Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Investigation on strength degradation of sandy soil subjected to concentrated particle erosion

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is increasing concern regarding local concentrated erosion scenarios such as piping and underground cavities due to their catastrophic consequences. In this study, local concentrated erosion was reproduced by placing shaped erodible columns within the triaxial specimens during sample preparation. The preplaced erodible columns (made of glucose) were set similar in regard to their volume fraction but different in configurations. Bender element measurements were performed in dry, the erosion on-going, and post erosion states to evaluate the mechanical behavior of the samples subjected to concentrate particle removal. The influence of concentrated particle erosion on the shear wave velocity, shear strength, dilatancy and peak angle of shearing resistance was revealed and discussed. It is generally concluded that the resultant effect on the mechanical behavior of soils is greater when erodible particles are more localized within a limited region, especially for densely packed soils.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and material

Available upon request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

References

  • Berryman JG (1981) Elastic wave propagation in fluid-saturated porous media. J Acoust Soc Am 69(2):416–424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cha M, Santamarina JC, Kim HS, Cho GC (2014) Small-strain stiffness, shear-wave velocity, and soil compressibility. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 140(10):06014011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen C, Zhang LM (2016) Stress-strain behavior of granular soils subjected to internal erosion. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 142(12):1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Fam MA, Cascante G, Dusseault MB (2002) Large and small strain properties of sands subjected to local void increase. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 128(12):1018–1025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez AL, Santamarina JC (2001) Effect of cementation on the small-strain parameters of sands. Can Geotech J 38(1):191–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster M, Fell R, Spannagle M (2000) The statistics of embankment dam failures and accidents. Can Geotech J 37(5):1000–1024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fratta D, Santamarina JC (2002) Shear wave propagation in jointed rock: state of stress. Geotechnique 52(7):495–505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gu XQ, Yang J, Huang MS, Gao GY (2015) Bender element tests in dry and saturated sand: signal interpretation and result comparison. Soils Found 55(5):952–963

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin BO, Black WL (1966) Sand stiffness under various triaxial stresses. ASCE Soil Mech Found Div J 92(2):27–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin BO, Drnevich VP (1972) Shear modulus and damping in soil: design equations and curves. ASCE Soil Mech Found Div J 98(7):667–692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ICOLD Bulletion 164 (2012) Internal erosion of existing dams, levees and dikes, and their foundations. International Commission on Large Dams, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuwano R, Connolly TM, Jardine RJ (2000) Anisotropic stiffness measurements in a stress-path triaxial cell. Geotech Test J 23(2):141–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDougall J, Kelly D, Barreto D (2013) Particle loss and volume change on dissolution: experimental results and analysis of particle size and amount effects. Acta Geotech 8(6):619–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santamarina JC, Klein KA, Fam MA (2001) Soils and waves: particulate materials behavior, characterization and process monitoring. Wiley, New York, pp 238–282

    Google Scholar 

  • Sato M, Kuwano R (2018) Laboratory testing for evaluation of the influence of a small degree of internal erosion on deformation and stiffness. Soils Found 58(3):547–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shin H, Santamarina JC (2009) Mineral dissolution and the evolution of k0. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 134(8):1141–1147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tao H, Tao J (2017) Quantitative analysis of piping erosion micro-mechanisms with coupled CFD and DEM method. Acta Geotech 12:573–592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Towhata I, Goto S, Goto S, Akima T, Tanaka J, Uchimura T, Wang GH, Yamaguchi H, Aoyama S (2020) Mechanism and future risk of slope instability induced by extreme rainfall event in Izu Oshima Island, Japan. Nat Hazards. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04321-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Truong QH, Eom YH, Lee JS (2010) Stiffness characteristics of soluble mixtures. Geotechnique 60(4):293–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu Y, Zhang LM (2009) Breaching parameters for earth and rockfill dams. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 135:1957–1970

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Y, Kuwano R (2017) Effects of principal stress rotation on small strain stiffness of sand subjected to piping erosion. Soils Found 57(5):776–788

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Y, Xu C, Indiketiya S (2018) Laboratory Dissolution Experiments of Internal Erosion in Sandy Soil: Underground Cavities and Piping. In: Geoshanghai International Conference. Springer, Singapore

  • Yi D, Ning L (2016) Dependencies of shear wave velocity and shear modulus of soil on saturation. J Eng Mech 142(11):04016083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Youn JU, Choo YW, Kim DS (2008) Measurement of small-strain shear modulus Gmax of dry and saturated sands by bender element, esonant column, and torsional shear tests. Can Geotech J 45(10):1426–1438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang FS, Li ML, Peng M, Chen C, Zhang LM (2019) Three-dimensional DEM modeling of the stress-strain behavior for the gap-graded soils subjected to internal erosion. Acta Geotech 14:487–503

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51609171), and the Belt and Road Special Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (No. 2019492311). The authors would like to thank Prof. Xiaoqiang Gu for his assistance in the bender element measurement. Graduate student Mr. Min Ye performed part of the experiments. The supports mentioned above are greatly appreciated.

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51609171), and the Belt and Road Special Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (No. 2019492311).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wuwei Mao, Chao Xu & Yang Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wuwei Mao, Chao Xu & Yang Yang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Yang Yang

Authors
  1. Wuwei Mao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chao Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yang Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

WM: investigation, writing—original draft. CX: conceptualization, writing—review and editing. YY: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, writing, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yang Yang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mao, W., Xu, C. & Yang, Y. Investigation on strength degradation of sandy soil subjected to concentrated particle erosion. Environ Earth Sci 81, 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10123-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10123-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation