Low-order stabilized finite element for the full Biot formulation in soil mechanics at finite strain

This article presents a novel finite element formulation for the Biot equation using low-order elements. Additionally, an extra degree of freedom is introduced to treat the volumetric locking steaming from the effective response of the medium; its balance equation is also stabilized. The accuracy of the proposed formulation is demonstrated by means of numerical analyses.     

Semi‐analytical solution to one‐dimensional consolidation for unsaturated soils with semi‐permeable drainage boundary under time‐dependent loading

This paper presents semi‐analytical solutions to Fredlund and Hasan's one‐dimensional consolidation of unsaturated soils with semi‐permeable drainage boundary under time‐dependent loadings. Two variables are introduced to transform two coupled governing equations of pore‐water and pore‐air pressures into an equivalent set of partial differential equations, which are easily solved by the Laplace transform. The pore‐water pressure, pore‐air pressure and settlement are obtained in the Laplace domain. Crump's method is adopted to perform the inverse Laplace transform in order to obtain semi‐analytical solutions in time domain. It is shown that the present solutions are more general and have a good agreement with the existing solutions from literatures. Furthermore, the current solutions can also be degenerated into conventional solutions to one‐dimensional consolidation of unsaturated soils with homogeneous boundaries. Finally, several numerical examples are provided to illustrate consolidation behavior of unsaturated soils under four types of time‐dependent loadings, including instantaneous loading, ramp loading, exponential loading and sinusoidal loading. Parametric studies are illustrated by variations of pore‐air pressure, pore‐water pressure and settlement at different values of the ratio of air–water permeability coefficient, depth and loading parameters. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical modeling on consolidation of stiffened deep mixed column-reinforced soft soil under embankment

Stiffened deep mixed (SDM) column is a new ground improvement technique to improve soft soil, which can be used to increase bearing capacity, reduce deformation, and enhance stability of soft soil. This technique has been successfully adopted to support the highway and railway embankments over soft soils in China and other countries. However, there have been limited investigations on its consolidation under embankment loading. This paper developed an analytical solution for the consolidation of embankment over soft soil with SDM column in which core pile is equal to or shorter than outer DM column. The consolidation problem was simplified as a consolidation of composite soil considering the load shear effect of core pile. The developed solution was verified by a comparison with the results computed by three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis. A parametric study based on the derived solution was conducted to investigate influence factors—length of core pile, diameter of core pile, diameter of SDM column, modulus of DM column, and permeability coefficient of DM column—on the consolidation behavior of SDM column-supported embankment over soft soil. The developed solution was applied to a case history of SDM column-supported embankment, and a good agreement was found between the predictions and the field measurements.     

A bounding surface model for anisotropically overconsolidated clay incorporating thermodynamics admissible rotational hardening rule

A bounding surface model is formulated to simulate the behavior of clays that are subject to an anisotropic consolidation stress history. Conventional rotational hardening is revisited from the perspective of thermodynamics. As the free energy cannot be accumulated infinitely upon critical state failure, the deviatoric back stress must vanish. This requires the rotated yield surface to be turned back to eventually align on the hydrostatic axis in the stress plane. Noting that most of the previous propositions violate this restriction, an innovative rotational hardening rule is formulated that is thermodynamically admissible. The bounding surface framework that employs the modified yield surface is applied to simulate elastoplastic deformations for overconsolidated clays, with which the overprediction of strength on the “dry” side can be greatly improved with reasonable results. Other important features, including contractive or dilative response and hardening or softening behavior, can also be well-captured. It has been shown that the model can simulate three types of reconstituted clays that are sheared with initial conditions over a wide range of anisotropic consolidation stress ratios and overconsolidation ratios under both triaxial undrained and drained conditions. Limitations and potential improvement of the model regarding the fabric anisotropy at critical state have been discussed.     

