Maximum and minimum void ratios (emax and emin) of granular soils are commonly used as indicators of many engineering properties. However, few methods, apart from laboratory tests, are available to provide a rapid estimation of both emax and emin. In this study, we present a theoretical model to map the densest and the loosest packing configurations of granular soils onto the void space. A corresponding numerical procedure that can predict both emax and emin of granular soils with arbitrary grain size distributions is proposed. The capacity of the proposed method is evaluated by predicting the maximum and minimum void ratios of medium to fine mixed graded sands with different contents of fines. The influence of the grain size distribution, characterized quantitatively by uniformity parameter and the fractal dimension, on emax and emin is discussed using the proposed method. Moreover, application of this method in understanding the controlling mechanism for the void ratio change during grain crushing is presented.
On July 4, 2006, an earthquake of MS5.1 took place in Wen’an, Hebei Province, just at the south center of China’s Capital Circle area digital seismograph network. It is the strongest event recorded ever since the network went into operation in 2002. We processed the vast amounts of phase data yielded by the 107 digital seismic stations between 2002~2007 using Wadati method. In order to improve the precision and stability of shear and compressional wave velocities (vP/vS) calculation, we impose a number of restrictions on the computation environment and condition, e.g., the earthquakes are densely concentrated, selected stations are limited in range, the number of stations in- volved in the computation is larger than 5 and linear fitting features high precision and small error. Under these restrictions, the study shows that vP/vS in and around Wen’an and Tangshan underwent a normal-low-normal proc- ess one year before Wen’an earthquake, vP/vS became obviously low and the low ratio lasted for about one year, meanwhile, little variation of vP/vS was seen in Xingtai, northwest of Beijing, southwest of Beijing, Beijing-Tianjin and Beijing; after the quake, the vP/vS returned normal in Wen’an and Tangshan. Error and stability analysis of the calculated result for vP/vS shows it is convincible that anomaly appeared in and around Wen’an and Tangshan be- fore Wen’an earthquake. 相似文献