Influence of Degree of Saturation (DOS) on Dynamic Behavior of Unbound Granular Materials

Abstract

The extensive application of natural unbound granular materials (UGMs) motivates studies into the mechanical properties of alternatives such as processed crushed rocks employed commonly as base or subbase layers. The rutting and settlement generated in base and subbase layers is widely restricted in many specifications and standards. In this research, the dynamic behavior including the resilient modulus () and the plastic strain () of the crushed rocks collected from Queensland in Australia will be tested by a series of repeated load triaxial test (RLT) tests to investigate the behavior of UGMs under the fluctuation of the degree of saturation (DOS) (59%–100%). In particular, the RLT specimens were prepared in the laboratory through proper gradation under optimum moisture content (OMC) and 100% standard proctor maximum dry unit weight. Results from the RLT tests showed that UGM specimens soaked at higher DOS generated lower resilient modulus and weaker resistance to heavy traffic volumes with significant accumulation of plastic strain. The and of the tested aggregates under different cyclic deviator stresses of 425 kPa and 625 kPa approximately linearly decreased and approximately linearly increased as the DOS increased with a certain number of cycles up to 50,000, respectively.

Investigation of Resilience Characteristics of Unbound Granular Materials for Sustainable Pavements

“…Another study indicated that changes in fine and moisture content have a major influence on the permanent and resilient deformation of granular material [6]. Other researchers have observed that unbound granular material specimens samples soaked at a higher degree of saturation caused lower resilient modulus and had little resistance to heavy traffic [7]. Another study revealed that an increase in moisture content significantly decreases the resiliency of material [8].…”

Influence of Surface Roughness and Particle Characteristics on Soil–Structure Interactions: A State-of-the-Art Review

“…In recent years, advancements in technology have influenced how designs are conceptualized, considering sustainability aspects [1][2][3][4], challenges faced in laboratory soil tests [5,6], soil-structure simulations [7,8], and inferior in situ geomaterial conditions requiring biological [9][10][11][12][13][14] or chemical stabilization [15][16][17]. For instance, the study of the effects of the interface on soil-structure interactions have benefitted from this technological advancement to include the design of deep foundations [18][19][20][21][22][23], pavement-subgrade behavior [24,25], tunneling [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], mechanically stabilized geogrid retaining walls, and ground improvement in soft soils [34][35][36]. For example, in the design of deep foundations, static and dynamic pile load tests provide the necessary evidence-based field observational results to verify the accuracy and reliability of the initially adopted pile design parameters.…”

Ground and Groundwater Responses Due to Shaft Excavation in Organic Soils

“…Characterization of soils and rocks forms the basis in any infrastructure and underground space construction works (Ong et al, 2003b, Ong and Choo, 2011Sun et al 2021) including pipe-jacking or shaft construction works but not without challenges faced in interpreting laboratory tests (Mehdizadeh et al, 2016(Mehdizadeh et al, , 2017Peerun et al 2019, Wong et al, 2017 and inferior structure / soil conditions requiring conditioning and improvement (Leong et al, 2015(Leong et al, , 2016a(Leong et al, , 2016b(Leong et al, , 2018a(Leong et al, , 2018bOmoregie et al, 2020Omoregie et al, , 2019aOmoregie et al, , 2019bOmoregie et al, , 2019cOmoregie et al, , 2017Omoregie et al, , 2016.…”