Location
San Diego, California
Presentation Date
26 May 2010, 4:45 pm - 6:45 pm
Abstract
The paper reports on our effort to extend the well-known Hardin's equation by the influence of the grain size distribution curve. The study is motivated by the fact that Hardin's equation with its commonly used constants can significantly over-estimate the small strain shear modulus Gmax of well-graded sands. Approximately 350 resonant column (RC) tests with additional P-wave measurements have been performed on 33 specially mixed grain size distribution curves of a quartz sand with different mean grain sizes d50, coefficients of uniformity Cu = d60/d10 and fines contents FC. The experiments show that for constant values of void ratio and pressure, the shear modulus Gmax and the small-strain constrained elastic modulus Mmax are independent of the mean grain size, but strongly decrease with increasing coefficient of uniformity. A fines content further reduces the small-strain stiffness. In order to improve the estimation of Gmax and Mmax, the parameters of Hardin's equation have been correlated with Cu and FC. A correlation of Gmax and Mmax with relative density Dr is less accurate. For a certain shear strain amplitude γ, the modulus degradation factor G(γ)/Gmax is smaller for higher Cu-values but does not depend on the fines content. An extension of an empirical formula for the modulus degradation factor is presented.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
5th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2010 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Wichtmann, Torsten and Triantafyllidis, Theodor, "On the Influence of the Grain Size Distribution Curve on Dynamic Properties of Quartz Sand" (2010). International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. 19.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icrageesd/05icrageesd/session01/19
Included in
On the Influence of the Grain Size Distribution Curve on Dynamic Properties of Quartz Sand
San Diego, California
The paper reports on our effort to extend the well-known Hardin's equation by the influence of the grain size distribution curve. The study is motivated by the fact that Hardin's equation with its commonly used constants can significantly over-estimate the small strain shear modulus Gmax of well-graded sands. Approximately 350 resonant column (RC) tests with additional P-wave measurements have been performed on 33 specially mixed grain size distribution curves of a quartz sand with different mean grain sizes d50, coefficients of uniformity Cu = d60/d10 and fines contents FC. The experiments show that for constant values of void ratio and pressure, the shear modulus Gmax and the small-strain constrained elastic modulus Mmax are independent of the mean grain size, but strongly decrease with increasing coefficient of uniformity. A fines content further reduces the small-strain stiffness. In order to improve the estimation of Gmax and Mmax, the parameters of Hardin's equation have been correlated with Cu and FC. A correlation of Gmax and Mmax with relative density Dr is less accurate. For a certain shear strain amplitude γ, the modulus degradation factor G(γ)/Gmax is smaller for higher Cu-values but does not depend on the fines content. An extension of an empirical formula for the modulus degradation factor is presented.
