Bounding surface plasticity model for stress-strain and grain-crushing behaviors of rockfill materials

Crushing of grains can greatly influence the strength,dilatancy,and stress-strain relationship of rockfill materials.The critical state line(CSL)in the void ratio versus mean effective stress plane was extended to the breakage critical state plane(BCSP).A state void-ratio-pressure index that incorporated the effect of grain crushing was proposed according to the BCSP.Rowe’s stress-dilatancy equation was modified by adding the breakage voidratio-pressure index,which was also incorporated into the formulations of the bounding stress ratio and plastic modulus.A BCSP-based bounding surface plasticity model was proposed to describe the state-dependent stressstrain behaviors and the evolution of grain crushing during shearing process of rockfill materials,and was shown to sufficiently capture the breakage phenomenon.     

Three-dimensional DEM investigation of critical state and dilatancy behaviors of granular materials

The critical state is significant to the mechanical behaviors of granular materials and the foundation of the constitutive relations. Using the discrete element method (DEM), the mechanical behaviors of granular materials can be investigated on both the macroscopic and microscopic levels. A series of DEM simulations under true triaxial conditions have been performed to explore the critical state and dilatancy behavior of granular materials, which show the qualitatively similar macroscopic responses as the experimental results. The critical void ratio and stress ratio under different stress paths are presented. A unique critical state line (CSL) is shown to indicate that the intermediate principal stress ratio does not influence the CSL. Within the framework of the unique critical state, the stress–dilatancy relation of DEM simulations is found to fulfill the state-dependent dilatancy equations. As a microscopic parameter to evaluate the static determinacy of the granular system, the redundancy ratio is defined and investigated. The results show that the critical state is very close to the statically determinate state. Other particle-level indexes, including the distribution of the contact forces and the anisotropies, are carefully investigated to analyze the microstructural evolution and the underlying mechanism. The microscopic analysis shows that both the contact orientations and contact forces influence the mechanical behaviors of granular materials.     

Modeling the effect of wetting on the mechanical behavior of crushable granular materials

It is well known that the compressibility of crushable granular materials increases with the moisture content,due to the decrease of particle strength in a humid environment.An existing approach to take into account the effect of grain breakage in constitutive modeling consists in linking the evolution of the grain size distribution to the plastic work.But how the material humidity can affect this relationship is not clear,and experimental evidence is quite scarce.Based on compression tests on dry and saturated crushable sand recently reported by the present authors,a new non-linear relationship is proposed between the amount of particle breakage and the plastic work.The expression contains two parameters:(1)a material constant dependent on the grain characteristics and(2)a constant depending on the wetting condition(in this study,dry or saturated).A key finding is that the relationship does not depend on the stress path and,for a given wetting condition,only one set of parameters is necessary to reproduce the results of isotropic,oedometric,and triaxial compression tests.The relationship has been introduced into an elastoplastic constitutive model based on the critical state concept with a double yield surface for plastic sliding and compression.The breakage ratio is introduced into the expression of the elastic stiffness,the critical state line and the hardening compression pressure.Incremental stress-strain computations with the model allow the plastic work to be calculated and,therefore,the evolution of particle crushing can be predicted through the proposed non-linear relationship and reintroduced into the constitutive equations.Accurate predictions of the experimental results in terms of both stress-strain relationships and breakage ratio were obtained.     

DEM investigation of the effect of intermediate principle stress on particle breakage of granular materials

This study investigates the influence of the intermediate principle stress on the particle breakage of granular materials. The crushable agglomerate method is applied to model soil particles and numerical true triaxial tests were carried out. The results show that particle breakage increases with increasing b value, the relationship of which follows an exponential function and agrees well with previous experimental results. More importantly, the study found that the relationship between particle breakage and total energy input is independent of the intermediate principle stress, which provides a good basis for the constitutive modeling of granular materials.     

An enhanced constitutive model for crushable granular materials

Studies in the past have tried to reproduce the mechanical behaviour of granular materials by proposing constitutive relations based on a common assumption that model parameters and parameters describing the properties, including gradation of individual grains are inevitably linked. However successful these models have proved to be, they cannot account for the changes in granular assembly behaviour if the grains start to break during mechanical loading. This paper proposes to analyse the relation between grading change and the mechanical behaviour of granular assembly. A way to model the influence of grain breakage is to use a critical state‐based model. The influence of the amount of grain breakage during loading, depending on the individual grain strength and size distribution, can be introduced into constitutive relations by means of a new parameter that controls the evolution of critical state with changes in grain size distribution. Experimental data from a calcareous sand, a quartz sand, and a rockfill material were compared with numerical results and good‐quality simulations were obtained. The main consequences of grain breakage are increased compressibility and a gradual dilatancy disappearance in the granular material. The critical state concept is also enriched by considering its overall relation to the evolution of the granular material. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Critical state of granular materials at mesoscale: Transition from local to global

