TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental investigation on small-strain stiffness of marine silty sand
AU - Wu, Qi
AU - Lu, Qingrui
AU - Guo, Qizhou
AU - Zhao, Kai
AU - Chen, Pen
AU - Chen, Guoxing
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), grant number 51978335, and by the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, grant number Z019010.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The study in this paper was partly supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB013605). This financial support is highly appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors.
PY - 2020/5/1
Y1 - 2020/5/1
N2 - The significance of small-strain stiffness (Gmax) of saturated composite soils are still of great concern in practice, due to the complex influence of fines on soil fabric. This paper presents an experimental investigation conducted through comprehensive bender element tests on Gmax of marine silty sand. Special attention is paid to the influence of initial effective confining pressure (σ'c0), global void ratio (e) and fines content (FC) on Gmax of a marine silty sand. The results indicate that under otherwise similar conditions, Gmax decreases with decreasing e or FC, but decreases with increasing FC. In addition, the reduction rate of Gmax with e increasing is not sensitive to σ'c0, but obviously sensitive to changes in FC. The equivalent skeleton void ratio (e*) is introduced as an alternative state index for silty sand with various FC, based on the concept of binary packing material. Remarkably, the Hardin model is modified with the new state index e*, allowing unified characterization of Gmax values for silty sand with various FC, e, and σ'c0. Independent test data for different silty sand published in the literature calibrate the applicability of this proposed model.
AB - The significance of small-strain stiffness (Gmax) of saturated composite soils are still of great concern in practice, due to the complex influence of fines on soil fabric. This paper presents an experimental investigation conducted through comprehensive bender element tests on Gmax of marine silty sand. Special attention is paid to the influence of initial effective confining pressure (σ'c0), global void ratio (e) and fines content (FC) on Gmax of a marine silty sand. The results indicate that under otherwise similar conditions, Gmax decreases with decreasing e or FC, but decreases with increasing FC. In addition, the reduction rate of Gmax with e increasing is not sensitive to σ'c0, but obviously sensitive to changes in FC. The equivalent skeleton void ratio (e*) is introduced as an alternative state index for silty sand with various FC, based on the concept of binary packing material. Remarkably, the Hardin model is modified with the new state index e*, allowing unified characterization of Gmax values for silty sand with various FC, e, and σ'c0. Independent test data for different silty sand published in the literature calibrate the applicability of this proposed model.
KW - Binary packing model
KW - Hardin model
KW - Marine silty sand
KW - Small-strain stiness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086104634&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/JMSE8050360
DO - 10.3390/JMSE8050360
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086104634
SN - 2077-1312
VL - 8
JO - Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
JF - Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
IS - 5
M1 - 360
ER -
