Study on the constitutive model of sandy pebble soil

Abstract

Sandy pebble soil is mainly composed of pebbles, gravel and some clayey soil, the structure of pebble soil is discrete. Different from other soils and rocks, the mechanical properties of pebble soil are complex and easy to be disturbed, shield construction in sandy pebble soil may cause land subsidence easily. Constitutive model plays an important role in better understanding the mechanical properties of sandy pebble soil. This paper reviews two constitutive models (Reuss model and Voigt model) of composite materials. Based on the assumption of stress uniformity and strain uniformity, the analytical formulas for calculating the equivalent elastic modulus of pebble soil are derived. To verify the formulas, a series of numerical experiments are established through ABAQUS.