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2, 2012
Abstract
Design of rockfill dams is dependent on the actual behaviour of the material. The more realistic is the behaviour the more reliable design. The realistic behaviour of rockfill materials can be obtained if variation of particle breakage with different stress levels is established. For the present study rockfill material obtained from Purulia dam site, West Bengal, India has been considered. The material has been modeled to three smaller maximum particle sizes (dmax) by parallel gradation technique to test in the laboratory. Drained triaxial tests have been conducted on these modeled materials at four confining pressures. Breakage factors at various stress levels have been determined for the modeled rockfill materials. The variations of the breakage factors with stress levels have been plotted. The breakage factor at failure vs dmax has also been plotted at various confining pressures. An equation is established for the breakage factor based on dmax and confining pressure. The breakage factors at different confining pressures are predicted for the prototype material.
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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No.2, 2012 Though the breakage of particles is studied at failure, the nature of breakage at various stress levels during the test is not known. Therefore, an attempt is made in the proposed study to quantify the breakage factor at various stress levels during the triaxial tests on the rockfill materials. Congratulations! Your paper has been accepted for journal publication. Please follow the steps outlined below when submitting your final draft. These guidelines include complete descriptions of the fonts, spacing, and related information for producing your journal manuscripts. Please follow them.
Figure 1. Rockfill Material Obtained from Purulia Dam Site Representative rockfill materials were collected from the project site by blasting the parent hill rocks. The grain size distribution result was plotted and an average curve drawn. The curve has been designated as the average prototype curve of the representative rockfill material. The particle sizes of the actual material are scaled down to some degree. The material so obtained, popularly known as modeled material is used for the testing. Three modeled gradation curves are derived using John Lowes parallel gradation modeling technique [21] having a maximum particle size (dmax) of 80, 50 and 25 mm. Modeled and prototype gradation curves of the rockfill materials are shown in Figure 2. Using these modeled grain size distribution curves, the required quantities of various fractions of rockfill materials have been calculated. The total quantities of materials thus required are sieved from the materials collected.
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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No.2, 2012 Consolidated drained triaxial tests have been conducted using a large size triaxial shear apparatus at 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 MPa confining pressures on the modeled materials at Central Soil and Materials Research Station, New Delhi.
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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No.2, 2012 2.1.1 Axial Loading Unit A hydraulic pressure unit is used for the deviatoric load application. The maximum capacity of this unit is 875.7 kN. Applied load is measured with the help of pressure gauge with sensitivity as 1.8 kN /div. A complete view of this unit is shown in Figure 3. 2.1.2 Confining Pressure Unit To maintain and control the applied confining pressure an air-water pressure system with a maximum capacity of 2.8 MPa is used. Confining pressure measurement is made through a pressure gauge with sensitivity of 10 kPa/div. 2.1.3 Measurement of Strains To measure the axial strain in the samples, displacement dial gauge with a sensitivity of 0.01 mm/div and travel length of 127 mm is used. Volumetric strain is measured with the help of burette of capacity 8000 cc with sensitivity of 10 cc/div. 2.1.4 Rubber Membranes To isolate the sample from cell water two sleeves (1 mm thick inner sleeve and 3 mm thick outer sleeve) are used.
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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No.2, 2012 2.2.4 Shearing the Specimen The deformation dial gauge is set and the initial reading is recorded. The deviatoric load is applied on the specimen using hydraulic pressure unit under drained condition at a low constant rate of deformation of 1 mm per minute till failure. The deviatoric pressure gauge reading and burette reading are recorded at 0.5% strain interval in the beginning and at 1% strain interval during later stage of shearing. The readings of dial gauge, pressure gauge and burette are recorded till the sample is failed. The loading unit is switched off immediately after the sample has failed. The confining pressure in the cell is released. Cell is completely disconnected from the constant cell pressure unit. 2.2.5 Dismantling Cell water is drained out. Head ram is removed with the help of the crane. Excess water standing above the sample is removed. Cell is removed with the help of the crane. Bottom two clamps fitted above the top membrane are removed. Inner and outer rubber membranes are removed. Sample is now removed carefully. Porous base plate is cleaned first with water and thereafter by applying air by pressure. Sample is dismantled and dried. 2.2.6 Breakage Factor The dried sheared material is subjected to sieve analysis to determine the breakage factor. The procedure proposed by Marsal [22] has been used to determine the breakage factors. The breakage factors have been determined for the stress levels 35%, 70% and 100% of failure load with the following procedure[23]. Firstly, for a particular maximum particle size and confining pressure, the failure load is determined by loading the specimen upto the failure load under drained conditions and breakage factor is determined. Then other specimens compacted to same density and loaded upto 35% and 70% of failure load and strains are noted down to calculate exact percentage of failure stress at that particular stage. The specimen is then dismantled and dried. The dried rockfill material is then sieved to determine the breakage factor at that stage of failure load.
