A constitutive model accounting for grain crushing in silica sands
A constitutive model accounting for grain crushing in silica sands
Grain crushing around the pile occurs during the installation of driven piles in granular materials and soft rocks. Grain size distribution changes modify the strength and compressibility of soils, to an extent that may be significant for offshore foundation responses. To investigate those effects a new constitutive model was formulated to incorporate the effect of grain crushing on the mechanical response of granular soils. The model employs two yield surfaces: a volumetric one linking the evolution of crushing with stress history; and a shear surface, where the mobilized strength and dilatancy are function of the critical state ratio and state parameters. The mechanical effect of crushing is represented in the model through a Critical State Plane - CSP in the e-p'-Br space (void ratio - mean effective stress - breakage index). The CSP reflects the shift downward of the Critical State Line - CSL on the compression plane as grain crushing develops. The capabilities of the proposed two-surface formulation to capture the changes in strength and dilatancy that accompany crushing is illustrated for a silica sand (Fontainebleau), but the model could be used for other crushable materials like carbonate sand.
David Leon-Vanegas; Lluis Monforte; Marcos Arroyo; Antonio Gens
5th International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics (ISFOG2025)
3 - Constitutive models and soil behaviour modelling
https://doi.org/10.53243/ISFOG2025-136
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