Critical state theory is widely accepted for understanding and interpreting the behavior of granular materials such as sandy soils. Recently, motivated by the development of a multiscale analysis method, this paper presents a discrete element investigation on the critical state behavior of granular materials on two scales level, that is, the macroscale and mesoscale. Loops are taken as the basic mesostructures, and the concept of mesoscale critical state is proposed on terms of the local stress and void ratio. Based on series of numerical simulations with varying densities and confining pressures, the characters of critical state lines (CSLs) for each loop type are analyzed. An analytical relationship of the transition from local to global is then obtained for critical state. Besides, the influence of interparticle friction coefficient on CSL is also discussed on both scales. The prominent observation is that each type of loops achieves its own critical state, from which a unique global CSL can be obtained. The CSLs of different loops exhibit same shapes but move upwards with the increasing order.     

颗粒材料的微观临界状态理论模型

存在临界状态是颗粒材料的一个重要特性。基于孔隙胞元的颗粒离散元方法对二维颗粒体进行双轴加载数值试验,在详细分析数值模拟结果的基础上,从微观几何组构的角度揭示了临界状态的存在机制。基于剪胀性原理,提出了以接触价键表征的微观临界状态理论模型,得到了接触价键与塑性剪切应变的关系表达式,理论模型的结果和二维离散元数值模拟得到的结果吻合较好。通过比较不同情况下数值结果和理论模型中的参数,得到以下结论：表征微观临界状态的参数（临界接触价键和达到临界状态所需要的塑性剪切应变）依赖于颗粒体的微观特性,如颗粒形状、表面摩擦性质、颗粒体的围压和初始孔隙比。     

Study on the particle breakage of ballast based on a GPU accelerated discrete element method

Breakage of particles will have greatly influence on mechanical behavior of granular material(GM)under external loads,such as ballast,rockfill and sand.The discrete element method(DEM)is one of the most popular methods for simulating GM as each particle is represented on its own.To study breakage mechanism of particle breakage,a cohesive contact mode is developed based on the GPU accelerated DEM code-Blaze-DEM.A database of the 3D geometry model of rock blocks is established based on the 3D scanning method.And an agglomerate describing the rock block with a series of non-overlapping spherical particles is used to build the DEM numerical model of a railway ballast sample,which is used to the DEM oedometric test to study the particles’breakage characteristics of the sample under external load.Furthermore,to obtain the meso-mechanical parameters used in DEM,a black-analysis method is used based on the laboratory tests of the rock sample.Based on the DEM numerical tests,the particle breakage process and mechanisms of the railway ballast are studied.All results show that the developed code can better used for large scale simulation of the particle breakage analysis of granular material.     

A compression model for sand–silt mixtures based on the concept of active and inactive voids

A compression model for sand–silt mixtures is needed in geotechnical engineering, for example in the analysis and prediction of deformation of levees and embankments due to internal erosion. In this paper, we introduce a novel concept of dividing the voids of a granular material into two hypothetical fractions: active and inactive voids. The active voids are kinematically available to the compression process. The inactive voids are kinematically unavailable to the compression process. The volume of active voids is dependent on the initial density and effective stress level. The volume of inactive voids is dependent on the amount of fines in the mixture. The current paper considers 1-D and isotropic compression behavior of sand–silt mixtures at stress levels lower than 2 MPa, so no substantial particle breakage is expected to occur. To successfully predict the void ratio for a sand–silt mixture during compression loading, we need (1) a mathematical expression for the evolution of the active void ratio during compression and (2) a relationship between the inactive void ratio and fines content of the mixture. For sand–silt mixtures with any amount of fines, the proposed model requires five material parameters, which are determined from two compression tests, and four minimum void ratio tests on sand–silt mixtures with different fines content. The performance of the proposed model is verified for six different types of sand–silt mixture with various fines contents, by comparing the predicted void ratios with the measured data from the experiments. The comparisons show a good agreement between the predictions and the measured data and prove the suitability of the proposed model for the prediction of compressibility of sand–silt mixtures with any amount of fines.     

The critical state friction angle of granular materials: does it depend on grading?

Whether the critical state friction angle of granular materials depends on grading is a fundamental question of both academic and practical interest. The present study attempts to address this question through a specifically designed experimental program where the influence of particle grading was carefully isolated from other influencing factors. The laboratory experiments show that under otherwise similar conditions, the angle of friction at critical state is a constant independent of grading, but, for a given grading, the angle of friction at critical state is highly dependent on particle shape. This finding suggests that the commonly adopted practice of separately allowing for the effect of particle shape and the effect of grading on critical state friction angle is conceptually inappropriate and, hence, should be taken with caution in geotechnical design to avoid the risk of underestimating safety requirements. The study also reveals that varying particle gradation can impose a marked impact on liquefaction susceptibility of granular soils: Under the same post-consolidation state in terms of void ratio and confining pressure, a well-graded soil tends to be more susceptible to liquefaction than a uniformly graded soil. This variation of liquefaction susceptibility is shown to be consistent with the variation of location of the critical state locus in the compression space and is explainable by the critical state theory.     

紫坪铺面板坝堆石料颗粒破碎试验研究

采用大型三轴仪对紫坪铺面板坝堆石料进行了单调和循环荷载下的固结排水剪切试验,研究了不同孔隙比情况下颗粒破碎及剪胀的变化规律。试验表明：（1）单调和循环荷载条件下,堆石料颗粒破碎率与塑性功之间存在一致的双曲线关系;（2）峰值应力处剪胀率与颗粒破碎率在半对数坐标中呈近似线性关系;（3）峰值应力处主应力比与相应的剪胀率呈近似线性关系,且上述结果受初始孔隙比的影响不大。研究成果有助于进一步了解堆石料的颗粒破碎特点,对建立复杂应力条件下考虑颗粒破碎和状态相关性的弹塑性本构模型,分析紫坪铺面板堆石坝汶川地震破损机制是十分有益的。     

考虑颗粒破碎效应的堆石料静动力本构模型

为合理反映颗粒破碎对堆石料力学特性的影响,基于试验结果分析,得出了堆石料在压缩和剪切作用下的颗粒破碎特性规律。通过引入压缩破碎和剪切破碎的相关参数,借鉴已有本构模型的合理定义,吸收临界状态理论和边界面理论的优点,发展了考虑颗粒破碎和状态相关的堆石料静动力统一弹塑性本构模型,并阐述了模型参数的确定方法。该模型不仅能够反映堆石料在静力荷载作用下的低压剪胀、高压剪缩、应变软化和硬化等特性,还能够反映在循环荷载作用下应力-应变的滞回特性和残余变形的累积效应。最后为验证模型的合理性,分别对堆石料的静力三轴和循环三轴试验进行了数值模拟预测,结果表明：模型预测与试验数据吻合良好,所提出的本构模型能够合理地描述颗粒破碎对堆石料静动力变形特性的影响。     

Estimation of critical state-related formula in advanced constitutive modeling of granular material

Different critical state-related formulas, for the critical state line and the critical state-dependent interlocking effect, have been proposed in constitutive modeling of granular material during last decades, which rises up a confusion on how to select an appropriate model in the geotechnical applications. This paper aims to discuss the selection of these critical state-related formulas and parameters identification. Three formulas of critical state line together with two formulas of critical state-dependent interlocking effect are combined to propose six elasto-plastic models. Drained and undrained triaxial tests on four different granular materials are selected for simulations. In order to eliminate artificial errors, a new hybrid genetic algorithm-based intelligent method is proposed and used to identify parameters and estimate simulations with minimum errors for each granular material and each model. Then, the performance of each CSL and each state parameter is evaluated using two information criteria. Furthermore, the performance was evaluated by simulating three footing tests using finite-element analysis in which the models are implemented. All comparisons demonstrate the incorporation of nonlinear critical state line combined with the state parameter e/e _c in constitutive modeling can result in relatively more satisfied simulated results.     

A study on particle breakage behavior during pile penetration process using acoustic emission source location

Particle breakage is a common occurrence in granular systems when the external stress exceeds the individual particle strength.A large number of experimental evidences suggested that particle breakage may significantly influence the soil behavior.In the case of pile foundations,the subsoil below the pile tip experiences considerable high stress and consequently prone to break.Due to the lack of sufficient understanding on particle breakage mechanism,there is currently no consentaneous theoretical background for particle breakage analysis during the pile penetration process.This study aims to clarify the location of particle breakage and its evolving characteristics with the aid of acoustic emission(AE)source location method.The spatial distribution of AE hypocenters is interpreted to be associated with the mechanism of particle breakage.Results showed that the AE sources were not uniformly distributed,but concentrated within certain zones below the pile tip.This AE concentration zone was pushed downward with the advancing pile tip,and its distance from the real time pile tip position decreased after certain depth of pile penetration.The location of particle breakage interpreted from AE source location was verified with posttest excavations and the insights on the particle breakage evolution zone were further discussed.     

