Journal Published Online: 03 February 2016
Volume 39, Issue 3

Investigation of Soil-Arching Development in Dense Sand by 2D Model Tests

CODEN: GTJODJ

Abstract

A trapdoor system has frequently been used to study soil arching and its development in recent years. The load transfer in the fill of piled embankments is very similar to a trapdoor system with multiple trapdoors. There are multiple arching models described in different standards and guidelines for piled embankments that can be subdivided into three arching-model families. To study the soil-arching type and its development, a series of model tests with sand fills were carried out in a two-dimensional (2D) multi-trapdoor test setup. The tests considered four factors—the fill height, trapdoor width, pile width, and grain size of the sand—with four values for each factor. Triangular slip surfaces were found at very small deformations using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. These surfaces evolved in ways that could be related to the three types of stress-distribution ratio curves, with development patterns similar to the arching families of piled embankments: (1) the rigid-model family, (2) the equal-settlement-plane-model family, and (3) the limit-equilibrium-model family. The limit-equilibrium-model family occurred in tests with narrow trapdoor widths.

Author Information

Rui, R.
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan Univ. of Technology, Wuhan, CN
van Tol, A.
Dept. of Geoscience and Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, NL
Xia, Y.
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan Univ. of Technology, Wuhan, CN
van Eekelen, S.
Deltares, Unit Geo-Engineering, Delft, NL
Hu, G.
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan Univ. of Technology, Wuhan, CN
Pages: 16
Price: $25.00
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Details
Stock #: GTJ20150130
ISSN: 0149-6115
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ20150130