DEM investigation on the effect of sample preparation on the shear behavior of granular soil

Abstract

The effect of initial fabric anisotropy produced by sample preparation on the shear behavior of granular soil is investigated by performing discrete element method (DEM) simulations of fourteen biaxial tests in drained conditions. Numerical test specimens are prepared by three means: gravitational deposition, multi-layer compression, and isotropic compression, such that different initial inherent soil fabrics are created. The DEM simulation results show that initial fabric anisotropy exerts a considerable effect on the shear behavior of granular soil, and that the peak stress ratio and peak dilatancy increase with an increase in the fabric index an that is estimated from the contact orientations. The stress–dilatancy relationship is found to be independent of the initial fabric anisotropy. The anisotropy related to the contact orientation and contact normal force accounts for the main contribution to the mobilized friction angle. Also, the occurrence of contractive shear response in an initial shearing stage is accompanied by the most intense particle rearrangement and microstructural reorganization, regardless of the sample preparation method. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the critical state line in e–logp′ and q–p′ plots is observed, suggesting that the influence of initial fabric anisotropy is erased at large shear strains.