The Influence of Mixing Degree between Coarse and Fine Particles on the Strength of Offshore and Coast Foundations

Shunkai Liu, Yuxing Nie, Wei Hu, Mohammed Ashiru, Zhong Li and Jun Zuo
Additional contact information
Shunkai Liu: School of Civil Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
Yuxing Nie: School of Civil Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Wei Hu: School of Civil Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
Mohammed Ashiru: School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China
Zhong Li: Department of P.E., Central South University, Changsha 410075, China
Jun Zuo: China State Construction Railway Investment & Engineering Group Co., Ltd., Beijing 102600, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-21

Abstract: The variability in strata of foundation soil in marine environments makes it tedious to design foundations for offshore structures. Hence, it is essential to investigate and evaluate the strength properties of this type of soil. This study investigates the variability of the soil strata (which is quantified by the index of the mixing degree between coarse and fine particles) and its influence on the stability of the soil by mixing coarse and fine particles at varying proportions. A series of discrete element method triaxial shear tests were conducted on binary geotechnical mixtures with a varying proportion of coarse content (25%, 50% and 75%) and different mixing degrees (ranging from 0.0 to 1.0). The macroscopic results show that the peak shear strength increases with an increase in mixing degree, and the increase is more obvious with increasing coarse content, while the critical shear strength is independent of the mixing degree. The main evaluation of the number, mean normal force and distribution of the coarse–fine (cf) contact helps to clarify the meso-mechanisms that result in the variations in peak shear strength and critical shear strength with mixing degree. The increase in the peak strength may primarily be due to the increased number and globalized distribution of coarse–fine contact. However, the decreased contact force of coarse–fine contact counterbalances the strength gain due to the increased number and globalized distribution, which maintain the stability of the critical strength.

Keywords: granular mixtures; meso-mechanism; mixing degree; shear strength (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/15/9177/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/15/9177/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:15:p:9177-:d:872665

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().