Examination of the Relationship between Average Particle Size and Shear Strength of Granite-derived Weathered Soils through 2-D Distinct-element Method

Autor: Heui-Dae Lim, Seon-Uk Kim
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society. 28:77-86
ISSN: 1229-2427
DOI: 10.7843/kgs.2012.28.12.77
Popis: We have carried out a series of numerical experiments to study the effect of average particle size on the mechanical properties of granite-derived weathered soils. A distinct-element method was adopted to study the changes in macro-scale mechanical properties with particle size and maximum-to-minimum particle size ratio. The numerical soil specimen with cohesion values of 0.25 MPa and internal friction angle of 29 degrees was prepared for reference. While keeping the porosity values constant, we varied particle size and size distribution to study how cohesion and internal friction angle changes. The experimental results show that the values of cohesion apparently decrease with increasing particle size. Changes in the values of internal friction angles are small, but there is a trend of increase in internal friction angle as the average particle size increases. This study demonstrates a possibility that the results of numerical experiments of this type may be used for rapid estimation of mechanical properties of granite-derived weathered soils. For example, when mechanical properties obtained through in situ tests and particle size data obtained through lab analysis are available for a site, it is expected that the mechanical properties of weathered granite soils with varying degrees of weathering (thus, varying particle size) may be estimated rapidly only with particle size data for that site.
Databáze: OpenAIRE