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Arching effect on lateral pressure of confined granular material: numerical and theoretical analysis

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Abstract

Owing to the arching effect caused by stress transfer, the lateral pressure of confined granular material will be influenced by both the wall movement and the confined material width. In this paper, the lateral pressure of confined granular material is studied through the numerical and theoretical analysis. Discrete element-based numerical simulations of different widths are conducted to model the transition of the resultant lateral force. Based on numerical results, an analytical model for estimating the lateral pressure at limit state is proposed by the use of the horizontal slice element method. Moreover, the mobilization models of the granule–wall interface friction angle and the internal friction angle of the granular material are introduced to yield the lateral pressure at nonlimit state. Both numerical and theoretical results indicate that the transition of the lateral pressure can be divided into two stages based on the magnitudes of wall movements, at which the interface friction angle and internal friction angle are fully mobilized. For models with smaller width, the pressure decreases more rapidly in the first stage and eventually reaches smaller lateral pressure at active state, because the vertical stress of the material is transferred to the walls and the stress in the material is redistributed due to the superimposition of the arching effects.

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Abbreviations

B :

Width of the soil

\(\hbox {d}G\) :

Weight of slice element

dz :

Thickness of horizontal slice element

h :

Depth of the intersection of slip surface and adjacent wall

H :

Height of retaining wall

\(h_b \) :

Height of retaining wall base

\(k_0 \) :

Coefficient of earth pressure at-rest

\(k_n \) :

Normal spring stiffness

\(k_s \) :

Tangential spring stiffness

P :

Total lateral earth pressure

\(F_{x_{m}} \) :

Horizontal force on the translational wall

\(F_{y_{m}} \) :

Vertical force on the translational wall

\(r_p\) :

Particle radius

s :

Wall movement

\(s_a \) :

Wall movement for internal friction angle of the soil attains a maximum value

\(s_c \) :

Wall movement for Wall friction attains a maximum value

z :

Depth from the wall top

\(\alpha \) :

Angle of slip surface to horizontal

\(\gamma \) :

Soil density

\(\delta \) :

Soil–wall interface friction angle

\(\delta _m \) :

Mobilized \(\delta \)

\(\theta \) :

Angle of the minor principal plane with respect to the horizontal at the wall

\(\mu _{p-p} \) :

Coefficient of friction between particles

\(\mu _{p-w} \) :

Coefficient of friction between wall and particle

\(\varphi \) :

Internal friction angle of the soil

\(\varphi _0 \) :

Initial angle of internal friction

\(\varphi _m \) :

Mobilized \(\varphi \)

\(\rho _p \) :

Particle density

\(\sigma \) :

Normal stress

\(\sigma _1 \) :

Major principal stress

\(\sigma _3 \) :

Minor principal stress

\(\tau \) :

Shear stress

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Acknowledgements

The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant Nos. 41330633, 41472250 and 41602283) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, China

    Ming-Guang Li, Jin-Jian Chen & Jian-Hua Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Jin-Jian Chen & Jian-Hua Wang

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  1. Ming-Guang Li
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Correspondence to Jin-Jian Chen.

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Li, MG., Chen, JJ. & Wang, JH. Arching effect on lateral pressure of confined granular material: numerical and theoretical analysis. Granular Matter 19, 20 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-017-0700-2

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