Geo-E2010

Advanced Soil Mechanics L

Wojciech Soowski

12 February 2017
About the course your expectations
You got a piece of paper please write your thoughts as they
come by We will go through these later in the lecture

Is there anything you are particularly interested in soil

mechanics?

Is there anything you would like to know much more about?

Is there anything you have had problems with understanding

and would like me to go through in detail?

Is there anything you consider not worth learning which is in

the course description?

Anything in particular you expect from the course?

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About the course
1. Lectures (13 total) : 50% of the final mark
2. Laboratory : 1/6 of the final mark
3. Exercises: 1/6 of the final mark
4. Design project: 1/6 of the final mark
5. Tutorials: aim of those is to help you with the more
challenging lecture materials (mainly constitutive modelling)

All parts must be passed to get the credits!

Final % calculated as: (3*lectures+lab+ex+project)/6

grades: 1: 50-60%, 2: 60-70%, 3: 70-80%, 4:80-90%, 5: 90-100%
Extra materials / journal papers are mainly intended for
the PhD students, but not only
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 About the course
Lectures (13 total) : 50% of the final mark

Suggestion: grade based on 3 partial exams during the lectures

- test dates are in the timetable, but they can be moved if needed

- participation in lectures / lecture tests will give you some %

towards passing the exam.
suggestion:
- extra % based on lecture tests, tests given in advance and
collected only at the end of the lecture
- each lecture test can give up to 5% score in the test
- passing score at the test: 50%
- grades: 1: 50-60%, 2: 60-70%, 3: 70-80%, 4:80-90%, 5: 90-100%
Any comments ?
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About the course
Feedback:

How would you like to have feedback organized?

Suggestion:
- lets choose representatives who would give me
regular anonymous feedback from the whole group
- especially important if something needs to be
changed quickly
- email would work great for that I will reply to the
whole group, possibly discuss the issue(s) during
lectures
- there may be some anonymous questionnaires during the course
- feedback representatives are likely to be invited for a chat over a
coffee around the end of the course

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SOIL MICROSTRUCTURE

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So... today
Clay:
- microstructure
- clay behaviour and how it is influenced by microstructure
- influence of chemical additives in pore fluid on
microstructure (in this lecture only NaCl)
- sensitive clays
- influence of unsaturation
- anisotropy & cyclic loading
- small strain

Sand:
- microstructure & influence of silty / clay additions
- small strain
- liquefaction
- cyclic loading

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To learn:
Clay:
- what is clay microstructure?
- how it qualitatively changes during loading?
- how clay behaves under loading?
- how chemicals influence microstructure?
- what is the microstructure of sensitive clays?
- what is the influence of unsaturation on clay behaviour
and clay microstructure?
- how clay behaves when anisotropic?
- how clay behaves under cyclic loading?
- what is clay behaviour at small vs large strain?

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To learn:

Sand:
- what is sand microstructure like?
- what is the influence of silty / clay additions on sand
behaviour?
- how sand behaves when the strain is small
- how it behaves when the strains are larger?
- when sand can liquefy? Why?
- how granular materials behave under cyclic loading?

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Clay microstructure

Mitchell & Soga 2005

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Clay microstructure

Van Olphen 1977

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Clay microstructure:
NaCl influence

Dolinar & Tranuner 2007

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Clay behaviour

Mitchell & Soga 2005

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 Clay behaviour
1. Under a given effective consolidation
pressure, a soil with a flocculated fabric is
less dense than the same soil with a
deflocculated structure.

2. At the same void ratio, a flocculated soil

with randomly oriented particles and
particle groups is more rigid than a
deflocculated soil.

3. Once the maximum precompression

stress has been reached, a further
increment of pressure causes a greater
change in fabric of a flocculated soil
structure than in a deflocculated soil
structure.

4. The average pore diameter and range

of pore sizes is smaller in deflocculated
and/or destructured soils than in
flocculated and/or undisturbed soils. Mitchell & Soga 2005

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Clay behaviour
5. Shear displacements
usually orient platy particles
and particle groups with their
long axes parallel to the
direction of shear.

6. Anisotropic consolidation
stresses tend to align platy
particles and particle groups
with their long axes in the
major principal plane.

Mitchell & Soga 2005

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 7. Stresses are usually not distributed
Clay behaviour equally among all particles and particle
groups. Some particles and particle
groups may be essentially stress free
as a result of arching by surrounding
fabric elements

8. Two samples of a soil without

cementation can have a different
structure at the same void ratio -
effective stress coordinates if they have
different stress histories. The stress
deformation properties of the two
samples will differ.

The overconsolidation ratio (OCR),

defined as theratio of the maximum
past consolidation effective
stress to the present overburden
Glacial till effective stress is a good measure of
stress history.

Mitchell & Soga 2005

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 Clay behaviour 9. Volume change
tendencies determine pore
pressure
development during
undrained deformation.

10. Changes in structure of

a saturated soil at constant
volume are accompanied
by changes in effective
stress. These effective
stress changes are
immediate.

11. Changes in structure of

a saturated soil at constant
effective stress are
accompanied by changes
in void ratio. The change in
void ratio is not immediate
but depends on the time
for water to drain from or
enter the soil.

