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.     

预应力锚索在单桩竖向静载试验中的应用

在狭窄场地上进行大吨位单桩竖向静载试验时,需要解决的问题是在试验设备受场地限制无法增加的情况下如何提供足够大的反力荷载。根据此次试验场地地层中基岩埋藏丰富且深度较浅的情况,通过采用预应力锚索,进行加载反力装置设计,最终采用十字形加载反力装置,有效地解决了反力荷载不足的问题,从而为类似的试验提供了一种思路和选择。同时,通过对试验中出现的一些问题诸如锚固力、自由段变形等进行深入地分析和研究,提出了有关改进和完善反力装置现方案的建议。     

三峡库区滑坡治理工程设计中推力荷载计算方法初探

随着三峡水利工程的逐步实施，淹没区移民及新城镇建设等人类工程活动的加剧，以滑坡为主的环境地质问题日益突出。本文从稳定系数、安全系数入手，对铁道、公路等部门常用的设计计算原理进行了研究，并由此类比分析研究了三峡区回水后或库水位正常运行条件下，滑坡治理工程设计计算方法。     

地铁循环荷载作用下交叉隧道沉降分析

采用FLAC3D软件建立了交叉隧道的三维有限差分模型,以人工数定激励力模拟列车荷载,计算列车动荷载作用下土体的变形和应力。采用修正动偏应力长期沉降计算模型,结合分层总和法计算软土的沉降,预测交叉隧道的长期沉降规律。分析3种不同行车工况下地基长期沉降,工况1为一辆列车单独通过1#隧道,工况2为一辆列车单独通过2#隧道,工况3为两辆列车同时通过1#和2#隧道。对比不同的列车行驶速度、隧道衬砌刚度及厚度对隧道地基的长期影响。结果表明,由列车荷载引起的地基沉降主要集中在距隧道中心轴20 m范围内;在工况3下土体沉降大于工况1、2沉降之和;车速越快,沉降越小;衬砌刚度和厚度越小,沉降越大,且衬砌厚度对沉降的影响较大,衬砌刚度影响较小。     

花岗岩残积土动态冲击性能的SHPB试验研究

为研究花岗岩残积土的动态冲击性能,开展了高速冲击下的分离式霍普金森压杆（SHPB）试验,与常规应变率下的试验结果比较,分析了高应变率对花岗岩残积土的应力?应变特性和强度的影响。结果表明：低、高应变率下的花岗岩残积土的?-?a（轴向应力?轴向应变）曲线均呈现出软化型。随着应变率 增加,?-?a曲线向?a增大的方向移动,破坏应变?af增加。但高应变率下?af增加的程度更加明显。花岗岩残积土的峰值强度普遍具有应变率依赖性,二者可用直线关系拟合,但低、高应变率下的拟合关系并不一致。提出了率敏性因子m定量评价依赖性强弱。研究发现,随着应变率的提高,强度的应变率依赖性减弱,低应变率下的m为26.694,而高应变率下仅为0.013。相关试验结果指出,高速冲击荷载对土体总体有害。工程中应该采取合理措施控制冲击荷载的危害。该研究有助于深化花岗岩残积土动态冲击性能的理解,为相关工程的施工与设计提供技术参考。     

沉降-时间曲线呈“S”型的证明

从一维固结理论出发，严格证明了在线性加载或近似线性加载情况下（这和工程实际加载相类似），沉降-时间曲线呈“S”型。     

Calibration of cyclic constitutive models by oscillating functions

Most structures are subjected to more cyclic loads during their life time than static loads. These cyclic action could be a result of either natural or man-made activities and may lead to soil failure. In order to understand the response of the foundation and its interaction with these complex cyclic loadings, various researchers have over the years developed different constitutive models. Although a lot of research is being carried out on these relatively new models, little or no details exist in literature about the model-based identification of the cyclic constitutive parameters which to a large extent govern the quality of the model output. This could be attributed to the difficulties and complexities of the inverse modeling of such complex phenomena. A variety of optimisation strategies are available for the solution of the sum of least-squares problems as usually done in the field of model calibration. However, for the back analysis (calibration) of the soil response to oscillatory load functions, this article gives insight into the model calibration challenges and also puts forward a method for the inverse modeling of cyclic loaded foundation response such that high-quality solutions are obtained with minimum computational effort.     

冻结粉土动强度的荷载效应及长期极限动强度

荷载效应包括速率效应和疲劳效应两部分．速率效应使冻土的动强度和退荷回弹动弹模随应变速率加快而提高;疲劳效应使冻土的动强度随振频增加而下降,但在低应变速率下却使动强度略有提高．在高应变速率下动强度大于静强度,在低应变速度下动强度小于静强度,其间存在一个临界应变速率．通过动强度－破坏振次关系,可确定长期极限动强度．     

地震荷载作用下温度和围压对冻土强度影响的试验研究

通过对重塑冻结兰州黄土的动三轴试验，较系统研究了地震荷载作用下冻土的动强度特性，并且定量研究了其在不同温度(-2℃、-5℃、-7℃)和围压(1MPa、3MPa、5MPa)条件下的变化规律．结果发现：冻结黄土的动抗剪强度随围压的增大、温度的降低、振次的减少而增大；动粘聚力Cd随振次的减小和温度的降低而增大；动内摩擦角吼随振次的增大和温度的降低而增大。     

饱和黏性土蠕变变形试验研究

结合苏锡常地区地面沉降研究,用单向固结仪研究饱和黏性土在复杂荷载作用下的蠕变变形特征。试验土样取自苏锡常地区第2弱透水层。研究结果表明,在初次加载时黏性土具有明显的蠕变性,在双对数坐标中蠕变变形与时间呈直线关系,且直线斜率随荷载水平增大而减小,但在荷载水平达到一定值后斜率变化不大;在初次卸载时黏性土仍有明显的回弹蠕变,特别是在卸载水平较高时,卸载回弹蠕变变形与应力和时间的关系仍可用幂函数表示;在循环荷载作用下,加卸载达到变形稳定的时间随循环次数增加而减小。当循环荷载最大值小于土样的先期固结压力时,土样在2次加卸载循环后达到弹性变形状态;当循环荷载最大值等于土样的先期固结压力时,土样在5次加卸载循环后达到弹性变形状态。