考虑颗粒破碎的钙质砂修正邓肯-张E-B模型

在常规应力水平下颗粒发生破碎是钙质砂有别于其他砂土的重要性质之一,且由于颗粒破碎的存在,使用传统的本构模型无法很好地模拟钙质砂的力学行为。因此本文以最为普及的本构模型之一--邓肯-张E-B模型为基础,对其进行颗粒破碎方面的修正以得到一个能用于钙质砂的本构模型。具体方法为:首先本文采用Hardin提出的相对破碎Br这一指标来度量颗粒破碎的大小。之后研究分析得出了颗粒破碎对邓肯-张模型参数(内摩擦角φ、割线模量E50及体积模量B)的影响规律。然后通过颗粒破碎与输入能量之间的关系将各状态下无法直接确定的相对破碎Br与可确定的应力-应变状态联系起来。最终得到了一个考虑颗粒破碎的钙质砂修正邓肯-张E-B模型。为验证模型的准确性及适用性,本文还使用该模型对4种不同粒径范围且试验围压不同的钙质砂的三轴排水行为进行了模拟。结果表明拟合效果较好,模型能适用于各种不同粒径范围的钙质砂,并且在颗粒破碎较大的情况下明显优于传统邓肯-张模型。     

A constitutive model for coal-fouled ballast capturing the effects of particle degradation

Rail tracks undergo degradation owing to particle breakage and fouling of ballast by various fines including coal and subgrade soil. As the ballast becomes fouled, its strength and drainage capacity are compromised, sometimes resulting in differential settlement and reduced track stability. This paper demonstrates a continuum mechanics based framework to evaluate the detrimental effect of fines on the strength, deformation and degradation of coal-fouled ballast under monotonic loading. An elastoplastic constitutive model that considers the effect of fines content and energy consumption associated with particle breakage during shearing is presented. This multiphase constitutive model is developed within a critical state framework based on a kinematic-type yield locus and a modified stress-dilatancy approach. A general formulation for the rate of ballast breakage and coal particle breakage during triaxial shearing is presented and incorporated into the plastic flow rule to accurately predict the stress–strain response of coal-fouled ballast at various confining pressures. The behaviour of ballast at various levels of fouling is analysed and validated by experimental data.     

Constitutive description of interface behavior including cyclic loading and particle breakage within the framework of critical state soil mechanics

The cyclic behavior of soil–structure interface can be very important in dynamic problems. The cyclic behavior of soil–structure interface may be nonlinear, which includes hysteresis, hardening, degradation, and particle breakage. The breakage of granular soil particles during shearing of granular soil–structure interface is associated with cyclic degradation and can be critical to the dynamic behavior of soil–structure system. The critical state soil mechanics concept formerly used to simulate the nonlinear monotonic behavior of granular soil–structure interface was modified and extended to describe the cyclic behavior, especially soil‐particle breakage and degradation during cyclic shearing. Soil‐particle breakage was assumed to relate to the energy consumption during cyclic shearing and the critical state line of the soil–structure interface was assumed to translate with the consumption of shearing energy during cyclic shearing as the threshold value is attained. The model was formulated in the framework of generalized plasticity and is capable of describing the salient features of granular soil–structure interface under cyclic loading. Most of the model parameters have straightforward physical meanings and are calibrated using monotonic or cyclic interface test results. The proposed model was calibrated and validated against published test results. The dependency of interface behavior on stress path and cyclic degradation can be successfully described by the proposed model. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A visco‐elasto‐plastic model for granular materials under simple shear conditions

The numerical simulation of rapid landslides is quite complex mainly because constitutive models capable of simulating the mechanical behaviour of granular materials in the pre‐collapse and post‐collapse regimes are still missing. The goal of this paper is to introduce a constitutive model capable of capturing the response of dry granular flows from quasi‐static to dynamic conditions, in particular when the material experiences a sort of solid‐to‐fluid phase transition. An ideal assembly of identical spheres under simple shear conditions is considered. In the constitutive model, void ratio and granular temperature have been chosen as state variables, and both shear and normal stresses are computed as the sum of two contributions: the quasi‐static one and the collisional one. The former is determined by using a perfect elasto‐plastic model including the critical state concept, while the latter is derived from the kinetic theory of granular gases. The evolution of the granular temperature, fundamentally governing the material phase transition, is obtained by imposing the kinetic fluctuating energy balance. The constitutive relationship has been integrated, under both constant pressure and constant volume conditions, and the influence of shear strain rate, initial void ratio and normal pressure on the mechanical response has been investigated. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

单一粒径组颗粒材料破碎规律及破碎极限研究

岩土材料颗粒破碎演化规律是颗粒破碎过程复杂性的集中体现,对单一粒径组颗粒材料破碎规律的研究是进行多粒径组颗粒材料破碎规律的基础。从概率统计角度入手,先对前期研究中所提出的描述单一粒径组颗粒材料破碎规律的3个参数-破碎概率p、破碎状态参数a、b的演化规律进行了研究。通过对3组不同类型（不同试验材料、试验类型）的试验数据的研究,发现随着破碎的发展3个参数趋于定值,表明破碎极限的存在。基于上述研究,最后提出了计算单一粒径组颗粒材料破碎极限的方法,分别得到了3组试样的最终分形维数分别为2.3、2.34、2.28。