Constitutive modeling of Leighton Buzzard Sands using genetic programming

Abstract

This paper investigates the results of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations conducted to examine the behavior of mixtures composed of coarse (i.e. Leighton Buzzard Sand fraction B) and fine (i.e. Leighton Buzzard Sand fraction E) sand particles. Emphasis was placed on assessing the role of fines content in mixture and strain level on the deviatoric stress and pore water pressure generation using experimental (i.e. Triaxial testing) and numerical approaches (i.e. genetic programming, GP). The experimental database used for GP modeling is based on a laboratory study of the properties of saturated coarse and fine sand mixtures with various mix ratios under a 100 kPa effective stresses in a 100 mm diameter conventional triaxial testing apparatus. Experimental results show that coarse–fine sand mixtures exhibit clay-like behavior due to particle–particle effects with the increase in fines content. It is shown that GP modeling of coarse–fine sand mixtures is observed to be quite satisfactory. The results have implications in the design of compressible particulate systems and in the development of prediction tools for the field performance coarse–fine sands.