Undrained semi-analytical solution for cylindrical cavity expansion in anisotropic soils under biaxial stress conditions

Abstract

This paper presents an undrained semi-analytical elastoplastic solution for cylindrical cavity expansion in anisotropic soil under the biaxial stress conditions. The advanced simplified SANICLAY model is used to simulate the elastoplastic behavior of soil. The cavity expansion is treated as an initial value problem and solved as a system of eight first-order ordinary differential equations including four stress components and four anisotropic parameters. The results are validated by comparing the new solutions with existing ones. The distributions of stress components and anisotropic parameters around the cavity wall, the expansion process, the stress yield trajectory of a soil element and the shape and size of elastoplastic boundary are further investigated to explore the cavity expansion response of soils under biaxial in situ stresses. The results of extensive parameters analysis demonstrate that the circumferential position of the soil element and the anisotropy of the soils have noticeable impacts on the expansion response under biaxial in situ stresses. Since the present solution not only considers the anisotropy and anisotropy evolution of natural soil, but also eliminates the conventional assumption of uniform radial pressure, the solution is better than other theoretical solutions to explain the pressure test and pile installation effect of shallow saturated soil.

Keywords

• Cylindrical cavity expansion
• Anisotropic soil
• Undrained solution
• Biaxial in situ stresses