The instability analysis of saturated soil under shear load

A theoretical description of shear instability is presented in a system of equations. It is shown that two types of instability may exist. One of them is dominated by pore pressure softening while the other by strain softening. A criterion combining pore pressure softening, strain hardening, and volume strain coefficient is obtained and practical implications are discussed.

Stochastic Structural Model of Rock and Soil Aggregates by Continuum-Based Discrete Element Method

This paper first presents a stochastic structural model to describe the random geometrical features of rock and soil aggregates. The stochastic structural model uses mixture ratio, rock size and rock shape to construct the microstructures of aggregates,and introduces two types of structural elements (block element and jointed element) and three types of material elements (rock element, soil element, and weaker jointed element)for this microstructure. Then, continuum-based discrete element method is used to study the deformation and failure mechanism of rock and soil aggregate through a series of loading tests. It is found that the stress-strain curve of rock and soil aggregates is nonlinear, and the failure is usually initialized from weaker jointed elements. Finally, some factors such as mixture ratio, rock size and rock shape are studied in detail. The numerical results are in good agreement with in situ test. Therefore, current model is effective for simulating the mechanical behaviors of rock and soil aggregates.

Influences of slope gradient on soil erosion

The main factors influencing soil erosion include the net rain excess, the water depth, the velocity, the shear stress of overland flows, and the erosion-resisting capacity of soil. The laws of these factors varying with the slope gradient were investigated by using the kinematic wave theory. Furthermore, the critical slope gradient of erosion was driven. The analysis shows that the critical slope gradient of soil erosion is dependent on grain size, soil bulk density, surface roughness, runoff length, net rain excess, and the friction coefficient of soil, etc. The critical slope gradient has been estimated theoretically with its range between 41.5 degrees similar to 50 degrees.

The Influence of Strain Gradient on the shear Band in a Saturated Soil

The dynamic localization of saturated soil is investigated by considering the influence of higher strain gradient. It is shown that the strain gradient has a significant influence on the evolution of shear band in saturated soil and that the width of shear band is proportional to the square root of the strain gradient softening coefficient. The numerical simulation is processed to investigate the influences of shear strain gradient and other factors on the evolution of shear band.

Receptivity To Free-Stream Disturbance Waves For Hypersonic Flow Over A Blunt Cone

A high-order shock-fitting finite difference scheme is studied and used to do direction numerical simulation (DNS) of hypersonic unsteady flow over a blunt cone with fast acoustic waves in the free stream, and the receptivity problem in the blunt cone hypersonic boundary layers is studied. The results show that the acoustic waves are the strongest disturbance in the blunt cone hypersonic boundary layers. The wave modes of disturbance in the blunt cone boundary layers are first, second, and third modes which are generated and propagated downstream along the wall. The results also show that as the frequency decreases, the amplitudes of wave modes of disturbance increase, but there is a critical value. When frequency is over the critial value, the amplitudes decrease. Because of the discontinuity of curvature along the blunt cone body, the maximum amplitudes as a function of frequencies are not monotone.

Numerical study on rainfall infiltration in rock-soil slop

A mathematical model for the rain infiltration in the rock-soil slop has been established and solved by using the finite element method. The unsteady water infiltrating process has been simulated to get water content both in the homogeneous and heterogeneous media. The simulated results show that the rock blocks in the rock-soil slop can cause the wetting front moving fast. If the rain intensity is increased, the saturated region will be formed quickly while other conditions are the same. If the rain intensity keeps a constant, it is possible to accelerate the generation of the saturated region by properly increasing the vertical filtration rate of the rock-soil slop. However, if the vertical filtration rate is so far greater than the rain intensity, it will be difficult to form the saturated region in the rock-soil slop. The numerical method was verified by comparing the calculation results with the field test data.