The use of rockfill in civil engineering works such as earth and rockfill dams, road and railway embankments, increased along the last century especially for sustainability reasons. In order to ensure the stability of these structures under a set of conditions expected to occur during their life (grain crushing, changes in degree of saturation), the prediction of mechanical behavior of rockfill is fundamental for land management and protection. The mechanical behavior of rockfill mainly depends on stress level and relative density, as usual for granular soils. However, because of the large size of the particles, their mineralogical characteristics play a relevant role too, influencing grain crushing and therefore the overall behavior. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated in literature that for a given state (defined as the combination of stress state, void ratio and average number of grain to grain contacts) the effect of grains mineralogy on grain crushing (or microcrushing) largely depends on relative humidity (RH). The paper presents the results of triaxial tests performed on gravel specimens in which different levels of relative humidity are explored in order to analyze the “driest” and “fully saturated” conditions, and the transition from one to the other. Grain size distributions of the specimens, both after compaction and after the triaxial tests, are also compared in the paper.
On the Effect of Grading and Degree of Saturation on Rockfill Volumetric Deformation / Ventini, R.; Flora, A.; Lirer, S.; Mancuso, C.. - 40:(2019), pp. 462-471. (Intervento presentato al convegno 7th Italian National Congress of Geotechnical Researchers (CNRIG 2019), entitled" Geotechnical Research for the Protection and Development of the Territory" tenutosi a Lecco, Italy nel July 3-5, 2019)) [10.1007/978-3-030-21359-6_49].
On the Effect of Grading and Degree of Saturation on Rockfill Volumetric Deformation
Ventini R.;Flora A.;Mancuso C.
2019
Abstract
The use of rockfill in civil engineering works such as earth and rockfill dams, road and railway embankments, increased along the last century especially for sustainability reasons. In order to ensure the stability of these structures under a set of conditions expected to occur during their life (grain crushing, changes in degree of saturation), the prediction of mechanical behavior of rockfill is fundamental for land management and protection. The mechanical behavior of rockfill mainly depends on stress level and relative density, as usual for granular soils. However, because of the large size of the particles, their mineralogical characteristics play a relevant role too, influencing grain crushing and therefore the overall behavior. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated in literature that for a given state (defined as the combination of stress state, void ratio and average number of grain to grain contacts) the effect of grains mineralogy on grain crushing (or microcrushing) largely depends on relative humidity (RH). The paper presents the results of triaxial tests performed on gravel specimens in which different levels of relative humidity are explored in order to analyze the “driest” and “fully saturated” conditions, and the transition from one to the other. Grain size distributions of the specimens, both after compaction and after the triaxial tests, are also compared in the paper.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
