Modeling for critical state line of granular soil with evolution of grain size distribution due to particle breakage

Abstract

Determination of the critical state line (CSL) is important to characterize engineering properties of granular soils. Grain size distribution (GSD) has a significant influence on the location of CSL. The influence of particle breakage on the CSL is mainly attributed to the change in GSD due to particle breakage. However, GSD has not been properly considered in modeling the CSL with influence of particle breakage. This study aims to propose a quantitative model to determine the CSL considering the effect of GSD. We hypothesize that the change of critical state void ratio with respect to GSD is caused by the same mechanism that influences of the change of minimum void ratio with respect to GSD. Consequently, the particle packing model for minimum void ratio proposed by Chang et al. (2017) is extended to predict critical state void ratio. The developed model is validated by experimental results of CSLs for several types of granular materials. Then the evolution of GSD due to particle breakage is incorporated into the model. The model is further evaluated using the experimental results on rockfill material, which illustrates the applicability of the model in predicting CSL for granular material with particle breakage.