Discrete numerical modeling of granular materials considering crushability

The aim of this study is to numerically investigate the influence of particle breakage on the mechanical behavior of granular materials using a discrete element method (DEM). To enable particle crushing, non-crushable elementary particles are boned together to represents the granular aggregates which can be crushed when the external force exceeds its strength. The flaw of the aggregate was also modeled by randomly distributed void. Single particle crushing tests were carried out to determine the distribution of particle strength. The results of single particle crushing tests illustrate that the simulated single particle fracture strength and pattern agree well with the Weibull’s distribution equation. Conventional oedometer tests, drained monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests were also carried out to investigate the crushing of the aggregates and the associated mechanical behaviors. The effect of confining pressure on the crushing of aggregates and the mechanical behavior was also analyzed. It was found that the peak stress and dilation decrease significantly when particle crushing was considered. The deformation behavior of the specimen is essentially controlled by two factors: particle rearrangement - induced dilation and particle crushing - induced contraction. The increase of permanent strain and the reduction of dilation were observed during cyclic loading and they tend to reach a stable state after a certain number of cycles. The crushing of aggregate is most significant in the first two cycles. The results also indicated that for the same axial strain the volumetric strain and the bound breakage in the cyclic loading tests are significantly larger than that in the monotonic loading tests, especially at high cyclic stress ratio.     

High-Speed Ring Shear Tests to Study the Motion and Acceleration Processes of the Yingong Landslide

In this paper, the motion and acceleration process, as well as the mechanism of a high speed and long run landslide are investigated by adopting high speed ring shear test and taking the landslide occurred at Yigong River in Bomi, Tibet on April 9, 2000 as the background. According to the motion characteristics of high-speed and long distance motion landside, the mechanism is studied under different conditions such as shear speed, consolidated drained and consolidated undrained status. Results show that high speed shearing process hinders and delays the dissipation of pore pressure, and drives pore water migrating to shear zone slowly. Both of water content and fine particle content at shear zone are obviously higher than those in other layers; and soil liquefaction occurs at shear zone in the saturated consolidated undrained ring shear tests. The effective internal friction angle of the consolidated undrained soil is much lower than that of the consolidated drained soil under ring shearing. The results also indicate that the shearing speed affecting the strength of soil to some extent. The higher the ring shearing speed is, the lower the strength of soil is. This investigation provides a preliminary interpretation of the mechanism of the motion and acceleration process of the Yigong landslide, occurred in Tibet in 2000.     

浸泡作用下碎石土剪切强度衰减规律及机理

水库蓄水后, 滑坡体碎石土经受长时期的浸泡, 力学性质发生改变, 从而影响滑坡整体稳定性。为探究浸泡对碎石土力学性质的影响规律, 选取三峡库区马家沟滑坡后缘未经受长期浸泡作用的碎石土进行大型直剪试验, 分析了不同浸泡天数下碎石土的剪切力学性质。试验结果表明: 浸泡40 d后, 碎石土黏聚力下降幅度达39%, 内摩擦角下降幅度为8.3%;碎石土黏聚力在浸泡前期快速下降, 下降速率随浸泡天数增加而降低, 浸泡20 d后, 黏聚力基本达到稳定。为探究碎石土抗剪强度降低的原因和机理, 对粉质黏土(碎石土细粒成分)进行了三轴剪切试验、激光粒度分析及浸出液阳离子分析等试验, 揭示了碎石土抗剪强度的衰减机理为: 浸泡作用下, 碎石土中的粉质黏土发生矿物溶解、离子交换与吸附作用, 土体中大颗粒细化, 胶结作用减弱, 进而导致碎石土整体抗剪强度降低。研究结果对库区碎石土滑坡评价与治理具有一定的指导意义。      

Shear strength features of soils developed from purple clay rock and containing less than two-millimeter rock fragments

