Mechanisms of Aging-Induced Modulus Changes in Sand under Isotropic and Anisotropic Loading
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 3
Abstract
In this paper, experimental studies were conducted using a true triaxial apparatus with a bender element system to examine the mechanisms of aging-induced, small-strain shear modulus changes in sand samples under isotropic and anisotropic loading. Numerical simulations based on the discrete element method (DEM) were also carried out in parallel. In the isotropic loading cases, the three measured shear moduli, , , and , and associated aging rates, in terms of the modulus changes, are similar in every loading stage. DEM simulations reproduced the experimental findings and suggested a general trend. A sample with a lower shear modulus before aging, because of a greater percentage of weak forces, allows more forces to be redistributed from the strong force network to the weak force network through the process of contact force homogenization during aging and therefore can have a higher aging rate. In the anisotropic loading cases where , the measured modulus increase (i.e., the aging rate) is greater in (or ) than in . This behavior can be attributed to the increase in both the strong and weak forces in the z-direction during aging, because of arching breakdowns.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (GRF 620310). The writers are grateful to the reviewers for valuable comments.
References
Anderson, D. G., and Stokoe, K. H., II. (1978). “Shear modulus, a time-dependent soil property.” STP 654, ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA, 66–90.
Åstedt, B., Weiner, L., and Holm, G. (1992). “Increase in bearing capacity with time for friction piles in silt and sand.” Proc., Nordic Geotechnical Meeting, Danish Geotechnical Society, Aalborg, Denmark, 411–416.
Axelsson, G. A. (2002). “A conceptual model of pile set-up for driven piles in non-cohesive soil.” Deep Foundations. ASCE GSP, 116, 54–79.
Bardet, J. P., and Huang, Q. (1993). “Rotational stiffness of cylindrical particle contacts.” Powders and grains 93, C. Thornton, ed., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 39–43.
Baxter, D. D. P., and Mitchell, J. K. (2004). “Experimental study on the aging of sands.” J. Geotech. Geoenv. Eng., 130(10), 1051–1062.
Bowman, E. T., and Soga, K. (2003). “Creep, ageing and microstructural change in dense granular materials.” Soil Found., 43(4), 107–118.
Bullock, P. J., Schmertmann, J. H., McVay, M. C., and Townsend, F. C. (2005a). “Side shear setup I: Test piles driven in Florida.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131(3), 292–300.
Bullock, P. J., Schmertmann, J. H., McVay, M. C., and Townsend, F. C. (2005b). “Side shear setup II: Results from Florida test piles.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131(3), 301–310.
Cavarretta, I., Coop, M., and Sullivan, C. O. (2010). “The influence of particle characteristics of coarse grained soils.” Geotechnique, 60(6), 413–423.
Chang, C. S., Sundaram, S. S., and Misra, A. (1989). “Initial moduli of particulated mass with frictional contacts.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 13(6), 629–644.
Chow, F. C., Jardine, R. J., Brucey, F., and Nauroy, J. F. (1998). “Effects of time on capacity of pipe piles in dense marine sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 124(3), 254–264.
Colliat-Dangus, J. L., Desrues, J., and Foray, P. (1988). “Triaxial testing of granular soil under elevated cell pressure.” Advanced triaxial testing of soil and rock, ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA, 290–310.
Collop, A. C., McDowell, G. R., and Lee, Y. W. (2006). “Modelling dilation in an idealised asphalt mixture using discrete element modelling.” Granul. Matter, 8(3–4), 175–184.
Daramola, O. (1980). “Effect of consolidation age on stiffness of sand.” Geotechnique, 30(2), 213–216.
Dowding, C. H., and Hryciw, R. D. (1986). “A laboratory study of blast densification of saturated sand.” J. Geotech. Eng., 112(2), 187–199.
Howie, J. A., Shozen, T., and Vaid, Y. P. (2002). “Effect of ageing on stiffness of very loose sand.” Can. Geotech. J., 39(1), 149–156.
Jardine, R. J., Standing, J. R., and Chow, F. C. (2006). “Some observations of the effects of time on the capacity of driven piles in sand.” Geotechnique, 56(4), 227–244.
Kuhn, M., and Mitchell, J. K. (1993). “New perspectives on soil creep.” J. Geotech. Eng., 119(3), 507–524.
Kuhn, M. R., and Mitchell, J. K. (1992). “The modeling of soil creep with the discrete element method.” Eng. Comput., 9(2), 277–287.
Kwok, C.-Y., and Bolton, M. D. (2010). “DEM simulations of thermally activated creep in soils.” Geotechnique, 60(6), 425–434.
Lade, P. V., and Liu, C. T. (1998). “Experimental study of drained creep behavior of sand.” J. Eng. Mech., 124(8), 912–920.
