On the basis of their connection characteristics and the ratio of micro-forces and gravity, soil particles are decomposed into matrix particles and reinforcement particles of a certain demarcation size to investigate the mechanical properties of soil at different scales. A soil cell element that can describe the internal material information and particle characteristics of soil is constructed, and a soil cell element model that can characterize the multi-scale mechanical properties of soil is proposed. A series of unconsolidated and undrained triaxial compression tests on unsaturated, remoulded soil is designed to study the multi-scale mechanical properties of soil and to quantitatively determine the strain gradient and intrinsic length scale of soil. The results show that soil yield stress increases with decrease in the size of the reinforcement particles. The effective strain gradient of soil, which is a reflection of the heterogeneous and discontinuous deformation of soil, increases with decrease in the size of the reinforcement particles. The intrinsic length scale of soil, which is a reflection of the particle size effect of soil, increases with increase in the size of the reinforcement particles. The experimental data can be well fitted to the soil cell element model.
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Translated from Osnovaniya, Fundamenty i Mekhanika Gruntov, No. 4, p. 11, July-August, 2015.
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Feng, Dl., Fang, Yg. Theoretical and Experimental Study on Multi-Scale Mechanical Properties of Soil. Soil Mech Found Eng 52, 189–197 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11204-015-9327-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11204-015-9327-7