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.     

A virtual experiment technique on the elementary behaviour of granular materials with discrete element method

Multi‐scale investigations aided by the discrete element method (DEM) play a vital role for current state‐of‐the‐art research on the elementary behaviour of granular materials. Similar to laboratory tests, there are three important aspects to be considered carefully, which are the proper stress/strain definition and measurement, the application of target loading paths and the designed experiment setup, to be addressed in the present paper. Considering the volume sensitive characteristics of granular materials, in the proposed technique, the deformation of the tested specimen is controlled and measured by deformation gradient tensor involving both the undeformed configuration and the current configuration. Definitions of Biot strain and Cauchy stress are adopted. The expressions of them in terms of contact forces and particle displacements, respectively, are derived. The boundary of the tested specimen consists of rigid massless planar units. It is suggested that the representative element uses a convex polyhedral (polygonal) shape to minimize possible boundary arching effects. General loading paths are described by directly specifying the changes in the stress/strain invariants or directions. Loading can be applied in the strain‐controlled mode by specifying the translations and rotations of the boundary units, or in the stress‐controlled mode by using a servo‐control mechanism, or in the combination of the two methods to realize mixed boundary conditions. Taking the simulation results as the natural consequences originated from a complex system, virtual experiments provide particle‐scale information database to conduct multi‐scale investigations for better understanding in granular material behaviours and possible development of the constitutive theories provided the qualitative similarity between the simulation results from virtual experiments and observations on real material behaviour. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determination of the constriction size distribution of granular filters by filtration tests

This paper presents the calibration of an experiment based on filtration tests, able to provide the cumulative constriction size distribution of granular materials. Here, simulations of these tests are performed using a discrete element method. Filters of same density but different thicknesses are created with a poly‐sized spherical material. Lateral periodic boundaries for the samples are used, and their size is calibrated so that a representative elementary volume is obtained. Fine particles are released on the created samples, and the particle size distribution of the collected material that successfully crossed the filters is computed. These particle size distributions are related to the underlying cumulative constriction size distribution (CSD) of the granular material involved in the samples. The CSD is derived using a probabilistic approach for the path length of individual particles through a granular material. We settle all the requisites related to the technique and to the fine particles that are released to allow reaching a correct CSD for the filter. The reference CSD used for the calibration of the experiment is obtained after a radical partition of the void space into Delaunay tetrahedra and a geometrical characterisation of constrictions on each tetrahedron face. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

强质子耀斑活动区的形态和旋转特征

本文研究结果表明：同一黑子群在日面期间的顺或反时针方向的旋转运动会先后并存．质子耀斑前1～2无，黑子群的旋转角速度达到极大．耀斑后，磁绳的松弛，黑子群可能会反向旋转，强的剪切过程和质子耀斑可能会再度出现．强质子耀斑活动区的共同特征是：（1）形态为单个团状结构δ型黑子，即众多异极性本影核紧锁在同一黑子半影中；（2）黑子面积＞1000×10－6半球面积，日面跨度＞10°；（3）黑子群都有快速的旋转运动．这类活动区，如果在日面西部活动性明显地增强，那么这个活动区在未来转到日面边缘及其背后、或再次从日面东边缘转出时，定能再次爆发耀斑和伴随较强质子事件。     

Effective properties of a cemented or an injected granular material

In this paper the macroscopic elastic properties of injected or cemented sands are derived from the characteristics of the constituents and the analysis of the microstructure using a multi‐scale modelling approach. Particular interest is given to the choice of the representative elementary volume, by relying on existing microstructural data. The periodic homogenization is adopted and required numerical solutions are performed by the finite element method. An assessment of the validity of the multi‐scale approach is achieved through comparison with theoretical and experimental results on cemented and injected granular media reported in the literature. The capabilities of the model are also used to investigate the influence of geometrical and mechanical microscale parameters on the macroscopic behaviour of the treated materials. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

干湿循环与初始静偏应力耦合作用下城市污泥固化土动力累积变形特性

城市污泥固化土用作路基填料,对于节约工程成本、保护环境等具有重要意义。本文以城市污泥固化土为研究对象,利用DDS动三轴仪,从干湿循环次数、初始静偏应力、动应力3个方面研究其对累积塑性应变及动强度特性的影响。试验结果表明:在干湿循环单独作用下,土体累积塑性应变随干湿循环次数的增加先增大后趋于稳定,但与初始静偏应力耦合作用下对土体累积塑性应变的影响不太显著。动应力对其影响较大,且存在临界值:当动应力小于临界值时,累积塑性应变呈现出先增大后逐渐稳定的趋势; 当动应力大于临界值时,累积塑性应变在达到某一振次后快速增大,土体迅速产生变形破坏。干湿循环与初始静偏应力都会降低土体的动强度,但干湿循环在达到10次后,动强度将趋于平稳,不再受其影响。通过回归分析,建立了考虑干湿循环次数、初始静偏应力及动应力等因素影响的城市污泥固化土稳定型累积塑性应变模型,并验证了其可行性。     

Transformation of ammonium nitrogen and response characteristics of nitrifying functional genes in tannery sludge contaminated soil

