We present a molecular dynamics study of force patterns, tensile strength and crack formation in a cohesive granular model where the particles are subjected to swelling or shrinkage gradients. Non-uniform particle size change generates self-equilibrated forces that lead to crack initiation as soon as strongest tensile contacts begin to fail. We find that the coarse-grained stresses are correctl...

The choice of stress state variables for constitutive modelling of unsaturated soils is a long standing debate. It is now acknowledged that two stress state variables are needed to describe in a comprehensive manner the mechanical behaviour of these soils. In recent years, Bishop’s proposal for an extended stress used in combination with suction as a second independent stress variable has gaine...

Geotechnical infrastructures may be subjected over their lifetime to long-term loading cycles of varying amplitude, frequencies and direction as a result the combination environmental operational processes. Soil elements surrounding foundations these geotechnical systems are in turn complex six-dimensional stress paths, invariably involving rotation principal axes. Changes soil's mechanical pro...

Convential models for the erosion of non-cohesive sediments overestimate the erosion rate induced by high flow velocities. These high flow velocities occur, for instance, in breaching of embankments or dunes (flow velocities up to 10 m/s) or in jetting sand with a trailing suction hopper dredger (30 to 60 m/s). At these very large flow velocities the erosion process is significantly influenced ...

Raindrop impact can be a major contributor to particle mobilization for soils and other granular materials. In previous work, water repellent soils, comprised of hydrophobic particles, have been shown to exhibit greater splash erosion losses under multiple drop impact. However, the underlying principal differences in splash behavior between hydrophobic and hydrophilic granular surfaces have not...

Based on the nonequilibrium thermodynamics, a thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling model for saturated soils is established, including a constitutive model without such concepts as yield surface and flow rule. An elastic potential energy density function is defined to derive a hyperelastic relation among the effective stress, the elastic strain, and the dry density. The classical linear non-equilib...

3D formulation of incremental relations, describing pre-failure deformations of granular soils, is presented. The starting point are respective equations formulated previously for the axi-symmetrical configuration, as that in the tri-axial apparatus. These relations, proposed for particular configuration, are generalized in the form of tensor equations for the strain increments. Similarly, the ...