Porosity and size gradation of saturated gravel with percolated fines

Fine particles may infiltrate through coarse alluvial beds and eventually saturate the subsurface pore space. It is essential to understand the conditions that lead to bed saturation, and to forecast the packing characteristics of saturated beds to assess the effect of excess fine sediment supply on a number of processes that occur in the stream–sediment boundary. To address this problem, in this study, a new method is introduced to predict the grain‐size distribution for the saturated condition, and the resulting porosity decrease, given the characteristics of the bed and the supplied sediments. The new method consists of the numerical aggregation of infilling fines in a finite bed volume, during which the bed properties change to affect further infilling. An existing semi‐empirical, particle packing model is implemented to identify these properties. It is shown that these types of models are adequate to describe regimes of natural sediment fabric quantitatively, and are thus useful tools in the analysis of sediment infiltration processes. Unlike previous developments to quantify saturated bed conditions, which assume that the supplied material is uniform and finer than the bed pore openings, the method developed herein considers poorly sorted fines, and can identify size fractions that are able to ingress into the bed due to being smaller than the particles that form the bed structure. Application of the new method to published experimental data showed that the final content of infiltrated fines is strongly sensitive to the initial bed packing density, highlighting the need to measure and understand open‐work gravel deposits. In addition, the new method was shown to be suitable for assessing the degree of bed saturation, when it was applied to a published data set of field samples.     

Compressibility and permeability of sand–kaolin mixtures. Experiments versus non‐linear homogenization schemes

This study deals with the behaviour of mixtures of sand and saturated kaolin paste considered as composite materials made of permeable and deformable (with non‐linear behaviour) matrix (the kaolin paste) with rigid and impervious inclusions (the sand grains). Oedometric and permeability tests highlight the key role of the state of the clay paste, and show the existence of a threshold of sand grain concentration above which a structuring effect influences both compressibility and permeability. At the light of these experiments two homogenization schemes (with simplifying assumptions to make the problem manageable) are considered to model these two parameters. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons with experimental data point out their respective domain of interest and limitations: a tangent homogenization scheme is shown to be sufficient to describe the macroscopic properties for dilute sand concentration; above the concentration threshold, the structuring effect is captured by the new homogenization scheme developed in this paper. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stochastic micromechanical model of the deterioration of asphalt mixtures subject to moisture diffusion processes

The deleterious effect of moisture in the microstructure of asphalt mixtures, usually referred to as moisture damage, has been recognized as a main cause of early deterioration of asphalt pavements. The initiation and evolution of moisture‐related deterioration is strongly influenced by the internal air void structure of asphalt mixtures. Despite its importance, the majority of works conducted on the micromechanical modeling of asphalt mixtures overlook the role of the air void structure, mainly because of its high complexity and variability. This paper explores the influence of air void variability on the performance of asphalt mixtures subjected to moisture diffusion processes. A stochastic modeling technique based on random field theory was used to generate internal distributions of physical and mechanical properties of the asphalt matrix of the mixture that depend on probable air voids distributions. The analysis was conducted by means of a coupled numerical micromechanical model of moisture damage. The results showed that the variability and distribution of air voids are decisive in determining the moisture‐dependent performance of asphalt mixtures. Furthermore, it was also shown that a stochastic characterization of the diverse air void configurations is a feasible and useful approach to better represent and understand mechanically related deterioration processes in asphalt mixtures. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Instability of sand–silt mixtures

The instability of the sand–silt mixtures with different amount of fines contents were studied in this paper. It showed that the slope of the instability lines increases with the increasing relative densities, and it approaches the slope of the failure line (steady state line) at a high relative density. The relationship between the peak stress ratio and the intergranular void ratio can be described by a common curve for all the mixtures with fines contents less than the transitional fines content. There may also exist a unique curve for the relationship between the peak stress ratio and interfine void ratio for the mixtures with fines contents higher than the transitional fines content. If the yield strength ratio is used instead of the peak stress ratio, the relationships can be characterized in the same way.     

High spatio-temporal resolution measurements of cohesive sediment erosion

In this study, we present a novel approach to measure fundamental processes of cohesive sediment erosion. The experimental setup consists of a laboratory erosion flume (SETEG) and a photogrammetric method to detect sediment erosion (PHOTOSED). Detailed data are presented for three erosion experiments, which were conducted with a natural non-cohesive/cohesive sediment mixture at increasing sediment depths (4, 8, 16 cm). In each experiment, the sediment was exposed to a set of incrementally increasing shear stresses and the erosion was measured dynamically, pixel-based, and approximate to the process scale given the resolution of PHOTOSED. This enables us to distinguish between (i) individual emerging erosion spots caused by surface erosion and (ii) large holes torn open by detached aggregate chunks. Moreover, interrelated processes were observed, such as (iii) propagation of the erosion in the longitudinal and lateral direction leading to merging of disconnected erosion areas and (iv) progressive vertical erosion of already affected areas. By complementing the (bulk) erosion volume profiles with additional quantitative variables, which contain spatial information (erosion area, specific deepening, number of disconnected erosion areas), conclusions on the erosion behaviour (and the dominant processes) can be drawn without requiring qualitative information (such as visual observations). In addition, we provide figures indicating the spatio-temporal erosion variability and the (bulk) erosion rates for selected time periods. We evaluate the variability by statistical quantities and show that significant erosion is mainly confined to only a few events during temporal progression, but then considerably exceeds the time-averaged median of the erosion (factors between 7.0 and 16.0). Further, we point to uncertainties in using (bulk) erosion rates to assess cohesive sediment erosion and particularly the underlying processes. As a whole, the results emphasise the need to measure cohesive sediment erosion with high spatio-temporal resolution to obtain reliable and robust information. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

