Experimental study on effect of strain rate on stress-strain behavior of dense sand
[Objective]Sand is a common construction material,which is widely used in hydraulic and hydropower engineering,highway subgrade,marine filling,and other civil engineering projects.Sand can be subjected to various loading processes with specific loading rates due to different engineering applications.Because of the rate effect,the deformation of sand under the same amplitude load in the similar process can be different.The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of sand sheared at different constant strain rates.[Methods]Dense sand with a relative density of 0.9 was used to carry out a series of triaxial com-pression tests under consolidated-drained conditions.After consolidated under two different confining pressures(750 kPa and 2 000 kPa),sand samples were sheared at three different constant strain rates(0.00625%/min,0.062 5%/min,and 0.625%/min)respectively.According to the experimental data,the curves of the stress-strain relationship ware presented.The effect of shearing rates on sand's deviator stress and volumetric strain evolution were examined.[Results]The result shows that the dense sand yields at axial strain of about 2%under all tested constant strain rates and confining pressures.The deviator stress increment and volumetric strain development before yielding are sensitive to the loading strain rate.Shearing under a lower strain rate leads to a lower yielding strength and a higher volumetric strain(contraction).[Conclusion]It can be concluded that the stiffness of sand rises with increased strain rate before yielding,but by the end of loading to a large axial strain(ε1=15%),the strain rate has little effect on sand's property.However,the tested sand samples loaded with different strain rates exhibit consistent in stress ratio(q/p)-deviatoric strain relationship throughout the loading process under the same confining pressure.The result of this study can enhance our knowledge of soil mechanics and provide references for the design and safety assessment of structures con-structed on sand-based materials.
dense sandtriaxial cd teststrain ratedeviator stressvolumetric straindeformationmechanical propertiesinfluence factor