Particle Flow Simulation on Collapse Characteristics of Silt Under Mutation of Principal Stress Orientation

Abstract

The behaviors of granular material and influencing factors under complex dynamic loading are studied by more and more researchers with particle flow method. Only the strain-controlled loading has been generally used in the current study, although this method was not consistent with the practice of engineering in many situations. In this article, stress-controlled dynamic simulation tests were carried out with particle flow method, which were used to study the collapse characteristics of silt under mutation of principal stress orientation. The tests were performed by PFC2D. The simulation results and the laboratory real tests’ results had a high degree of similarity, particularly in the collapse strain and vibration times. It was very useful to forecast the silt's critical failure state. Based on the verification data, the effects of confining pressure and cyclic shear stress ratio on the collapse characteristics of silt were studied further. With the increase of cyclic shear stress ratio, the deviator strain amplitude increased and the required vibration times gradually reduced to achieve the same strain level. Under the same dynamic shear stress ratio and vibration times, the initial dynamic elastic modulus slightly increased with the increase of initial confining pressure, and the variation range of final collapse deviator strain was small. In the analysis of micro-structural evolution, the redistribution of internal stress of sample was revealed during cyclic loading. With the increase of vibration times, the development of distribution gradually stabilized, and then the high shear stress appeared in some connected regions. On that stage, the particle system developed to instability and failure. The PFC simulation results confirmed that the collapse state was the critical stage to trigger the liquefaction of silt.