Two-Dimensional Soil-Arching Behavior under Static and Cyclic Loading
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19, Issue 8
Abstract
To investigate soil-arching behavior under localized loading, trapdoor tests were conducted in this study with a model ground subjected to repetitive static and cyclic loads considering the influence of loading magnitude, loading frequency, loading width, and fill height. An analogical soil of aluminum rods was used as the fill material in a test box to create a two-dimensional condition. During the trapdoor tests, the particle image velocimetry technique was employed to analyze the deformation patterns of the fill. Four trapdoor tests with four different fill heights under fill self-weight were conducted as baseline cases for comparisons with the previous studies in the literature and the trapdoor tests under surface loading in this study. The theoretical solutions in the literature were used to calculate the soil-arching ratios for comparison with those from the trapdoor tests. The test results indicate that the application of surface loading caused degradation of soil arching, and cyclic loading had more effect on this degradation. A thicker fill section had more resistance to surface loading in the degradation of soil arching. The degradation of soil arching caused by surface loading increased with an increase in the loading magnitude and loading frequency and a decrease in the loading width.
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Acknowledgments
The results presented in this article are part of research projects (51478349 and 41272293) sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. This financial support is greatly appreciated.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 19 • Issue 8 • August 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 25, 2018
Accepted: Mar 19, 2019
Published online: May 22, 2019
Published in print: Aug 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Oct 22, 2019
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