Abstract
The issue of the interface between soils and structures is an important research area in the high embankment dam. The particle flow code (PFC3D) that uses the discrete element method, can be used to research various geotechnical engineering problems, including the interface problems. Numerical simulations by PFC3Dentail the mesoscopic parameters of walls and particles, i.e. the cohesion strength, tensile strength, the wall friction and the interparticle friction that are critical to determine whether the results of the simulations can be consistent with those of tests. On the basis of a large number of numerical simulation tests, this paper tries to reveal the connections between these mesoscopic parameters and macroscopic mechanical properties in the clay-concrete interface tests. Then macroscopic and mesoscopic properties of the interface are analysed by numerical simulations.
Highlights
The high embankment dam is the most common type of dam that is normally constructed of earthfill and/or rockfill
The interaction of the interface between the core wall, the key seepage-proof structure, which is made up of compacted clayey earthfill and the bedrock is essentially critical to be figured out, as it influences the response of the core wall remarkably and play an important role in the design and analysis of high embankment dams
Desai [2, 3] issued the disturbed state concept based on cyclic tests, which filled the gap in geotechnical engineering in terms of damage mechanics
Summary
The high embankment dam is the most common type of dam that is normally constructed of earthfill and/or rockfill. The interaction of the interface between the core wall, the key seepage-proof structure, which is made up of compacted clayey earthfill and the bedrock is essentially critical to be figured out, as it influences the response of the core wall remarkably and play an important role in the design and analysis of high embankment dams. There are various numerical methods used to research the mechanism and behaviour of the interface between structures and soils. PFC is developed dependent on the discrete element method and its advantages are that it can simulate the big deformation of soils, that there is no need to draw the computational grids and that it can directly illustrate the process of the interaction of the interface. The particle flow code was used to research different geotechnical problems including shear band, failure mechanism and liquefaction [6,7,8]
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