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The State of Art on Equivalent State Theory for Silty Sands

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Latest Developments in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

Abstract

For the same void ratio (e) and stress conditions, a systematic increase of non-plastic fines content (fc, particle size ≤ 0.075 mm) in clean sands, generally, follows an increase in contractive tendency in their stress–strain behaviors. While keeping the same e, fines act as a filler between sand particles, reducing its force resisting skeleton structure up to threshold fc (fthr). Thus, for sand with a range of fc, e loses its credibility as one of the state variables in the critical state soil mechanics (CSSM) framework. This can be avoided by −1) considering sand with each fc as a separate soil to establish its CSSM framework which is not practical due to laborious effort for predefining critical state lines (CSLs) for a range of fc, 2) correcting e to an equivalent granular void ratio (e*), considering relative interaction of fine particles in the matrix of sand particles. This state-of-art lecture presents the progressive development of the simplistic model for e* using experimental and discrete element method (DEM) data, which may coalesce CSLs for sand with a range of fc to a single equivalent granular critical state line (EG-CSL). The advantage of the EG-CSL is that only a CSL for clean sand or sand with an fc is required to define it, which applies to a range of fc as a single framework. The substitution of e* for e modifies the concept state parameter (ψ) to equivalent granular state parameter (ψ*). The e* and ψ* capture the effect of fine particles in the characteristic features of drained and undrained behavior, including static and cyclic liquefaction. Again, the substitution of e* and ψ* for e and ψ into state-dependent constitutive models (e.g., SANISAND family of models) works very well for the prediction of static and cyclic liquefaction. The theories of e*, EG-CSL, ψ* and relevant constitutive modelling are defined here as the equivalent state theory (EST). The limitation and potential application of the EST are discussed with relevant literature.

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Acknowledgements

The author has been working on this topic for nearly 15 years. The development and understanding of the equivalent state theory were achieved in collaboration with many renowned colleagues, to name a few—my Ph.D. supervisor A/Professor Robert Lo (UNSW, Canberra), Professor Yannis Dafalias (University California, Davis), Professor Misko Cubrinovski (University Canterbury, Christchurch), Professor TG Sitharam (Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati), Late Professor Tom Schanz & Dr Meisam Goudarzy (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Dr. Antonio Carraro (Imperial College London). Many former and current graduate students should be acknowledged, particularly Dr Abdul Baki, Dr Khoi Nguyen and Mr. Nick Barnett.

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  1. University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, Adelaide, Australia

    Md Mizanur Rahman

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Correspondence to Md Mizanur Rahman .

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  1. Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    T.G. Sitharam

  2. Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

    Ravi Jakka

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Mangalore, Karnataka, India

    Sreevalsa Kolathayar

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Rahman, M.M. (2021). The State of Art on Equivalent State Theory for Silty Sands. In: Sitharam, T., Jakka, R., Kolathayar, S. (eds) Latest Developments in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1468-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1468-2_11

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