283.
Experimental observations have shown that the resilient modulus Mr of fine/coarse soil mixture can be significantly affected by the coarse grain content fv, deviator stress σd and suction \(\psi\). In this study, a constitutive model incorporating the soil–water retention curve (SWRC) was proposed to describe the effects of \(\psi\) and \(\sigma_{{\text{d}}}\) on Mr. This model was then extended to the effect of fv. The proposed model implied the resilient modulus at saturation condition (Mr-sat), the resilient modulus at optimum moisture content (OMC) condition (Mr-opt), the suction at OMC (\(\psi_{{{\text{opt}}}}\)) and the parameters related to SWRC. The model was validated using experimental data from five studies reported in the literature. Comparisons with three representative existing models showed that the proposed model was capable to well describe the suction-dependent effect of deviator stress in the full range of suction, while the existing models gave satisfactory simulation results only in the low suction range. Indeed, experimental studies revealed that there was a threshold suction \(\psi_{{{\text{th}}}}\), and with increasing \(\sigma_{{\text{d}}}\), the Mr decreased when \(\psi < \psi_{{{\text{th}}}}\), but increased when \(\psi > \psi_{{{\text{th}}}}\). When \(\psi < \psi_{{{\text{th}}}}\), all models gave good simulations. On the contrary, when \(\psi > \psi_{{{\text{th}}}}\), only the proposed model gave good simulations, in particular when \(\psi_{{{\text{th}}}} > \psi_{{{\text{opt}}}}\). This showed the performance of the proposed model in describing the variation in resilient modulus of unsaturated fine/coarse soil mixtures with changes in coarse grain content, deviator stress and suction.
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