• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.361-372
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• 2016

The soil-concrete interface shear strength, although has been extensively studied, is still difficult to predict as a result of the dependence on many factors such as normal stresses, surface roughness, particle sizes, moisture contents, dilation angles of soils, etc. In this study, a well-known rigorous statistical learning approach, namely the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) realized in a ubiquitous spreadsheet platform is firstly used in estimating the soil-structure interface shear strength. Instead of studying the complicated mechanism, LS-SVM enables to explore the possible link between the fundamental factors and the interface shear strengths, via a sophisticated statistic approach. As a preliminary investigation, the authors study the expansive soils that are found extensively in most countries. To reduce the complexity, three major influential factors, e.g., initial moisture contents, initial dry densities and normal stresses of soils are taken into account in developing the LS-SVM models for the soil-concrete interface shear strengths. The predicted results by LS-SVM show reasonably good agreement with experimental data from direct shear tests.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.587-600
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• 2020

Shear-induced instability of jointed rock mass has greatly threatened the safety of underground openings. To better understand the failure mechanism of surrounding rock mass under shear, the flawed specimens containing a circular opening and two open joints are prepared and used to conduct direct shear tests. Both experimental and numerical results show that joint inclination (β) has a significant effect on the shear strength, dilation, cracking behavior and stress distribution around flaws. The maximum shear strength, occurring at β=30°, usually corresponds to a unifrom stress state around joint and an intense energy release. However, a larger joint inclination, such as β=90°~150°, will cause a more uneven stress distribution and a stronger stress concentration, thus a lower shear strength. The stress distribution around opening changes little with joint inclination, while the magnitude varys much. Both compression and tension around opening will be greatly enhanced by the 30°-joints. In addition, a higher normal stress tends to enhance the compression and suppress the tension around flaws, resulting in an earlier generation and a larger proportion of shear cracks.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.475-486
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• 2023

Ballast particles have an irregular shape and are discrete in nature. Due to the discrete nature of ballast, it exhibits complex mechanical behaviour under loading conditions. The discrete element method (DEM) can model the behaviour of discrete particles under a multitude of loading conditions. DEM is used in this paper to simulate a series of three-dimensional direct shear tests in order to investigate the shear behaviour of railway ballast and its interaction at the microscopic level. Particle flow code in three dimension (PFC3D) models the irregular shape of ballast particles as clump particles. To investigate the influence of particle size distribution (PSD), real PSD of Indian railway ballast specification IRS:GE:1:2004, China high-speed rail (HSR) and French rail specifications are generated. PFC3D built-in linear contact model is used to simulate the interaction of ballast particles under various normal stresses, shearing rate and shear box sizes. The results indicate how shear resistance and volumetric changes in ballast assembly are affected by normal stress, shearing rate, PSD and shear box size. In addition to macroscopic behaviour, DEM represents the microscopic behaviour of ballast particles in the form of particle displacement at different stages of the shearing process.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.173-179
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• 2000

The influence of the plastic flow rules on the elasto-plastic behaviour of a discrete joint element was investigated by performing the numerical direct shear tests under both constant normal displacement and normal displacement conditions. The finite interface elements obeying Plesha’s joint constitutive law was used to allow the relative motion of the rock blocks on the joint surface. Realistic results were obtained in the tests adopting the non-associated flow rule, while the associated flow rule overestimated the joint dilation. To overcome the computational drawbacks coming from the non-symmetric element stiffness matrix in the conventional non-associated plasticity, the symmetric formulation of the tangential stiffness matrix for a non-associated joint element was proposed. The symmetric elasto-plastic matrix it derived by assuming an imaginary equivalent joint with associated flow rule which shows the same plastic response as that of original Joint with non-associated flow rule. The validity of the formulation was confirmed through the numerical direct shear tests under constant normal stress condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.27-35
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• 2005

Several damages due to large displacement caused by liquefaction have been reported increasingly. Numerical procedures based on effective stress analysis are therefore necessary to predict liquefaction-induced deformation. In this paper, the fully coupled effective stress model called UBCSAND is proposed to simulate pore pressure rise due to earthquake or repeated loadings. The proposed model is a modification of the simple perfect elasto-plactic Mohr-Coulomb model, and can simulate a continuous yielding by mobilizing friction and dilation angles below failure state. Yield function is defined as the ratio of shear stress to mean normal stress. It is radial lines on stress space and has the same shape of Mohr-Columob failure envelope. Plastic hardening is based on an isotropic and kinematic hardening rule. The proposed model always causes plastic deformation during loading and reloading but it predicts elastic unloading. It is verified by capturing direct simple shear tests on loose Fraser River sand.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.85-94
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• 2006