Soil shear strength is an important indicator of engineering design and an essential parameter of soil precision tillage and agricultural machinery and equipment design. Although numerous studies have investigated the characteristics of different soil shear strengths, only a few of these works have paid attention to soils containing considerable quantities of rock fragments. To date, most studies on the effects of rock fragments on the shear strength have paid attention to the role of rock fragments with sizes >2 mm. The effects of rock fragments <2 mm in soil are generally ignored. Similar to rock fragments >2 mm, the presence of rock fragments <2 mm could also change the mechanical properties of soils. Thus, in the present study we evaluated the potential influence of <2 mm rock fragments on soil shear strength via an unconsolidated undrained (UU) triaxial compression test. Our results were as follows: (1) A certain quantity of <2 mm rock fragments presented in purple soils developed from clay rocks; and an appropriate quantity of <2 mm rock fragments could improve the shear strength of soils. (2) The different PSDs of soils containing <2 mm rock fragments mainly caused variations in the internal friction angle of soils. (3) The shear strengths of the two mudstone-developed red-brown and gray-brown purple soils was more sensitive to water than that of the shale-developed coarse-dark purple soil. As the soil water content increased from 9% to 23%, the changes in the cohesion, internal friction angle, shear strength, and the maximum principal stress difference were smaller in the coarse dark purple soil than in the two other soils. We therefore concluded that <2 mm rock fragments in purple soils exerted important effects on soil shear strength. A better understanding of the differences among the shear strength features of purple soils could help improve the design of agricultural machinery and equipment.     

Cohesion variation during instability evolution of disaster medium in mud inrush of mountain tunnel

Mud inrush in mountain tunnel is an independent geological hazard type different from water inrush, landslide and debris flow. The intrinsic factor of mud inrush is the instability failure of disaster medium. Its essence is that when the cohesion decreases gradually with the increase of void ratio to the point where the movement of soil particles cannot be restricted, soil particles and groundwater form slurry and gush out. Thus, accurate calculation of cohesion with variable void ratios is crucial for analyzing the reliability of disaster medium. In this study, the disaster medium was regarded as graded soil and a structural model was established wherein soil particles were simplified as cubes and the interparticle pores were represented by the clearance between cubes. On the basis of the structure model of disaster medium, a function between the soil particle distance and void ratio was derived. Cohesion is equivalent to the resultant force between soil particles per unit area; thus, a cohesion function was derived in which the void ratio is the main variable. This function considers the influence of gradationcharacteristics on cohesion variation and is generally applicable to various types of disaster medium. A series of direct shear tests were carried out to determine the cohesion variation for different types of disaster medium with variable void ratios. By comparing the variation of cohesion obtained through direct shear tests with those deduced by the proposed cohesion function, we verified the validity and general applicability of the cohesion function. It is of great significance because the cohesion function can accurately predict the variation of cohesion by using the void ratio, and effectively evaluate the possibility of mud inrush according to the initial mechanical properties of disaster medium.     

砂土与混凝土顶管界面摩擦特性试验研究

为了揭示不同工况下混凝土顶管-砂土接触面剪切摩擦特性,确定管土、管浆摩擦系数,为顶管施工参数的选取及顶进力的计算提供指导与参考。采用直剪试验研究了5种砂土在不同法向压力、不同剪切速率及不同润滑状态下与混凝土管接触面的摩擦特性。试验结果表明:随着砂土颗粒粒径的增加,砂土与混凝土接触面剪切应力稳定值降低。随着法向应力的增加,砂土界面剪切应力达到峰值或稳定值时的剪切位移增加,同时界面剪切应力-剪切位移曲线的应变软化特性逐渐减弱,应变硬化趋势逐渐增强。无润滑条件下,随着法向应力的增加,剪切应力稳定值增量基本保持稳定或略有降低,泥浆润滑条件下,剪切应力稳定值增量增大;在较低法向压力下剪切速率对砂土剪切应力的影响较小;泥浆润滑条件下,砂土与混凝土接触面剪切应力可降低70%~80%,随着法向应力的增加,润滑效果降低。      

