Calibration and validation of a sand model considering the effects of wave-induced principal stress axes rotation

Principal stress axes rotation influences the stress-strain behavior of sand under wave loading. A constitutive model for sand, which considers principal stress orientation and is based on generalized plasticity theory, is proposed. The new model, which employs stress invariants and a discrete memory factor during reloading, is original because it quantifies model parameters using experimental data. Four sets of hollow torsion experiments were conducted to calibrate the parameters and predict the capability of the proposed model, which describes the effects of principal stress orientation on the behavior of sand. The results prove the effectiveness of the proposed calibration method.

Pore Water Pressure Buildup Under Cyclic Rotation of Principal Stress and Stability Evaluation of Seabed Deposit

The cyclic rotation of principal stress direction with a constant amplitude is the characteristics of cyclic stress in seabed deposit induced by travelling waves. Presented in the paper are the results obtained from tests simulating the cyclic stress characteristics, with emphasis laid on the buildup of pore water pressure in soil samples. Regression analysis of test data shows that the pore water pressure can be expressed as the function of the number of cycles of cyclic loading, or as the function of generalized shear strain. Using the results thus obtained, the possibility of failure of seabed deposit under cyclic loading induced by travelling waves can be evaluated. The comparison with the results of conventional cyclic torsional shear tests shows that neglect of the effect of the cyclic rotation of the principal stress direction will result in considerable over-estimation of the stability of seabed deposit.

THE GENERAL STRESS STRAIN RELATION OF SOILS INVOLVING THE ROTATION OF PRINCIPAL STRESS AXES

In the light of matrix theory, the character of stress increment which causes the rotation of principal stress axes is analysed and the general stress increment is decomposed into two parts: coaxial part and rotational part. Based on these, the complex three dimensional (3-D) problem involving the rotation of principal stress axes is simplified to the combination of the 3-D coaxial model and the theory about pure rotation of principal stress axes that is only around one principal stress axes. The difficulty of analysis is reduced significantly. The concrete calculating method of general 3-D problem is provided and other applications are also presented.

Stiffness Degradation of Undisturbed Saturated Soft Clay in the Yangtze Estuary Under Complex Stress Conditions

Stiffness degradation will occur due to the generation of accumulated pore pressure in saturated soft clays under cyclic loading. The soil static-dynamic multi-purpose triaxial and torsional shear apparatus in Dalian University of Technology was employed to perform different types of test on the saturated soft marine clay in the Yangtze Estuary. Undisturbed samples of the clay were subjected to undrained cyclic vertical and torsional coupling shear and cyclic torsional shear after three-directional anisotropic consolidation with different initial consolidation parameters. Investigated were the effects of the initial orientation angle of the major principal stress, initial ratio of deviatoric stress, initial coefficient of intermediate principal stress and continuous rotation of principal stress axes on the stiffness degradation. It is found that the degradation index decreases （or degradation degree increases） significantly with increasing initial orientation angle of the major principal stress and initial ratio of deviatoric stress. Compared with the effects of the initial orientation angle of the major principal stress and initial ratio of deviatoric stress, the effect of initial coefficient of intermediate principal stress is less evident and this trend is more clearly reflected by the results of the cyclic torsional shear tests than those of the cyclic coupling shear tests. At the same cycle number, the degradation index obtained from the cyclic torsional shear test is higher than that from the cyclic coupling shear test. The main reason is that the continuous rotation in principal stress directions during cyclic coupling shear damages the original structure of the soil more than the cyclic torsional shear does.Based on a series of experiments, a mathematical model for stiffness degradation is proposed and the relevant parameters are determined.

Pore Pressure Accumulation of Anisotropically Consolidated Soft Clay Subjected to Complex Loads Under Different Stress Paths

Owing to different influence factors of foundation soil,the initial stress state of the soil under various working conditions is complex.To simulate this situation,in this paper,a series of tests on undisturbed soft clay under pure principal stress axis rotation were carried out by using the hollow cylinder apparatus(HCA).The influence of initial consolidation angle ζ(the angle between the vertical direction and direction of the applied load in consolidation)and intermediate principal stress coefficient b on pore water pressure accumulation of undisturbed soft clay were mainly studied.The test results show that,during pure principal stress axis rotation,the pore water pressure accumulation of the undisturbed soft clay fluctuates and increases with the rotation of the major principal stress;the values of major principal stress anglesα,corresponding to the peak value of the pore water pressure in a certain cycle,are different with different initial consolidation angles;the pore water pressure accumulation of soft clay is greatly affected by the intermediate principal stress coefficient b.With the fixed initial consolidation angle ζ,the variation trend of the maximum pore water pressure for each cycle is appropriately the same with different b values.With the increase of cycles,the difference value of pore water pressure between b=0 and b=1 in each cycle increases gradually with different initial consolidation angles ζ.While with different initial consolidation anglesζ,the increase of the pore water pressure when b increases from 0 to 0.5 is different with that when b increases from 0.5 to 1;the variation of maximum pore water pressure withζis significantly affected by the value of b;the value of maximum pore water pressure increases with the cycle number increases under all test conditions,but the growth rate decreases gradually.And the variation of maximum pore water pressure with the cycle number N is obviously influenced by both ζ and b.

