Study on The Strength of Soil Granular Structure Model

Due to the constitutive property of soil, soil strength is generally considered as a difficult problem. This paper, by establishing the soil granular-structure model and using granules' connecting points to reflect the soil structure, analyzes the mechanical and fracture characteristics of the connecting points of granules. 7 yield models are obtained in this paper. Through introduction of the concept of Vornornoi domain associated with the connecting points of granules, the strength of granules' connecting points is transformed to the stress intensity in statistical domain. This is the basis for the analysis of the strength of structured soil in this paper. It's found that the stress intensity of soil is directly related to the connecting strength of granules and the distributional pattern of granules' connecting points. When the family of stress intensity curves generated in the statistical domain are observed and studied as a point on a macroscopic scale, the conclusion that there are multiple yield surfaces can be naturally obtained. Theoretically, this solves the theoretical problems associated with multiple yield surfaces. Stress gradient may also affect soil strength, which cannot be explained by the past classical theories. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Society for Resources, Environment and Engineering.