冲击作用下饱和土性状的试验研究

在三轴条件下,对饱和土(砂土和黏土)进行排水与不排水条件下的冲击试验及冲击后再固结试验,对比研究了不同渗透性土在不同排水条件下的冲击动力响应和冲击后再固结性状.结果表明:饱和黏土不排水冲击时的孔隙水压力随冲击击数增加而升高并逐渐稳定,排水冲击时的孔隙水压力则是先达到峰值然后有所下降;砂土不排水冲击时的冲击能量对孔隙水压力影响最明显;饱和砂土不排水冲击时的轴向应变与冲击击数呈近似线性关系,饱和黏土冲击及饱和砂土排水冲击则呈近二次曲线关系;饱和砂土不排水冲击后再固结阶段的孔隙水压力立即消散为0,同时体变迅速增大到一定值;饱和黏土在冲击后再固结阶段的孔隙水压力在一定时间内逐渐消散完毕,同时体变逐渐增大;饱和黏土排水冲击时,冲击阶段产生的体变占冲击引起总体变的39%~49%,冲击后再固结阶段产生的体变占51%~61%;砂土和黏土的总体变均表现为排水冲击明显大于不排水冲击,改善冲击时的排水条件有利于提高加固效果.     

Influences of soil moisture and salt content on loess shear strength in the Xining Basin,northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Moisture and salt content of soil are the two predominant factors influencing its shear strength. This study aims to investigate the effects of these two factors on shear strength behavior of loess in the Xining Basin of Northeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where such geological hazards as soil erosion, landslides collapse and debris flows are widespread due to the highly erodible loess. Salinized loess soil collected from the test site was desalinized through salt-leaching in the laboratory. The desalinized and oven-dried loess samples were also artificially moisturized and salinized in order to examine how soil salinity affects its shear strength at different moisture levels. Soil samples prepared in different ways(moisturizing, salt-leaching, and salinized) were measured to determine soil cohesion and internal friction angle. The results show that salt-leaching up to 18 rounds almost completely removed the salt content and considerably changed the physical components of loess, but the soil type remained unchanged. As salt content increases from 0.00% to 12.00%, both the cohesion and internal friction angle exhibit an initial decrease and then increase with salt content. As moisture content is 12.00%, the salt content threshold value for both cohesion and internal friction angle is identified as 3.00%. As the moisture content rises to 16.0% and 20.00%, the salt content threshold value for cohesion is still 6.00%, but 3.00% for internal friction angle. At these thresholds soil shear strength is the lowest, below which it is inversely related to soil salinity. Beyond the thresholds, however, the relationship is positive. Dissimilar to salinity, soil moisture content exerts an adverse effect on shear strength of loess. The findings of this study can provide a valuable guidance on stabilizing the engineering properties of salinized loess to prevent slope failures during heavy rainfall events.     

强夯法加固河堤地基的效果分析—以日东高速济宁西连接线为例

以日东高速济宁西连接线K11段强夯为例,对强夯前后的河堤地基进行了对比勘察研究。结果表明,强夯后,地基土的密实度,重度及干重度增加,孔隙比、粘聚力、内磨擦角、压缩模量明显比强夯前减小,同一深度土层标贯击数有所增加,土的锥尖阻力和侧摩阻力也有不同程度的提高,对比不同深度孔隙比变化的幅度和强夯前后锥尖阻力和侧摩阻力变化曲线,得出了强夯的有效加固深度。     

Characteristics of vibration liquefaction of saturated medium sandy soil with silt

In order to understand and master the dynamic characteristics of sandy soil with different silt contents, the authors carried out many indoor dynamic triaxial tests for five groups of sandy with silt which took from Panjin and Xiamen. Under the conditions of consolidation pressure of 100 kPa, 200 kPa, 300 kPa, stationary vibration frequency H=1 and cyclic loading, the authors found that the effective cohesion increases and the effective internal friction angle decreases with the increase of the silt contents. During the liquefied scope, the cementation and the strength have been increased with the increase of the silt contents.     

