Material Models to Study the Effect of Fines in Sandy Soils Based on Experimental and Numerical Results

Abstract

Choosing and calibrating a robust and accurate soil material model (constitutive model) is the first important step in geotechnical numerical modelling. A less accurate model leads to poor results and more difficulty estimating true behaviour in the field. Subsequent design work is compromised and may lead to dangerous and costly mistakes. In this research, laboratory experimental results were used as a basis to evaluate several soil material models offered in Plaxis2D software. The deciding feature of the soil model was how well it could represent effects of percentage of fine material within sandy soils to simulate its behaviour. Results indicate that the Hardening Soil (HS) model works well when the percentage of fine (soft) materials is less than 10%. Above that level, the Soft Soil model (SS) becomes the most suitable. Finally, some important conclusions about this research and recommendations for future research are highlighted.

Keywords

• sandy soil
• sand
• fine material
• consolidation
• constitutive model