A continuum framework for three-phase soils including microstructural effects

Nature as described by classical mechanics is governed by a set of physical laws in the balanced form of various physical entities, including mass, linear and angular momenta, energy, and entropy (entropy inequality). These laws must be obeyed in the development of any theory of applied mechanics. In soil mechanics, one deals with porous material composed of solids and fluids strongly interacting with each other. Within the framework of continuum mechanics, materials are assumed to be infinitesimally continuous, which renders an unavoidable hypothesis for soil. That is, each of the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases can be treated as a ‘smeared’ medium superimposed by and interacting with other constituents at the same infinitesimal point. Such treatment, however, requires the fundamental balance laws be recast into more elaborative forms involving microstructural effects (inter-phase actions).

This paper introduces such a continuum framework based on existing theories of immiscible mixtures. To accommodate the pre-flow response, in the present work, the energy terms attributable to shear deformation and spin, allied with a coupling effect, are included. In the framework, a set of extended effective stresses is defined; indicating that the soil skeleton has an effective stiffness, which may still be positive-definite after failure. The framework is general and may pave a way for solving practical geotechnical problems covering both pre- and post-failure stages.     

膨润土-砂混合型缓冲/回填材料土-水特征曲线研究

高放废物（HLW）深地质处置中,在膨润土中添加一定比例的石英砂能优化缓冲/回填材料的性能。利用水汽平衡法,对高庙子压实膨润土-砂混合物在不同温度、掺砂率和干密度条件下的土-水特征曲线（SWCCs）进行试验研究,分析温度、掺砂率与干密度对混合物土-水特征曲线的影响。试验结果表明,随着温度升高,混合物的持水能力明显下降;在试验控制吸力范围内,低吸力段掺砂率对土-水特征曲线影响明显,高吸力段掺砂率对混合物土-水特征曲线的影响逐渐降低;干密度对混合物的土-水特征曲线基本没有影响。根据试验数据建立了不同温度和掺砂率条件下膨润土-砂缓冲/回填材料土-水特征曲线的经验公式,可用来预测不同温度和掺砂率条件下的膨润土-砂混合型缓冲/回填材料土-水特征曲线     

Interrogating the time and processes of development of the Las Liebres rock glacier,central Chilean Andes,using a numerical flow model

The Las Liebres rock glacier is a large (~2.2 km long) Andean rock glacier whose internal composition and kinematics are known from previous studies. We investigate its development by posing and testing the following null hypothesis: the rock glacier has developed from a constant supply of debris and ground ice in periglacial conditions and resulting creep of the ice‐rock mixture. A rheological model was formulated based on recent advances in the study of ice‐rock mixture rheology, and calibrated on the known surface velocities and internal composition of the rock glacier. We show that the rock glacier viscosity is inversely related to both water and debris fractions, in agreement with recent field and theoretical studies of ice‐rock mixture rheology. Taking into account the possible variations in water fraction, the model was used to estimate the time spans of development (0.91–7.11 ka), rates of rock wall retreat (0.44–4.18 mm/a), and rates of ground ice formation (0.004–0.026 m/a) for the rock glacier. These results support the null hypothesis of a periglacial origin of the Las Liebres rock glacier. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

掺砂率对高放废物处置库中缓冲/回填材料收缩特性的影响

缓冲/回填材料的收缩特性对高放废物处置库的长期安全性和稳定性具有重要影响。以高庙子（GMZ） 膨润土-砂混 合物缓冲/回填材料为研究对象,探究了0~50%掺砂率下,试样蒸发失水过程中的收缩特性。试验结果表明：（1） 试样的水 分蒸发过程可分为常速率阶段、减速率阶段和残余阶段,且掺砂率对各阶段水分蒸发过程均有显著影响;（2） 掺砂率对试 样缩限值基本没有影响,但收缩应变却随着掺砂率的增大而减小;试样收缩系数在掺砂率为30%时达到最大,之后随掺砂 率的增大而减小;（3） 在不同掺砂率下,试样收缩均呈现出明显的各向异性;（4） 掺砂率越高,试样进气点对应的含水率 越大,最终孔隙比也越大。