水泥固化剂提高风积沙承载性能试验

沙漠风积沙稳定性差, 采用水泥作为固化剂进行风积沙固化, 是改善风积沙性质和实现风积沙资源化利用的有效手段。以取自内蒙古库布齐沙漠的风积沙为材料, 制备3%含水量的重塑风积沙, 掺入水泥固化剂并充分拌匀而形成固化风积沙, 开展水泥固化风积沙的抗剪、抗压和抗拔承载性能试验。结果表明, 水泥掺量对固化风积沙黏聚强度的提高程度要大于内摩擦角。含水量3%的风积沙掺入6%的水泥经28 d常温养护的固化风积沙无侧限抗压强度平均值为0.156 MPa。固化风积沙扩展基础抗拔荷载-位移曲线呈现初始弹性段至峰值荷载以及峰值荷载后破坏的两阶段脆性破坏特征。水泥固化提高风积沙抗拔承载性能效果显著, 且与基础底板尺寸、抗拔埋深及基础深宽比等因素有关。      

Effect of clay content to the strength of gravel soil in the source region of debris flow

The production of runoff in the source area of a debris flow is the consequence of a reduction in soil strength. Gravel soil is widely distributed in the source region, and the influence of its clay content on soil strength is one of the important questions regarding the formation mechanism of debris flows. In this paper, the clay content in gravel soil is divided into groups of low clay content(1%, 2, 5%), moderate clay content(3.75%, 5.00%, 6.25%, 7.5%) and high clay content(10.0%, 12.5%, 15%). Tests of the unconsolidated undrained shear strength and consolidated drained shear strength were performed. The unconsolidated undrained shearing(UU) experiment simulates the rapid shear failure of loose gravel soil under the conditions of brief heavy rainfall. The consolidated drained shearing(CD) experiment simulates creep failure of consolidated sediment during extended rainfall. The pore water pressure first increased and then decreased as the clay content increased, and the increase in pore pressure was relatively high in the gravel soil sample when the clay content is in the range of 3.25-7.50%, and stress in the gravel soil is relatively low for a moderate clay content. Gravelly soils with a moderate clay content are moreprone to debris-flow initiation. This paper presents a mathematical formula for the maximum shear stress and clay content of gravel soil under two conditions. The key processes whereby the soil fails and triggers a debris flow—volume contraction of soil, expansion of clay soil, and rise of pore pressure―cause reductions in the soil friction force and enhancement of the water content in the clay particles, and subsurface erosion of soil reduces the soil viscosity, which eventually reduces the soil strength so that the soil loses its stability, liquefies and generates a debris flow.     

盾构施工对既有建(构)筑地基承载力影响及加固土体稳定性分析

针对目前盾构施工既有建（构）筑地基加固依靠经验,缺乏完善理论作为支撑的现象,有必要研究盾构掘进中、离开后既有建（构）筑地基承载力影响机理及加固后土体稳定性。为了解水泥土加固体的受剪工作状态,开展水泥土三轴试验,结果表明,当偏应力达到屈服之前,（σ₁-σ₃）-ε₁关系近似直线,应变很小,且加固体与未加固土抗剪强度相差甚远,稳定性分析时,不考虑加固体位移及其外侧未加固土对剪力的分担。盾构掘进中,其周围土体受到挤压产生的剪应力,扩散至桩侧形成附加正摩阻力,基桩承载力提高;盾构离开后土体卸荷,桩侧产生负摩阻力,基桩承载力降低。盾构施工中加固体上段内侧受被动或主动土压力,外侧及下段受静止土压力,土压力差产生剪应力,潜在滑动界面产生拉、压应力,并导出加固后土体复合滑动面安全系数公式,通过工程实例验算加固体强度及加固后土体的稳定性。      

考虑含水率对人工冻结红黏土力学特性的影响

在冻结法施工中, 冻土的强度及变形特性对冻结壁的稳定性至关重要。为了研究不同含水率对冻结作用下土的强度和蠕变的影响, 以江西红黏土为研究对象, 通过冻结三轴试验, 在-10℃下研究含水率对冻结红黏土强度及蠕变特征的影响。试验结果表明: 16%~32%含水率范围内, 冻结红黏土的抗压强度随含水率的增加先增大后减小; 16%~28%含水率范围内, 随着含水率增大, 其黏聚力逐渐增大, 内摩擦角逐渐减小; 围压为0.2 MPa与0.5 MPa下的蠕变曲线都显示含水率较低时只会出现衰减蠕变阶段和稳定蠕变阶段, 含水率较高时会出现加速蠕变阶段。含水率对红黏土的力学性质影响较大, 研究成果可为江西地区红黏土地层地铁隧道建设人工冻结法施工提供参考。      

