the importance of using a suitable cohesive law shape for a given soil that accurately predicts the cohesive fracture parameters under different material conditions. Finally, based on a tensile strength model of granular soil, a modified model is proposed to interpret the tensile strength of compacted clayey soils.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support of the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) under Grant No. 91003668 is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 16 • Issue 4 • August 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 7, 2015
Accepted: Oct 21, 2015
Published online: Dec 31, 2015
Discussion open until: May 31, 2016
Published in print: Aug 1, 2016
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