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Assessment of lumped particles effect on dynamic behaviour of fine and medium grained sands

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Abstract

One novel aspect addressed here is the effect of the lumped particle on the dynamic behaviour of cohesionless soil. The effects of particle size and fines content on cyclic soil behaviour have been previously studied by mixing fine particles separately with cohesionless soil. The studied cohesionless soil in the quaternary alluvium deposit on Middle Ganga Plain in India contains a significant amount (10%–20%) of soil lumps. Therefore, the present study using strain-controlled cyclic triaxial tests addressed the effect of parameters mentioned above on the liquefaction resistance of sand where the fines were present in a lumped form. A series of undrained cyclic triaxial experiments have been performed on isotropically consolidated samples to quantify the effects of soil lumps present in various types of sand. Experimental results have shown less cyclic resistance for soil samples with lumps compared to clean sands of equivalent grain size. This is believed to be due to lumped particle crushing, and soil particle rearrangement during the sample saturation and loading. This affects dynamic properties such as shear modulus. From the results, it can be concluded that the presence of such soil lumps in cohesionless soil is reducing the initial shear modulus and the soil becomes more susceptible to liquefaction.

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Data Availability

All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

No code was generated or used during the study.

Abbreviations

ASHL :

Asymmetric hysteresis loop

ASR :

Average stress ratio

b :

Coefficient

C c :

Coefficient of curvature

C u :

Coefficient of uniformity

D 10 :

Diameter corresponding to 10% finer in particle size distribution

D 30 :

Diameter corresponding to 30% finer in particle size distribution

D 50 :

Mean diameter of soil

D 60 :

Diameter corresponding to 60% finer in particle size distribution

e :

Void ratio

e max :

Maximum void ratio

e min :

Minimum void ratio

\(e_{ geq}\) :

Equivalent intergranular void ratio

EPWP :

Excess pore water pressure

FC :

Fines content in percentage

\(G_{ initial}\) :

Initial shear modulus

G s :

Specific gravity of soil

\(\sigma_{d}\) :

Deviatoric stress

\(\sigma_{3}^{^{\prime}}\) :

Effective confining stress

\(E_{ sec}\) :

Secant Young’s modulus

\(E_{ sec,initial}\) :

Initial secant Young’s modulus

\(\varepsilon\) :

Axial strain

\(\vartheta\) :

Poisson's ratio

\(\gamma\) :

Shear strain

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Acknowledgements

The author(s) would like to greatly acknowledge to IIT Patna and Department of Higher Education (Govt. of India) for providing the funding in present research work to carry out the doctoral research study for which no specific grant number has been allotted.

Funding

The first author acknowledges the Department of Higher Education (Govt. of India) for providing the funding in present research work to carry out the doctoral research study for which no specific grant number is allotted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil And Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bihta, Patna, Bihar, 801106, India

    Angshuman Das & Pradipta Chakrabortty

  2. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA

    Radu Popescu

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  1. Angshuman Das
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  2. Pradipta Chakrabortty
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  3. Radu Popescu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Angshuman Das and Pradipta Chakrabortty. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Angshuman Das, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pradipta Chakrabortty.

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Das, A., Chakrabortty, P. & Popescu, R. Assessment of lumped particles effect on dynamic behaviour of fine and medium grained sands. Bull Earthquake Eng 19, 745–766 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-020-01012-w

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