Imperial College London
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ProfessorCatherineO'Sullivan

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor of Particulate Soil Mechanics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6117cath.osullivan Website

 
 
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Location

 

501Skempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Liu:2021:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002466,
author = {Liu, D and O'Sullivan, C and Harb, Carraro JA},
doi = {10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002466},
journal = {Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering},
pages = {04020182--1--04020182--14},
title = {Influence of particle size distribution on the proportion of stress-transmitting particles and implications for measures of soil state},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002466},
volume = {147},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - It is generally accepted that the use of void ratio and bulk density as measures of soil8state have limitations  in  the  case  of  gap-graded soils as  the  finer  grains  may  not 9transmit  stress.  However, hitherto  no  one  has  systematically  explored  whether  this 10issue  also  emerges  for soils with  continuous  gradings. Building  on  a  number  of experimental  and  discrete  element  method  (DEM)  studies  that  have  considered  the idea of an effective void ratio for gap-graded or bi-modal soils, this contribution extends consideration  of  this  concept  to  a  broader  range  of  particle  size  distributions. By exploiting high   performance   computers,   this study   considers   a   range   of ideal isotropically compressed  samples of spherical  particles with linear,  fractal  and  gap-graded (bimodal and trimodal) particle size distributions. The materials’ initial packing densities are controlled by varying the inter-particle coefficient of friction. The results show that  even for  soils with continuous particle  size  distributions,  a  significant proportion  of  the  finer  particles  may  not  transmit  stress and  be  inactive. Drawing  on ideas  put  forward  in  relation  to  gap-graded soils, both a  mechanical  void  ratio and mechanical bulk density that consider the inactive grains as part of the void space are determined.  Even  for  the  linear  and  fractal  gradings  considered  here,  the  difference between the conventional measures and the mechanical measures is finite and density dependent.  The difference is measurably larger  in  the  looser  samples  considered. These data highlight a conceptual/fundamental limitation of using the global void ratio26as a measure of state in expressions to predict granular material behaviour
AU  - Liu,D
AU  - O'Sullivan,C
AU  - Harb,Carraro JA
DO  - 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002466
EP  - 1
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 0733-9410
SP  - 04020182
TI  - Influence of particle size distribution on the proportion of stress-transmitting particles and implications for measures of soil state
T2  - Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002466
UR  - https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29GT.1943-5606.0002466
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/85088
VL  - 147
ER  -
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