Experimental and numerical study on the compaction of granular soils by vibrations
Experimental and numerical study on the compaction of granular soils by vibrations
The paper deals with the influence of vibrations, i.e. cyclic excitations with large acceleration amplitudes, on dry granular materials like sand. The inertial stresses induced by the accelerations cause a temporary loss of shear strength as well as a permanent compaction of the material. Although this phenomenon is known for a long time and plays an important role in many geotechnical construction processes like deep vibrocompaction and vibrodriving of piles, only few systematic studies on the fundamental relations exist. The investigations at TU Berlin focus on the relationship between the static and dynamic stress states in the material during vibrations and the achieved compaction. An experimental setup was developed which allowed for the compaction of sand under small effective stresses and large acceleration amplitudes. As the dynamic stresses determining the compaction behaviour vary within the sample, a simple method to evaluate the vertical distribution of void ratio is applied. The results of these tests are presented and a simple model for estimating the compaction based on the stress state and acceleration amplitude is proposed. This model is applied to the results of numerical simulations of deep vibrocompaction, to gain an estimate of the amount of compaction caused by the cyclic accelerations.
M. Wotzlaw; D. Aubram; F. Rackwitz
18th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ECSMGE2024)
D - Current and new construction methods
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