High concentrations of ammonium nitrogen released from tannery sludge during storage in open air may cause nitrogen pollution to soil and groundwater. To study the transformation mechanism of NH₄⁺-N by nitrifying functional bacteria in tannery sludge contaminated soils, a series of contaminated soil culture experiments were conducted in this study. The contents of ammonium nitrogen (as NH₄⁺-N), nitrite nitrogen (as NO₂^?-N) and nitrate nitrogen (as NO₃^?-N) were analyzed during the culture period under different conditions of pollution load, soil particle and redox environment. Sigmodial equation was used to interpret the change of NO₃^?-N with time in contaminated soils. The abundance variations of nitrifying functional genes (amoA and nxrA) were also detected using the real-time quantitative fluorescence PCR method. The results show that the nitrification of NH₄⁺-N was aggravated in the contaminated silt soil and fine sand under the condition of lower pollution load, finer particle size and more oxidizing environment. The sigmodial equation well fitted the dynamic accumulation curve of the NO₃^?-N content in the tannery sludge contaminated soils. The Cr(III) content increased with increasing pollution load, which inhibited the reproduction and activity of nitrifying bacteria in the soils, especially in coarse-grained soil. The accumulation of NO₂^?-N contents became more obvious with the increase of pollution load in the fine sand, and only 41.5% of the NH₄⁺-N was transformed to NO₃^?-N. The redox environment was the main factor affecting nitrification process in the soil. Compared to the aerobic soil environment, the transformation of NH₄⁺-N was significantly inhibited under anaerobic incubation condition, and the NO₃^?-N contents decreased by 37.2%, 61.9% and 91.9% under low, medium and high pollution loads, respectively. Nitrification was stronger in the silt soil since its copy number of amoA and nxrA genes was two times larger than that of fine sand. Moreover, the copy numbers of amoA and nxrA genes in the silt soil under the aerobic environment were 2.7 times and 2.2 times larger than those in the anaerobic environment. The abundance changes of the amoA and nxrA functional genes have a positive correlation with the nitrification intensity in the tannery sludge-contaminated soil.     

冻融作用下污泥固化轻质土动力特性及结构演化

冻融作用会影响污泥固化轻质土动力特性和结构特性。为研究不同冻融循环次数和冻结温度下的污泥固化轻质土动力特性及结构演化,对冻融循环作用后的污泥固化轻质土进行动三轴试验和固结试验。试验结果表明:在冻融循环作用下,污泥固化轻质土动应力-应变曲线呈弱应变硬化型。污泥固化轻质土动强度和变形随着冻融次数（n）的增加和冻结温度（T）的降低而减小。经历前4次冻融作用后,对固化土变形和动强度影响较大,经历8次冻融循环后基本趋于稳定。冻融循环对土体动力特性的影响本质上是对土体结构性的影响。固化土冻融结构势（m_dσn）的变化规律与动强度类似,随冻融次数的增加和冻结温度的降低而下降。冻融循环次数是影响污泥固化轻质土动力特性和结构性的主要因素,冻结温度为次要因素。     

陈化污泥理化特性对泥饼渗透性的影响研究

开展陈化污泥渗透特性研究对于填埋库污泥脱水减量作业具有重要指导意义。选取了8种不同陈化条件下的污泥,开展了压缩排水试验,测定了陈化污泥上清液中可溶性有机物含量和类型,以及陈化污泥聚合体粒径分布与滤液的Zeta电位,并通过皮尔逊相关性分析研究了陈化污泥各物理化学特性间的相互作用。结果表明,随着上清液中可溶性有机物含量的减少、相对腐质化程度的增高与滤液Zeta电位绝对值的增大,陈化污泥的可渗透性增大。同时,当陈化污泥聚合体趋于稳定和粒径增大时,包裹在聚合体中的有机物不易释放到上清液中,陈化污泥可渗透性增大。另外,由于陈化环境的影响,陈化污泥总有机含量变化与上清液中有机物含量变化缺乏一致性,依据陈化污泥有机质含量判断渗透性会造成错误。最后,建立了陈化污泥比阻的影响模型,对于预处理过程中如何改善陈化污泥渗透性具有参考意义。     

基于复杂网络的岩土颗粒材料分散性失稳先兆研究

岩土颗粒材料在达到Mohr-Coulomb塑性极限之前可能已经发生了没有明显局部损伤的全域准均匀破坏,即分散性失稳。近年来,网络科学工具在颗粒材料环境中的应用为研究其失稳破坏现象提供了有趣新颖的洞见。采用离散单元法对不同初始密实度的颗粒体系进行等体积应变加载路径的数值试验,发现初始状态越松散的颗粒体系越有可能发生分散性失稳;采用网络科学的理论和方法分析颗粒接触网络的拓扑结构特性和演化规律,发现颗粒材料分散性失稳的结构根源是颗粒接触网络完全崩塌。将颗粒体系划分为强、弱接触系统以构建强接触子网络、弱接触子网络和强−弱接触子网络,研究颗粒接触网络及其3个子网络的特征量演化,结果表明：当颗粒材料开始处于不稳定状态时,易受扰动的弱接触系统的部分接触先失效,导致强接触系统失去其稳定支撑作用而降低承载能力。随着加载的继续,系统通过非局部的自组织过程导致接触结构的全面崩塌,最终触发整体分散性失稳。因此,先于整体失稳的部分弱接触的失效,可视为颗粒材料分散性失稳的关键性临界征兆。