A STRESS VECTOR-BASED CONSTITUTIVE MODEL FOR COHESIONLESS SOIL (Ⅰ)-THEORY

On the basis of the sufficient consideration of vectorial characteristics of stress, a new nonlinear constitutive model for cohesionless soil under plane strain and 3-D conditions was presented in a way that the action effects of stress vector are decomposed into the action effect of mean effective stress and that of the stress ratio vector (ratio of deviatoric stress vector to mean effective stress). The constitutive model can take account of the influence of both numerical and directional changes of stress vector on deformation of soil simultaneously, and is applicable of both static and dynamic loading.

A STRESS VECTOR-BASED CONSTITUTIVE MODEL FOR COHESIONLESS SOIL (Ⅱ)-APPLICATION

The stress vector-based constitutive model for cohesionless soil, proposed by SHI Hong-yan et al., was applied to analyze the deformation behaviors of materials subjected to various stress paths. The result of analysis shows that the constitutive model can capture well the main deformation behavior of cohesionless soil, such as stress-strain nonlinearity, hardening property, dilatancy, stress path dependency, non-coaxiality between the principal stress and the principal strain increment directions, and the coupling of mean effective and deviatoric stress with deformation. In addition, the model can also take into account the rotation of principal stress axes and the influence of intermediate principal stress on deformation and strength of soil simultaneously. The excellent agreement between the predicted and measured behavior indicates the comprehensive applicability of the model.

Finite element analysis of anchor plates using non-coaxial models

The non-coaxial model simulating the non-coincidence between the principal stresses and the principal plastic strain rates is employed within the framework of finite element method（FEM） to predict the behaviors of anchors embedded in granular material.The non-coaxial model is developed based on the non-coaxial yield vertex theory,and the elastic and conventional coaxial plastic deformations are simulated by using elasto-perfectly plastic Drucker-Prager yield function according to the original yield vertex theory.Both the horizontal and vertical anchors with various embedment depths are considered.Different anchor shapes and soil friction and dilation angles are also taken into account.The predictions indicate that the use of non-coaxial models leads to softer responses,compared with those using conventional coaxial models.Besides,the predicted ultimate pulling capacities are the same for both coaxial and non-coaxial models.The non-coaxial influences increase with the increasing embedment depths,and circular anchors lead to larger non-coaxial influences than strip anchors.In view of the fact that the design of anchors is mainly determined by their displacements,ignoring the non-coaxiality in finite element numerical analysis can lead to unsafe results.

Application of artificial neural network for calculating anisotropic friction angle of sands and effect on slope stability

The anisotropy effect is one of the most prominent phenomena in soil mechanics. Although many experimental programs have investigated anisotropy in sand, a computational procedure for determining anisotropy is lacking. Thus, this work aims to develop a procedure for connecting the sand friction angle and the loading orientation. All principal stress rotation tests in the literatures were processed via an artificial neural network. Then, with sensitivity analysis, the effect of intrinsic soil properties,consolidation history, and test sample characteristics on enhancing anisotropy was examined. The results imply that decreasing the grain size of the soil increases the effect of anisotropy on soil shear strength. In addition, increasing the angularity of grains increases the anisotropy effect in the sample. The stability of a sandy slope was also examined by considering the anisotropy in shear strength parameters. If the anisotropy effect is neglected, slope safety is overestimated by 5%-25%. This deviation is more apparent in flatter slopes than in steeper ones. However, the critical slip surface in the most slopes is the same in isotropic and anisotropic conditions.

Characteristics of Pore Water Pressure of Saturated Silt Under Wave Loading

The characteristics of dynamic stress in the seabed under wave loading are constant principal stress and continuous rotation of the principal stress direction. Cyclic triaxial-torsional coupling shear tests were pefformed on saturated silt by the hollow cylinder apparatus under different relative densities, deviator stress ratios and vibration frequencies to study the development of pore water pressure of the saturated silt under wave loading. It was found that the development of pore water pressure follows the trend of ＂fast - steady - drastic＂. The turning point from fast to steady stage is not affected by relative density and deviator stress ratio. However, the turning point from steady to drastic stage relies on relative density and deviator stress ratio. The vibration cycle for the liquefaction of saturated silt decreases with increasing deviator stress ratio and increases with relative density. The vibration cycle for the liquefaction of the saturated silt increases with vibration frequency and reaches a peak value, after which it decreases with increasing vibration frequency for the relative density of 70%. But the vibration cycle for the liquefaction of saturated silt increases with vibration frequency for the relative density of 30%. The development of pore water pressure of the saturated silt is influenced by relative density and vibration frequency.

Cyclic strength of sand under a nonstandard elliptical rotation stress path induced by wave loading

The principal stress rotation is one of the most important features of the stress state in a seabed subjected to wave loading. Most prior investigations focused their attention on the cyclic behaviour of soil deposits under the circular rotation stress path based on the analytical solutions for a seabed of infinite thickness. In this paper, the nonstandard elliptical, i.e., non-circular, rotation stress path is shown to be a more common state in the soil sediments of a finite seabed with an alternating changeover in stress due to a travelling regular wave. Then an experimental investigation in a hollow cylinder triaxial-torsional apparatus is conducted into the effect of the nonstandard elliptical stress path on the cyclic strength. A special attention is placed on the difference between the circular rotation stress path and the elliptical rotation stress path. The results and observations show that the shear characteristics for the circular rotation stress path in the literature are not applicable for analyzing the cyclic strength of sand in a finite seabed, and also indicate that due to the influence of three parameters about the size and the shape of a nonstandard ellipse, the cyclic strength under a nonstandard elliptical rotation stress path is evidently more complex and diversified as compared with that under a circular rotation stress path. Especially the influence of the initial phase difference on the cyclic strength is significant.