Abstract
PURPOSES : Road subsidence occurs owing to road cavities, which cause many social and environmental problems, especially in cities. Recently, road cavities were detected by various ground radars and repair works were carried out against the detected cavities. The condition assessments related to the road cavities are necessary to understand the potential risk of the cavities. Therefore, in this study, a numerical study was performed to assess the various conditions of road cavities. METHODS : The numerical method adopted in this study is the discrete element approach, and it is suitable for analyzing the condition because it can consider the movement of the soil particles in the surrounded cavity areas. In addition, the triaxial test was modeled and performed under various cavity conditions inside the specimens. RESULTS : The conditions of different cavity locations and shapes were analyzed to identify the effect of cavity state. Three general cases of particle size distributions were formulated to identify the effect of surrounding ground conditions. As a result, the degree of decrement and volumetric strain were varied depending on the locations and shapes of the cavity. Only minor changes were observed when the particle size distributions were altered. CONCLUSIONS : The strength reduction was higher when the cavity formed was larger and located in the upper zone. Similar to the cavity shape, strength reduction and volume deformation are more influenced by the width than the length of the cavities. There is an influence from ground conditions such as the particle size distribution, especially on the wide cavity.