One-dimensional consolidation of soil under multistage load based on continuous drainage boundary

In engineering practice, a rapid loading rate can result in ground failure when the strength of soft soils is relatively low, and a multistage loading scheme is always utilized to deal with this situation. Firstly, under a multistage load and the continuous drainage boundary, an analytical solution of excess pore-water pressure and consolidation degree is obtained by virtue of the superposition formula of excess pore-water pressure, and a more general continuous drainage boundary under arbitrary time-dependent load is developed. Then, a comparison with existing analytical solutions is conducted to verify the present solution. A preliminary attempt on applying the continuous drainage boundary into the finite element model is made, and the feasibility of the numerical model for the one-dimensional consolidation under the continuous drainage boundary is verified by comparing the results calculated by FEM with that from present analytical solution. Finally, the consolidation behavior of soil is investigated in detail for different int erface parameters or loading scheme. The results show that, in land reclamation projects, a horizontal drain should be placed close to the boundary with a smaller interface parameter to improve the consolidation efficiency. The degree of consolidation is also related to the applied time-dependent load and interface parameters.     

The behavior of a multilayered porous thermo-elastic medium with anisotropic thermal diffusivity and permeability

With the aid of integral transform techniques, this paper presents an extended precise integration solution for thermal consolidation problems of a multilayered porous thermo-elastic medium with anisotropic thermal diffusivity and permeability due to a heat source. From the fundamental governing equations, ordinary differential equations are derived by employing Laplace–Hankel transforms. By applying the extended precise integration method, equations in the transformed domain can be solved, and the actual solutions are further obtained by adopting a numerical inverse transformation. The accuracy and feasibility of the proposed theory is demonstrated by contrastive analysis with existing studies. Finally, several examples are carried out to investigate the influence of heat source’s type, axial distance, burial depth of heat source, ratio of thermo-permeability, permeability anisotropy, thermal diffusivity anisotropy and stratification on the thermal consolidation process.     

城市生活垃圾卫生填埋场沉降变形分析

城市生活垃圾填埋场地基沉降和垃圾堆体沉降受到的影响因素多,现行规范的计算方法直接采用与实际相差较大,为减少不均匀沉降对垃圾防渗层的影响、准确确定垃圾储量和保证垃圾堆体的稳定,开展垃圾填埋场沉降研究具有重要意义。垃圾填埋场沉降变形包括地基沉降和垃圾堆体沉降,垃圾堆体沉降又分为主沉降和次沉降,主沉降完成时间短于次沉降。通过对陕西省宝鸡市垃圾填埋场地基土进行沉降计算,最大沉降差超过100 mm,对垃圾防渗层不利影响较大;而对垃圾堆体沉降计算,修正后的计算值与沉降观测值非常接近。考虑不同地区地层差异和垃圾成分差异,积累沉降观测资料具有重要意义。     

新型抗高温二次交联凝胶堵漏材料的研制

针对普通凝胶抗温能力较差难以适用于高温地层堵漏作业的问题,通过设计合成抗高温凝胶主剂GN-1并运用二次交联技术,研发了新型抗高温凝胶堵漏材料。优选配方为：淡水+1.5%GN-1+0.15%地面交联剂+1%井下交联剂+0.2%抗氧化剂。通过热滚老化与高温流变测试相结合的手段对凝胶抗温能力进行评价。结果表明,该凝胶材料具有良好的热稳定性,在180 ℃下老化24 h后,7.34 s-1下剪切粘度＞10000 mPa?s。大幅加重后180 ℃老化24 h仍能保持较好的粘弹性。此外还考察了不同温度和pH值下的成胶性能以及与聚磺钻井液体系的配伍性,为抗高温凝胶堵漏材料在现场的应用奠定基础。     

淤泥质潮滩地貌演变中的水动力及生物过程研究进展

淤泥质潮滩对于海岸防护、增加土地资源、保持生物多样性等具有重要作用。从淤泥质潮滩演变的主要驱动因子——潮流、波浪、生物作用及地下过程四个方面回顾和总结了潮滩演变动力地貌过程的相关研究进展,提出应关注潮滩短期演变规律、波浪与浮泥作用机理、生物生长与潮滩演变定量关系,以及地下过程作用机理等。