• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2019

Recent research on the behavior of silty sand tends to advocate the use of equivalent skeleton void ratio to characterize the density state of this type of soil. This paper presents an investigation to explore the physical meaning of the equivalent skeleton void ratio by means of DEM simulations for assemblies of coarse and fine particles under biaxial shear. The simulations reveal that the distribution pattern of fine particles in the soil skeleton plays a crucial role in the overall macroscopic response: The contractive response observed at the macro scale is mainly caused by the movement of fine particles out of the force chains whereas the dilative response is mainly associated with the migration of fine particles into the force chains. In an assembly of coarse and fine particles, neither all of the fine particles nor all of the coarse ones participate in the force chains to carry the external loads, and therefore a more reasonable definition for equivalent skeleton void ratio is put forward in which a new parameter d is introduced to take into account the fraction of coarse particles absent from the force chains.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.83-108
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• 2011

The effect of non-plastic fines (silt) on liquefaction and pore pressure generation characteristics of saturated sands was studied through undrained stress controlled cyclic triaxial tests using cylindrical specimens of size 50 mm diameter and height 100 mm at different cyclic stress ratios and at a frequency of 0.1 Hz. The tests were carried out in the laboratory adopting various measures of sample density through various approaches namely gross void ratio approach, relative density approach, sand skeleton void ratio approach, and interfine void ratio approach. The limiting silt content and the relative density of a specimen were found to influence the undrained cyclic response of sand-silt mixtures to a great extent. Undrained cyclic response was observed to be independent of silt content at very high relative densities. However, the presence of fines significantly influenced this response of loose to medium dense specimens. Combined analyses of cyclic resistance have been done using the entire data collected from all the approaches.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.6C
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• pp.277-285
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• 2009

A series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were carried out to investigate the cyclic shear stress strength characteristics of sands with respect to the silt content. Silty sand was collected around the basin of Nak-Dong River and remolded in laboratory with the range of silt content 0~50% in sand located. As results, with the change of silt content cyclic shear stress ratio (CSR) at N=10 showed the maximum value at 5% and the minimum at 20% in all relative density. The development tendency of the pore water pressure analyzed by the relationship cyclic ratio and pore water pressure ratio is unrelated the change of CSR varying silt content. Comparing the results of the void ratio and skeleton void ratio after consolidation, CSR varying silt content was much affected by skeleton void ratio which is known to affect shear behavior of silty sand.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.79-89
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• 2008

In this study, a series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were performed with three different consolidation stress ratios ($K_c$=1.0, 1.5, 2.0) to investigate the undrained shear strength characteristics of sands with respect to the amount of contained silt located around the basin of Nak-dong River. The test results show that the more the sand has silt, the lower is cyclic shear stress ratio (CSR) in all $K_c$ and that the higher $K_c$ goes, the larger CSR decreases due to the increase of contained silt. The excessive pore pressure caused during shearing has an influence on the decrease of CSR by the high initial pore pressure in proportion to the amount of contained silt regardless of the $K_c$ value. After consolidation, the analysis of the skeleton void ratio of the sample reveals that the main cause of the decrease of CSR as well as the increase of the initial excessive pore pressure is the increase of the skeleton void ratio in proportion to the amount of contained silt.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 2013

In this paper, a series of monotonic undrained shear tests were carried out on four kinds of sand-fine mixtures with various fines content. Two kinds of sands (Silica sand V3, V6) and fines (Iwakuni natural clay, Tottori silt) were mixed together in various proportions, while paying attention to the void ratio expressed in terms of sand structure $(F_c{\leq}F_{cth})$. The undrained shear strength of mixtures below the threshold fines content was observed so that as the plastic fines content increases, maximum deviator stress ratio decrease for dense samples while an increase is noted for loose samples. For non-plastic fines, the increase in the amount of fines leads to an increase in density of the soil, which results in an increase in strength. Then, the monotonic shear strength of the mixtures was estimated using the concept of granular void ratio. It was found that the shear strength of mixtures is greatly dependent on the skeleton structure of sand particles.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.61-70
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• 2013

Evaluation of permeability and coefficient of consolidation of clayey sand is critical in analyzing ground stability or environmental problems such as prediction of pollutant transport in groundwater. In this study, permeability tests using a flexible wall permeameter are performed to derive the coefficient of consolidation and permeability of reconstituted soil samples with various mixing ratios of kaolin clays and two different types of sands, which are Jumunjin and Ottawa sands. The test results indicate that the coefficient of consolidation and permeability plots linearly against clay contents in semi-log scale graphs for low clay mixing ratios ranging between 10 to 30%. It is also demonstrated that coefficient of consolidation and permeability of sand and clay mixture are dependent on the soil structure. Contrary to previous findings, the permeability is shown to be independent of the void ratio at low mixing ratios, which can be classified as non-floating fabric. The permeability decreases with the void ratio for floating fabric.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.47-56
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• 2007

