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Experimental study on fractal characteristics of seepage-induced failure in granular soil

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Abstract

Seepage-induced failures in granular soils pose a potential hazard for geotechnical engineering, but the types and mechanisms of seepage failures have not been fully clarified. In this paper, the mass fractal dimensions of testing soils were used to describe the cumulative mass distribution of particles, which was closely related to the uniformity coefficient, fine content, porosity, dry density and permeability coefficient. A series of hydraulic tests were performed to show seepage failure behaviors of sandy gravels, coarse sands and fine sands. By linking the mass fractal dimension to the critical hydraulic gradient, a zone segmentation approach for seepage failure types was proposed to distinguish seepage failures, including piping, suffosion and heave. Piping failure originates from internal instabilities in inhomogeneous soils and has been observed in sandy gravel samples. Suffosion occurs in coarse sand samples due to external and internal erosion of loose particles. Heave failure is dominated by fine content and has been observed in fine sand samples. By comparing the changes in the mass fractal dimension before and after seepage failure, it is feasible to predict piping failure in sandy gravels and suffosion in loose coarse sands, while it is almost impossible to predict heave failure in fine sands.

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Abbreviations

C :

Constant (–)

C u :

Uniformity coefficient (–)

D :

Arbitrary particle size (L)

D m :

Mass fractal dimension (–)

d 10 :

Particle size for which 10% are smaller (L)

d 60 :

Particle size for which 60% are smaller (L)

F :

Fines percent corresponding to an arbitrary particle diameter D (–)

H :

Difference of the fines percent between D and 4D (–)

i cr :

Critical hydraulic gradient (–)

K :

Permeability coefficient (LT−1)

K s :

Slope (–)

M T :

Total mass (M)

n :

Porosity (–)

P f :

Fine content (–)

R :

Correlation coefficient (–)

r :

Sieve size opening (L)

r L :

Maximum particle size (L)

ρ d :

Dry density (MT−3)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the General Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Jiangsu Universities (2022SJYB0841).

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  1. Yu Wang and Yanchen Liu were contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Jiangsu Open University, Nanjing, 210036, China

    Yu Wang & Yanchen Liu

  2. Huatian Engineering and Technology Corporation, Nanjing, 210000, China

    Buxiang Wang

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  1. Yu Wang
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  2. Yanchen Liu
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  3. Buxiang Wang
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Correspondence to Yu Wang.

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Wang, Y., Liu, Y. & Wang, B. Experimental study on fractal characteristics of seepage-induced failure in granular soil. Comp. Part. Mech. 11, 389–403 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40571-023-00628-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40571-023-00628-4

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