Hydromechanical modeling of granular soils considering internal erosion

Abstract

This paper attempts to formulate a coupled practical model in the framework of continuum mechanics to evaluate the phenomenon of internal erosion and its consequences on the mechanical behavior of soils. For this purpose, a four-constituent numerical approach has been developed to describe the internal erosion process. The detachment and transport of the fine particles have been described by a mass exchange formulation between the solid and fluid phases. The stress–strain relationship of the soil is represented by a nonlinear incremental model. Based on experimental data, this constitutive model has been enhanced by the introduction of a fines content–dependent critical state, which allows accounting for the influence of fines on soil deformation and strength. The applicability of the practical approach to capture the main features of the internal erosion process and its impact on the mechanical behavior of the eroded soil have been validated by comparing numerical and experimental results of internal erosion tests on Hong Kong completely decomposed granite (HK-CDG) mixtures, which demonstrated that the practical model was able to reproduce, with reasonable success, the experimental data. Furthermore, the influence of the stress state, the initial soil density, and the initial fraction of fines have been analyzed through numerical simulations using the proposed model.