In this research, the effects of the gravel content on the liquefaction behavior for both of the isotropically and $K_0-anisotropically$ consolidated gravel-sand mixtures are investigated. for this purpose, the cyclic triaxial tests for the specimens with the same relative density (Dr=40%) and variations of gravel content were performed. On the other hand, a series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were carried out on the isotropically consolidated gravel-sand mixtures with the same void ratio (e=0.7) and from 0% to 30% gravel contents. Void ratios of gravel-sand mixtures with the same relative density (Dr=40%) are found to decrease significantly with the increase of the gravel content from 0% to about 70% and increase thereafter. But the void ratio of the sand matrix among the gravel skeleton increases with the increase of the gravel contents. Test results are as follows : for the isotropically consolidated specimen with 40% of relative density and low gavel contents (GC=0%, 20%, 40%), pore water pressure development and axial strain behavior during undrained cyclic loading show similar behavior to those of the loose sand because of high void ratio, and the specimens with high gravel content (70%) both pore pressure and strata behaviors are similar to those of dense sand. And the isotropically consolidated specimens with the same void ratio (e=0.7) and higher gravel contents show the same behavior of pore water pressure and axial strain as that of the loose sand, but for the lower gravel content this behavior shows similar behavior to that of dense sand. The liquefaction strength of the isotropically consolidated specimens with the same relative density increases with gravel content up to 70%, and the strength decreases with the increase of the gravel content at the same void ratio. Thus, it is confirmed that the liquefaction strength of the gravel-sand mixtures depends both on relative density and void ratio of the whole mixture rather than the relative density of the sand matrix filled among gravels. On the other hand, the behavior of pore water pressure and axial strain for the $K_0-anisotropically$ consolidated gravel-sand mixtures shows almost the same cyclic behavior of the sand with no stress reversal even with some stress reversal of the cyclic loading. Namely, even the stress reversal of about 10% of cyclic stress amplitude, the permanent strain with small cyclic strain increases rapidly with the number of cycles, and the initial liquefaction does not occur always with less than maximum pore water pressure ratio of 1.0. The liquefaction resistance increases with the gravel contents between 0% and 40%, but tends to decrease beyond 40% of gravel content. In conclusion, the cyclic behavior of gravel-sand mixtures depends on factors such as gravel content, void ratio, relative density and consolidation condition.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.71-80
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• 1992

A new constitutive model is proposed for normally consolidated clays. A main skeleton of the proposed model is based on the concepts of the incremental stress-strain theory by Roscoe and Poorooshasb. The equation of the undrained stress path is formulated by introducing the new pore pressure parameter(C), which is the slope of the linear line in the plot of the normalized pore pressure against the stress ratio. Once the stress increment along the constant stress ratio path (followed by untrained stress path) is know, the volumetric strains are calculated from the linear characteristics between void ratio and logarithm of the mean normal stress for any stress ratio. Then the incremental shear strains are successfully predicted by applying the flow rule derived in the modified theory by Roscoe and Burland.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2006

In general typically granular soils contain a certain amount of fines. It is also widely recognized that foundation soils under working loads show highly non-linear behavior from very early stages of loading. In the present study, a series of laboratory tests with sands of different silt contents are conducted and methods to assess strength and stiffiness characteristics are proposed. Modified hyperbolic stress-strain model is used to analyze non-linearity of silty sands in terms of non-linear Degradation parameters f and g as a function of silt contents and Relative density Dr. Stress-strain curves were obtained from a series of triaxial tests on sands containing different amounts of silt. Initial shear modulus, which is used to normalize Degradation modulus of silty sands, was determined from resonant column test results. From the laboratory test results, it was observed that, as the Relative density increases, values of f decrease and those of g increase. In addition, it was found that values of f and g increase and decrease respectively as a Skeleton void ratio $(e_{sk})$ increases.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.31-40
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• 2012

In most design codes, soils are classified as either sandy or clayey soils, and appropriate design equations for each soil type are used to estimate their soil behaviour. However, sand-fine mixtures, which are typically referred to as intermediate soils, are somewhere at the middle of sandy or clayey soils, and therefore a unified interpretation of soil behaviour is necessary. In this paper, a series of cyclic shear tests were carried out for three different combinations of sand-fine mixtures with various fines content. Silica-sand mixture and fines (Iwakuni natural clay, Tottori silt, kaolinite) were mixed together with various mass ratios, while paying attention to the changes of void ratios expressed in terms of sand structure. The cyclic shear strengths of the mixtures below the threshold fines content were examined with the increasing fines contents. As a result, as the fines contents increased, their cyclic deviator stress ratios decreased for dense samples while it increased for loose samples. Additionally, cyclic deviator stress ratio of the mixtures was estimated using the concept of equivalent granular void ratio.