Mechanical Behavior of Clean Sand at Low Confining Pressure: Verification with Element and Model Tests

AbstractConfining pressure significantly influences the mechanical behavior of soil. Understanding geotechnical problems related to low confining pressures requires precise modeling of soil behavior at low confining stress. Yet laboratory tests, including element tests under low confining pressure,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering 2015-08, Vol.141 (8)
Main Authors: Huang, Y, Cheng, H. L, Osada, T, Hosoya, A, Zhang, F
Format: Article
Language:English
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Technical Note
Technical Notes
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Summary:AbstractConfining pressure significantly influences the mechanical behavior of soil. Understanding geotechnical problems related to low confining pressures requires precise modeling of soil behavior at low confining stress. Yet laboratory tests, including element tests under low confining pressure, are so far quite limited. In this note, a series of element tests under low confining pressure (5–20 kPa) were carried out to investigate the effect of low confining pressure on the mechanical behavior of loose and medium dense Toyoura sand. Element tests include undrained cyclic loading tests, as well as drained and undrained strain-controlled monotonic loading tests. The results show that loose sand under low confining pressure behaves much like dense sand under higher pressure. Model tests of slope failure flow under microgravity, carried out to supplement the element test results, also confirmed the previously mentioned mechanical behavior. The results obtained in this paper provide a more fundamental understanding of geotechnical problems related to low confining stress.
ISSN:1090-0241
1943-5606
DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001330