Study on wetting deformation characteristics of coarse granular materials and its simulation in core‐wall rockfill dams

Summary The wetting deformation of coarse granular materials is often considered to be an important cause of the core wall rockfill dam cracks during impounding. By analyzing existing research results, this paper proposes a hyperbolic relationship between the wetting axial strain and wetting stress...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics 2020-04, Vol.44 (6), p.851-873
Main Authors: Zhou, Xiongxiong, Chi, Shichun, Wang, Maohua, Jia, Yufeng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Axial strain
Axial stress
coarse granular materials
Computer simulation
Cracks
Deformation
Deformation mechanisms
Granular materials
hyperbolic relationship
numerical simulation
Process parameters
Rockfill
rockfill dam
Rockfill dams
Shear stress
Strain
Upstream
Volumetric strain
warped surface
Wetting
wetting deformation
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Summary:Summary The wetting deformation of coarse granular materials is often considered to be an important cause of the core wall rockfill dam cracks during impounding. By analyzing existing research results, this paper proposes a hyperbolic relationship between the wetting axial strain and wetting stress level and puts forwards a warped surface relationship among spherical stress, shear stress, and the ratio of wetting volumetric strain to wetting axial strain. To illustrate its practicability, the wetting strain model's parameter determination process is introduced and the rockfill materials wetting parameters are determined using the triaxial wetting test data. Moreover, the collapse settlement of Guanyinyan rockfill dam during first impounding is numerically simulated using the proposed method to calculate rockfill wetting deformation and verified by field measurements and monitoring data. The results show that the calculative method of wetting deformation proposed in this paper is reasonable and practical; the wetting deformation of upstream rockfill materials would cause an adverse deformation trend, which may lead to crack occurrence at the upstream slope and dam crest; and the Guanyinyan rockfill dam cracks on the top of junction mainly caused by the wetting deformation of upstream rockfill.
ISSN:0363-9061
1096-9853
DOI:10.1002/nag.3042