Numerical Simulation of Triaxial Tests for Coarse-Grained Soil Considering the Initial Fabric of Samples Grain

Abstract

The strength parameters of granular coarse-grained soil are the critical factor that affects the stability of ultra-high dump. The soil particles of different size have no sorting and random distribution, which leads to the initial fabric of sample grain uncontrolled in the laboratory test of coarse-grained soil, therefore, only relying on the laboratory testing is difficult to obtain the reliable strength parameters of coarse-grained soil. Based on Cellular Automata method, combining the laboratory triaxial tests of coarse-grained soil developed the HHC-CA model which generated the coarse-grained soil samples of different initial fabric of grain to characterize the heterogeneous and random distribution of coarse-grained soil grain group. Then by means of FLAC3D, conducting triaxial numerical simulation tests of coarse-grained soil and discussing the relationship between the gravel contents of samples shear band and samples and internal friction angle. Moreover, the shear strength model for different coarse-grained contents is established. Numerical simulation results indicated that the relationship between internal friction angle of coarse-grained soil and gravel contents of samples shear band were increasing function in the same size grading. According to the increasing of samples gravel contents, the internal friction angle might reduce, but the mean internal friction angle significantly increased with the increment of samples gravel contents.