Modeling the behavior of compacted bentonites under low porosity conditions

Vicente Navarro*, Gema De la Morena, Heidar Gharbieh, Jesús González-Arteaga, Juan Alonso, Veli Matti Pulkkanen, Laura Asensio

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This article proposes an approach to ensure consistency between constitutive formulations used in double-porosity models when the macrostructural void ratio, eM, is very small. These formulations model processes of different physical natures and therefore are usually presented independently, in which case an additive decomposition is assumed, and they calculate the total strain of the system as the sum of the strains caused by each process. This independence means that when eM is reduced, the contributions considered are not always consistent. To solve this problem, soil stiffness in the proposed approach is increased when eM is reduced, and at the same time the effect on strain by macrostructural processes not linked to changes in stress is reduced. To simulate the flow, it is assumed that there is always a minimum operating value of eM that controls mass transport. This approach was applied to a practical case, and confirmed that when the effect of the stress state on microstructure behavior was taken into account, the conceptual framework initially proposed for non-negligible eM values was satisfactorily extended.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number106333
    JournalEngineering Geology
    Volume293
    Early online date18 Aug 2021
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Nov 2021
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    The authors acknowledge funding support from (i) the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad of the Spanish Government and the European Union through the project [BIA2017-89287-R (AEI/FEDER, UE)], and (ii) the Dirección General de Universidades, Investigación e Innovación of the Castilla-La Mancha Government and the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union through the project [SBPLY19180501000222].

    Keywords

    • Compacted bentonite
    • Double-porosity model
    • Multiporosity
    • Strains consistency
    • Zero macrostructural void ratio

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