Intermittent slipping of landslide regulated by dilatancy evolution and velocity-weakening friction law: an efficient numerical scheme

When a block of dense sandy soil moves downhill, the shear-induced soil dilatancy along the basal shear boundary produces a negative value of excess pore pressure that increases the basal frictional resistance. Dilatancy angle,Ψ, the degree to which the basal soil dilates due to the shear, normally evolves during slope failure. A study by other researchers shows that if Ψ is constant, the block of dense soil will remain stable(or unstable) sliding when the velocity-weakening rate of the basal friction coefficient of the block is small(or large) enough. Moreover, during unstable sliding processes, the block of dense soil exhibits "periodic" patterns of intermittent slipping. Here, we used a more efficient and accurate numerical scheme to revisit that study. We expanded their model by assuming Ψ evolves during slope failure. Consequently, we acquired completely different results. For instance, even though the velocity-weakening rate of the friction coefficient is fixed at the same smaller(or larger) value that those researchers use, the stable(or unstable) steady states of landslide they predict will inversely change to unstable(or stable) when Ψ decreases(or increases) with the increase of slide displacement to a value small(or large) enough. Particularly, in unstable processes, the soil block exhibits "aperiodic" styles of intermittent slipping, instead of "periodic". We found out that the stick states appearing later last longer(or shorter) in the case of decreasing(or increasing) Ψ. Moreover, because the basic states of landslides with impacts of dilatancy evolution are not steady nor periodic, traditional stability-analysis methods cannot be "directly" used to analyze the stability of such landslides. Here, we broke through this technical problem to a degree. We showed that combining a concept called "quasi-steady-state approximation" with a traditional stability-analysis technique can qualitatively predict the instability onset of the landslides. Through this study, we demonstrated that the combination of Chebyshev collocation(CC) and 4~(th)-order Runge-Kutta methods is more accurate and efficient than the numerical scheme those researchers use.     

The measure of friction angles for different types of granular material

The aim of this research is to deepen the knowledge of the role of friction on the dynamics of granular media; in particular the friction angle is taken into consideration as the physical parameter that drives stability, motion and deposition of a set of grains of any nature and size. The idea behind this work is a question: is the friction angle really that fundamental and obvious physical parameter which rules stability and motion of granular media as it seems from most works which deal with particle dynamics? The experimental study tries to answer this question with a series of laboratory tests, in which different natural and artificial granular materials have been investigated in dry condition by means of a tilting flume. The characteristic friction angles, both in deposition(repose) and stability limit(critical) conditions, were measured and checked against size, shape, density and roughness of the considered granular material. The flume tests have been preferred to "classical" geotechnical apparatuses(e.g. shear box) since the flume experimental conditions appear closer to the natural ones of many situations of slope stability interest(e.g. a scree slope). The results reveal that characteristic friction angles depend on size and shape of grains while mixtures of granules of different size show some sorting mechanism with less clear behaviour.     

泾河下游黄土台塬区侵蚀诱发滑坡机理

泾河下游黄土台塬区侵蚀诱发的黄土滑坡不仅威胁当地居民的生命财产安全,而且引发严重的水土流失及文物损毁等问题。以该类黄土滑坡为研究对象,在详细地质调查的基础上,取唐家村L2滑坡坡脚原状黄土进行减围压三轴剪切(RTC)试验,研究了饱和黄土的应力、孔压、围压特征以及剪切速率对土体力学行为的影响。结果表明,RTC应力路径下围压率达到0.55时,土体会因偏应力增大而引起塑性剪切破坏;同时,该应力路径下的饱和黄土内摩擦角很小,仅为10.7°;RTC应力路径下的破坏面,十分接近K 0状态面,说明天然斜坡坡脚饱和黄土在小幅水平应力降低条件下易于发生破坏,从而诱发滑坡失稳。     

