Particle breakage and its influence on soil behavior under undrained condition

Abstract

This paper presents particle breakage and its influence on soil behavior under undrained shear condition. First the pre-crushed sand was produced by triaxial tests under 3MPa confining pressure on dense samples. It was revealed that particle breakage increased with increasing axial strain and particle breakage in shear band was found to be much more substantial than outside shear band. Thereafter the pre-crushed sand and original sand were used separately in new traixial tests under 0.2MPa and 3MPa confining pressures to investigate the influence of particle breakage on soil behavior under undrained condition. It was found that particle breakage deteriorated the stress-strain curves in reduction of peak strength of soil and resulted in more substantial development of excess Pore Water Pressure (PWP) with a higher residual excess PWP. Particle breakage resulted in more contractive behavior of soil in depression of dilatancy. The effective friction angle at peak strength and the deformation modulus at 0.002 axial strain were analyzed with respect to particle breakage. It was concluded that the particle breakage resulted in reduction of friction angle and deformation modulus.