Publication Date:
2018-04-11
Description:
This article presents a fundamental study on the role of particle breakage on the shear behavior of granular
soils using the three-dimensional (3-D) discrete element method. The effects of particle breakage on the stress
ratio, volumetric strain, plastic deformation, and shear failure behavior of dense crushable specimens undergoing
plane strain shearing conditions are thoroughly investigated through a variety of micromechanical
analyses and mechanism demonstrations. The simulation of a granular specimen is based on the effective
modeling of realistic fracture behavior of single soil particles, which is demonstrated by the qualitative agreement
between the results from platen compression simulations and those from physical laboratory tests.
The simulation results show that the major effects of particle breakage include the reduction of volumetric
dilation and peak stress ratio and more importantly the plastic deformation mechanisms and the shear failure
modes vary as a function of soil crushability. Consistent macro- and micromechanical evidence demonstrates
that shear banding and massive volumetric contraction depict the two end failure modes of a dense
specimen, which is dominated by particle rearrangement–induced dilation and particle crushing–induced
compression, respectively, with a more general case being the combination and competition of the two failure
modes in the medium range of soil crushability and confining stress. However, it is further shown that a
highly crushable specimen will eventually develop a shear band at a large strain because of the continuous
decay of particle breakage.
Type:
Article
,
PeerReviewed
Format:
text