Experimental analysis for the dynamic initiation mechanism of debris flows

Debris flow is one of the major secondary mountain hazards following the earthquake. This study explores the dynamic initiation mechanism of debris flows based on the strength reduction of soils through static and dynamic triaxial tests. A series of static and dynamic triaxial tests were conducted on samples in the lab. The samples were prepared according to different grain size distribution, degree of saturation and earthquake magnitudes. The relations of dynamic shear strength, degree of saturation, and number of cycles are summarized through analyzing experimental results. The findings show that the gravelly soil with a wide and continuous gradation has a critical degree of saturation of approximately 87%, above which debris flows will be triggered by rainfall, while the debris flow will be triggered at a critical degree of saturation of about 73% under the effect of rainfall and earthquake(M>6.5). Debris flow initiation is developed in the humidification process, and the earthquake provides energy for triggering debris flows. Debris flows are more likely to be triggered at the relatively low saturation under dynamic loading than under static loading. The resistance of debris flow triggering relies more on internal frication angle than soil cohesion under the effect of rainfall and earthquake. The conclusions provide an experimental analysis method for dynamic initiation mechanism of debris flows.     

长期静水浸泡对三峡库区滑带土物理-化学-力学性质的影响

三峡水库蓄水使得库岸大量土体长期处于浸泡状态,导致土体软化从而诱发滑坡失稳。为研究长期浸泡对滑坡土体物理-化学-力学性质的影响,以马家沟滑坡原状滑带土为对象开展了浸泡软化试验,通过比较不同浸泡时间滑带土的粒度分布、界限含水率、化学与矿物成分、剪切特性等特征,探讨了滑带土浸泡软化机理。研究结果表明:浸泡过程中滑带土中Ca2+、Mg2+等离子流失较多,但矿物成分无变化;浸泡后滑带土出现阶段性粒度细化现象,液塑限和塑性指数均随黏粒含量增加而增大;随着浸泡时间增加,滑带土应力应变关系在低法向应力下由强软化型变为弱软化型,在高法向应力下由软化型变为硬化型;滑带土抗剪强度参数随着浸泡时间增加呈指数形式降低,黏聚力c降低程度大于内摩擦角φ。研究成果可以为水库滑坡稳定性评价提供理论依据。      

Landslides & debris flows formation from gravelly soil surface erosion and particle losses in Jiangjia Ravine

Gravelly soils are made up of gravel, sand, silt and clay. They are widely used in engineering applications such as rock-fill dams with clay cores, which are the main researches at present. The strength and mechanical properties of the gravelly soils are affected by the content of coarse grain, fine particles, and their adhesive states. These Properties can be verified by laboratory unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests with grain size less than 5 mm and by large scale direct-shear tests with original grain content. Fine particles of the loose gravelly slopes are released under rainfalls, alternated the structures and mechanical properties, even affected the slope stability. There are a series of large scale direct-shear tests with different coarse grain contents to study the influence of fine particles releasing and migration, results showed the strength behavior of the gravelly soils were affected by the coarse grain content （5） and the inflection coarse grain contents. In order to study the erosion features of the gravelly soil slopes on rainfall conditions and the slopes stability alteration, we had carried out one sort of artificial rainfall local and model experiments, the runoff sediment contents were monitored during the experiments. Result showed that the shapes of the slopes surface transformed periodically, runoff sediment contents were divided into five phases according to the experiment phenomena, runoff sediment contents maintained downtrend during the rain time and the downtrend was obviouslyinterpreted by one descend belt no matter the rainfall intensity and the slope angels. Particle size analysis released the deposit on the slope surface lost almost all of the clay, most of the silt and sand after the experiments, this meant the fine particles releasing, migration and accumulation process on condition of rainfall resulted in the instability factor of the slopes even induced landslide or debris flow.