Resilient properties of binary granular mixtures: A numerical investigation

The effect of stress level on the resilient modulus for binary mixtures of elastic spheres under triaxial loading is investigated using the discrete element method. The secant modulus during the first cycle of unloading is used as an estimate of the modulus after several load cycles due to computational time restrains. Later in the paper, its adequacy as an accurate and efficient estimator is shown. Numerical results are statistically compared with existing relations characterizing the stress dependency of the resilient modulus for real granular materials. It is concluded that the modulus prediction is significantly improved considering the effect of the deviator stress in addition to the confinement stress, obtaining a good correlation between the modulus and the confinement to deviator stress ratio for the numerical mixtures. The stress dependency of a recently proposed soil fabric classification system, based on force transmission considerations at particulate level, is also studied and its correlation with performance investigated. It is found that the relative load-bearing role of coarse and fine components is governed by the deviator to confinement stress ratio. However, the implemented fabric classification is fairly insensitive to changes in this ratio. Regarding resilient performance, interactive fabrics show the stiffest response whereas underfilled fabrics should be avoided due to a potential for instability. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.