Li, X. (2006). “Micro-scale investigation on the quasi-static behavior of granular material.” Ph.D. thesis for Civil Engineering, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
Mejia, C. A., Vaid, Y. P., and Negussey, D. (1988). “Time dependent behaviour of sand.” Int. Conf. on Rheology and Soil Mechanics, London: Elsevier Applied Science, Coventry, U.K. 312–326.
Mesri, G., Feng, T. W., and Benark, J. M. (1990). “Postdensification penetration resistance of clean sands.” J. Geotech. Eng., 116(7), 1095–1115.
Mitchell, J. K. (1986). “Practical problems from surprising soil behavior.” J. Geotech. Eng., 112(3), 255–289.
Mitchell, J. K., and Soga, K. (2005). Fundamentals of soil behavior, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Mitchell, J. K., and Solymar, Z. V. (1984). “Time dependent strength gain in freshly deposited or densified sand.” J. Geotech. Eng., 110(11), 1559–1576.
Morgan, J. K., and Boettcher, M. S. (1999). “Numerical simulations of granular shear zones using the distinct element method 1. Shear zone kinematics and the micromechanics of localization.” J. Geophys. Res., 104(B2), 2703–2719.
Murayama, S., Michihiro, K., and Sakagami, T. (1984). “Creep characteristics of sands.” Soil Found., 24(2), 1–15.
Ng, T. T., and Petrakis, E. (1996). “Small-strain response of random arrays of spheres using discrete element method.” J. Eng. Mech., 122(3), 239–244.
Oda, M., Nemat-Nasser, S., and Konishi, J. (1985). “Stress-induced anisotropy in granular masses.” Soil Found., 25(3), 85–97.
Ouadfel, H., and Rothenburg, L. (2001). “Stress-force-fabric relationship for assemblies of ellipsoids.” Mech. Mater., 33(4), 201–221.
Particle Flow Code in 3 Dimensions (PFC3D) v.3.1 [Computer software]. Minneapolis, Itasca Consulting Group.
Persson, B. N. J. (2000). Sliding friction: Physical principles and applications, Springer, Berlin.
Radjai, F., Jean, M., Moreau, J. J., and Roux, S. (1996). “Force distributions in dense two-dimensional granular systems.” Phys. Rev. Lett., 77(2), 274–277.
Roesler, S. K. (1979). “Anisotropic shear modulus due to stress anisotropy.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 105(7), 871–880.
Santamarina, J. C., Klein, K. A., and Fam, M. A. (2001). Soils and waves, Wiley, New York.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1991). “The mechanical aging of soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 117(9), 1286–1330.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Hwang, S. K., Lee, J. N. K., and Andrus, R. D. (1995). “Effects of various parameters on the stiffness and damping of soils at small to medium strains.” Proc., Int. Symposium on Pre-Failure Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials, Sapporo, Japan, 785–816.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Lee, J. N. K., and Lee, S. H. H. (1991). “Characterization of soil in calibration chambers with seismic waves.” Proc., 1st Int. Symposium on Calibration Chamber Testing, Elsevier, Potsdam, NY 363–376.
Stokoe, K. H., II, Lee, S. H. H., and Knox, D. P. (1985). “Shear moduli measurements under true triaxial stresses.” Proc., Advances in the Art of Testing Soils Under Cyclic Conditions, ASCE, Reston, VA, 166–185.
Thomann, T. G., and Hryciw, R. D. (1992). “Stiffness and strength changes in cohesionless soils due to disturbance.” Can. Geotech. J., 29(5), 853–861.
Thornton, C. (2000). “Numerical simulations of deviatoric shear deformation of granular media.” Geotechnique, 50(1), 43–53.
Thornton, C., and Antony, S. J. (1998). “Quasi-static deformation of particulate media.” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 356(1747), 2763–2782.
Wang, Y. H., Lo K. F., Yan, W. M., and Dong, X. (2007). “Measurement biases in the bender element test.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 133(5), 564–574.
Wang, Y. H., and Mok, C.M.B. (2008). “Mechanisms of small-strain shear-modulus anisotropy in soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(10), 1516–1530.
Wang, Y. H., and Tsui, K.Y. (2009). “Experimental characterization of dynamic property changes in aged sands.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 135(2), 259–270.
Wang, Y. H., Xu, D., and Tsui, K. Y. (2008). “Discrete element modeling of contact creep and aging in sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(9), 1407–1411.
Wang, Y. H., Yan, W. M., and Lo, K. F. (2006). “Damping ratio measurements by the spectral ratio method.” Can. Geotech. J., 43(11), 1180–1194.
Yimsiri, S., and Soga, K. (2002). “Application of micromechanics model to study anisotropy of soils at small strains.” Soil Found., 42(5), 15–26.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 3 • March 2013
Pages: 470 - 482
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 9, 2011
Accepted: May 14, 2012
Published online: May 17, 2012
Published in print: Mar 1, 2013
Authors
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.