• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.129-136
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• 2006

Engineered mixtures, which consist of rigid sand particles and soft fine-grained rubber particles, are tested to characterize their small and large-strain responses. Engineered soils are prepared with different volumetric sand fraction, sf, to identify the transition from a rigid to a soft granular skeleton using wave propagation, $K_{o}-loading$, and triaxial testing. Deformation moduli at small, middle and large-strain do not change linearly with the volume fraction of rigid particles; instead, deformation moduli increase dramatically when the sand fraction exceeds a threshold value between sf=0.6 to 0.8 that marks the formation of a percolating network of stiff particles. The friction angle increases with the volume fraction of rigid particles. Conversely, the axial strain at peak strength increases with the content of soft particles, and no apparent peak strength is observed in specimens when sand fraction is less than 60%. The presence of soft particles alters the formation of force chains. While soft particles are not part of high-load carrying chains, they play the important role of preventing the buckling of stiff particle chains.