Mitchell & Soga 2005

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Quick clays

Leda clay, Tovey 1971

After Mitchell & Soga 2005, clay

sensitive to remoulding
18
Sensitive clay behaviour salt content

Bjerrum 1954
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Sensitive clay: time

Lessard, 1978
Bjerrum 1954
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 Unsaturated soils

Soil grains tend to

get grouped
together because
of the capillary
pull forces:

Loureno 2008
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Lets look into more details

Soil:
- Soil skeleton
- Bulk water
- Meniscus water
- Air

(+ in fine grained soil, we

have absorbed layers of
water associated with
the clay platelets)

Wheeler & Karube 1995

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Real soil particles are not spheres
but still aggregate together when dried

High suction (Monroy 2005)

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Real soil particles are not spheres
but still aggregate together when dried

High suction (Monroy 2005) Suction 40 kPa (Monroy 2005)

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However, when fully wetted
the aggregates tend to disappear (until drying)

fully hydrated soil (Monroy 2005) reconsitituted soil (Monroy 2005),

(sample mta-2) (sample mta-10)

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Macro: higher suction, stronger soil

silt, Vasallo Mancuso Vinale 2007

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Microstructural changes during collapse

- dried, clay particles create

aggregates.
- aggregates fully wet inside,
- significant strength increase
at high suctions
- soil can sustain higher load.
- when wetted suction
decreases, the aggregates
become weaker
- soil structure start filling the
intra-aggregate voids

and we have collapse Figures Monroy 2005

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Link between suction and water content

Tarantino 2007

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Why hysteresis?

- bottleneck effect: while

drying reaching some
bigger pores may require
drying small bottleneck pore
- while wetting, the bigger
pores generally will fill first
(though some air bubbles
may left in the soil
- Drying and wetting does
change soil microstructure,
therefore the wetting
drying paths will also differ
- There is significant
influence of stress level on
water retention behaviour
(hydro-mechanical coupling) Gallipoli 2006

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 Winter times freeze thaw cycles!

- freezing is complex!
- water ice interface similar to
water air interface
- especially important in
permafrost areas
- some water does not freeze

Gens 2010

Williams 1964 (after Gens 2010)

Anisotropy

Now it is becoming well

agreed that unsaturated
soils are mostly
anisotropic

Especially when samples

prepared with one-
dimensional compaction
when one direction is clearly
privileged

Cui & Delage 1996

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Break 1

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Sand behaviour
Sand microstructure

Wei & Yang 2014

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Microstructure influence

Wei & Yang 2014

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Microstructure influence

Peak and residual failure stresses

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Small strain stiffness

Data for sand, Oztoprak & Bolton 2013

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Small strain stiffness

Wichtmann et al. 2011

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Anisotropy

Effect of initial fabric

anisotropy on
stressstrain and
volume change
behaviour of
Toyoura sand.

Oda 1972
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Anisotropy

Park and Tatsuoka,1994

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Solid liquid transition
Once the specific volume is high enough, the soil particles
loose contact:
soil behaves like a gas (if dry) or liquid (if wet)
However, the soil particles will loose any friction between
them when the pore pressures are high enough (so the
effective stress is zero or less).

soil behaves like a liquid

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Sand liquefaction Rapid shearing

Sand wants to densify, but

constant volume leads to
particles loosing contact

Build-up of pore pressures

Reduction of effective stress

and shear strength

Liquefaction

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Sand liquefaction

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Sand: cyclic loading
= q /p
ampl 0

Wichtmann et al. 2011

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Sand: cyclic loading

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Clay: cyclic loading
Wichtmann et al. 2013

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Simplified summary: clay
How clay microstructure qualitatively changes during loading?
- increase of mean effective stress leads to denser
microstructure

How clay behave under loading?

- slides 13-17

How NaCl influences microstructure and soil behaviour?

- the clay platelets tend to come together and form
aggregates more easily (slide 12)

What is the microstructure of sensitive clays?

- it is very loose and unstable, created during sedimentation,
often held together by some weak forces related to salt (slides 18-20)

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Simplified summary: clay
What is the influence of unsaturation on clay behaviour and
clay microstructure?
- the more unsaturated the clay is, the stronger it is
- microstructure becomes denser and stronger, see 21 - 29
How clay behaves when anisotropic?
It is elastic for longer when the stress state corresponds to the
anisotropic stress in situ. When sheared / stress changes, the
anisotropy of the material evolve. More in lecture 12.
How clay behaves under cyclic loading?
- the deformations increase the more cycles there are
- the larger the stress in the cycles, the quicker the
deformations increase, till failure
What is clay behaviour at small vs large strain?
- at small strain clay is significantly stiffer and deform less than
at larger strains

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Simplified summary: sand
What is sand microstructure like?
Can be loose / dense; force chains exist
What is the influence of silty / clay additions on sand behaviour?
Additions significantly reduce sand strength
How sand behaves when the strain is small?
Sand is much stiffer, less deformations. Perhaps little / no movement of
particles
How it behaves when the strains are larger? That is what we usually
test You need to know the difference between dense and loose sand.
When sand can liquefy? Why?
Sand liquefies usually under rapid cyclic loading. Only loose sand liquefies.
Liquefaction is due to undrained sand densification
How granular materials behave under cyclic loading?
The larger the amplitude of load, the quicker they loose strength. With very
low amplitudes, grain wear (grain becomes rounder) and grain cracking
matter a lot (especially train lines)
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Thank you