Triaxial tests at isotropic confining pressure of 200 kPa were carried out to show the undrained shear behavior of artificially cemented sands, which were cemented by gypsum, and the influences of relative density and DOC (degree of cementation) were investigated from the results. The yield strength, the elastic secant modulus at yield point and the peak frictional angle of cemented sands increased abruptly compared to uncemented sands, and it was checked that cementation exerts more influence on the behavior of sand than the relative density. But after breakage of the cementation bonds, the relative density was more important factor on the behavior of sand than the cementation. Because the compressibility md the excess pore pressure of cemented sands were reduced due to the cementation bonds, the effective stress path of cemented sands was going toward to the total stress path of uncemented sands. The cementation of sand restricted the dialtion of sand at the pre-yield condition, but induced more dilation in the post-yield condition.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 2020

To achieve a wide suction range, the low suction was imposed on compacted silt specimens by the axis translation technique and the high suction was imposed by the vapor equilibrium technique with saturated salt solutions. Firstly, the results of soil water retention tests on compacted silt show that the soil water retention curves in terms of gravimetric water content versus suction relation are independent of the dry density or void ratio in a high suction range. Therefore, triaxial tests on compacted silt with constant water content at high suctions can be considered as that with constant suction. Secondly, the results of triaxial shear tests on unsaturated compacted silt with the initial void ratio of about 0.75 show a strain-hardening behavior with a slightly shear contraction and then strain-softening behavior with an obviously dilation. As the imposed suction increases, the shear strength increases up to a peak value and then decreases when the suction is beyond a special value corresponding to the peak shear strength. The residual strength increases to fair value and those at high suctions are almost independent of imposed suctions. In addition, the contribution of suction to the strength of compacted silt would not diminish even in a high suction range.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.161-170
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• 2013

In this paper, numerical pile segment analysis is conducted with an advanced soil elastoplastic model to investigate the diameter effects on skin friction behaviour of a drilled shaft in sand. Ultimate skin friction and 't-z' behavior from the pile segment analyses for drilled shafts show good agreement with those from design methods. Higher ultimate skin friction for the smaller diameter pile is related to the greater increase in the effective radial stress at the interface due to the localized dilation at and near the pile interface. Stiffer t-z curve for the smaller diameter pile is related to the early occurrence of three shear stages (early, dilation, constant volume shear stages). The diameter effects on ultimate skin friction of drilled shafts are more prominent for denser sand and lower confining pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.39-54
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• 2009

Large scale direct shear tests were carried out to analyze the shear behavior of crushed rocks at local representative quarries. Shear strength for each specimen was derived and the effects on shear behavior induced by the variation of factors such as particle size, water immersion, density, uniformity coefficient, and particle breakage were evaluated and quantitatively compared with previous studies. The opportunity was also taken to identify stress-dilatancy relation of crushed rocks following the energy-based theory and friction coefficients at critical state as well as peak friction angles and dilation angles were estimated. As a result of tests it was found that uniaxial compressive strength and particle breakage of the parent rocks have crucial effect on internal friction angles; in addition, dilatancy at the failure showed strong relationship as well.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2017

In this paper, the effect of normal load on the failure mechanism of echelon joint has been studied using PFC2D. In the first step, calibration of PFC was undertaken with respect to the data obtained from experimental laboratory tests. Then, six different models consisting various echelon joint were prepared and tested under two low and high normal loads. Furthermore, validation of the simulated models were cross checked with the results of direct shear tests performed on non-persistent jointed physical models. The simulations demonstrated that failure patterns were mostly influenced by normal loading, while the shear strength was linked to failure mechanism. When ligament angle is less than $90^{\circ}$, the stable crack growth length is increased by increasing the normal loading. In this condition, fish eyes failure pattern occur in rock bridge. With higher ligament angles, the rock bridge was broken under high normal loading. Applying higher normal loading increases the number of fracture sets while dilation angle and mean orientations of fracture sets with respect to ligament direction will be decreased.