A fractional order creep constitutive model of warm frozen silt

Abstract

A series of triaxial creep tests were conducted on warm frozen silts extracted from Qinghai–Tibet Plateau at temperature of −1.5 °C under confining pressures of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 MPa, respectively. The applied test stress levels were 30, 50, 60, and 70% of triaxial shear strength, respectively. The test results indicate that the creep strain increases with the increase in applied stress level and there is a stress threshold, based on which the test results can be classified into two types of creep strain curves. The creep strain curve only includes primary and secondary creep stages when the stress level is less than the threshold value. When the stress level exceeds the threshold value, the creep strain velocity gradually increases and the specimen quickly fails in tertiary creep stage. Based on the creep test results, a fractional order rheological element model is established for warm frozen silt, which is also generalized from uniaxial stress state to the three-dimensional stress state. From the analysis on the features of the stress threshold, a creep strength criterion is also proposed simultaneously. Comparing the calculated results of the warm frozen silt with the tested ones, it is found that the predicted results of the proposed model are in good agreement with the test results. In the proposed fractional order model, the relationship between the damage factor and time is established to describe the damage degree of the specimen. Compared with the existing creep constitutive model of frozen soil, the proposed fractional order model has advantages of fewer model parameters, higher simulation precision and wider applicability in analyzing the mechanical properties of warm frozen silt.