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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No.2, 2012 Figure 6. Breakage Factor Variation (dmax=80mm)
Figure 7. Pre and Post-Test Grain Size Distributions for dmax = 25mm
Figure 8. Pre and Post-Test Grain Size Distributions for dmax = 50mm
Figure 9. Pre and Post-Test Grain Size Distributions for dmax = 80mm
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where,
2 C1 3.2831 3 2.7914 3 3.5974 , and 2 C 2 10.979 3 14.323 3 9.8063
In Figure 10, the markers without fill are of observed values while solid fill markers are of predicted based on the above relationship. The solid fill markers are joined by lines and are extended upto prototype size. The breakage factors are predicted for the prototype particle size i.e. 1200 mm at different confining pressures as shown in the following table. Table 1. Breakage Factor at Failure for dmax=1200mm
3 (MPa) Bg 0.3 15.16 0.6 16.85 0.9 20.74 1.2 26.84
4. Conclusion
The variation of breakage factors with stress levels has been successfully obtained. The rate of change of breakage factor increases with the increase in percentage of deviatoric stresses. Pre and post test grain size distribution curves are plotted for maximum particle sizes 25, 50 and 80mm at 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 MPa confining pressures. The curves are becoming flatter with the increase in confining pressure. Relation between Breakage factor at failure, maximum particle size and confining pressure is established. Thus breakage factors are predicted at different confining pressures of prototype size material.
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5. References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] E. Becker, Strength and Deformation Characteristics of Rockfill Materials under Plane Strain Conditions, Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkley, 1972. B.O. Hardin, Crushing of soil particles, J. Geotech. Engg., ASCE, vol. 111(10), pp. 1177-1192, 1985. D.J. Murphy, Stress, Degradation and shear strength of granular material, Geotech. Modelling and Applications, S.M. Sayed, ed., Gulf Pub. Co., Houston, 1987, pp. 181-211. J.L. Coliiat-Dangus, J. Desrues, and P. Foray, Triaxial testing of granular soil under elevated cell pressure, Advanced Triaxial Testing of Soil and Rock, ASTM, STP977, Philadelphia, pp. 290-310, 1988. T. Fukumoto, A grading equation for decomposed granite soil, Soils and Foundation, Tokyo, Japan, vol. 30(1), pp. 2734, 1990. M.M. Hagerty, D.R. Hite, C.R. Ullrich, and D.J. Hagerty, One dimensional high pressure compression of granular media, J. Geotech. Engg., ASCE, vol. 119(1), 1993. P.V. Lade, J.A. Yamamuro, and P.A. Bopp, Significance of particle crushing in granular materials, J. of Geotech. Engg., ASCE, vol. 122(4), pp. 309 -316, 1996. A. Daouadji, and P.Y. Hicher, Modelling of grain breakage influence on mechanical behaviour of sands, Proc. Numerical Models in Geomechanics, Pietruszczak and Pande (eds.), Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 69-74, 1997. K.L. Lee, and I. Farhoomand, Compressibility and crushing of gran-ular soil in anisotropic triaxial compression, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 4(1), pp. 68- 99, 1967. P.V. Lade, and J.A. Yamamuro, Undrained sand behaviour in axi-symmetric tests at high pressures, J. Geotech. Engg. ASCE, vol. 122(2), pp. 120-129, 1996. R.J. Marsal, Large scale testing of rockfill materials, J. of Soil Mech. and Foundations Division, ASCE, vol. 93(2), pp. 27-43, 1967. T. Ramamurthy, Crushing phenomena in granular soils, J. of Indian National Society of SMFE, vol. 8(1), pp. 67-86, 1969. D.J. Murphy, High pressure experiments on soil and rock, In Proceedings of 13th Symp. Rock Mech., pp. 691-714, 1971. J. Billam, Some aspects of the behaviour of granular materials at high pressure, Proc. Roscoe Memorial Sym. on StressStrain Behaviour of Soils, Cambridge University, Foulis, Henley, pp. 69 -80, 1971. K.Y. Lo, and M. Roy, Response of particulate materials at high pressure, Soils and Foundations, Tokyo, Japan, vol. 13 (1), pp. 1-14, 1973. T. Ramamurthy, V.K. Kanitkar, and K. Prakash, Behaviour of coarse-grained soils under high stresses, Indian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 4(l), pp. 39-63, 1974. K.K. Gupta, Behaviour of Modelled Rockfill Materials under High Confining Pressures, Ph.D. Thesis, I.I.T. Delhi, 1980. B. Kjaernsli, Valstad, and K. Hoeg, Rockfill Dams-Design and Construction, Norwegian Institute of Technology, Div. Of Hydraulics Engg., N-7034, Trondheim, Norway, 1992. K. Venkatachalam, Prediction of Mechanical Behaviour of Rockfill Materials, Ph.D. Thesis, I.I.T. Delhi, 1993. A.K. Gupta, Constitutive Modelling of Rockfill Materials, Ph.D. Thesis, I.I.T. Delhi, 2000. J. Lowe, Shear strength of coarse embankment dam materials, In Proceedings of 8th Int. Congress on Large Dams, 3, pp. 745-761, 1964. R.J. Marsal, Discussion, In Proceeding of 6th Int. Conf. On Soil Mech. and Foundation Engineering, 3, 310-316, 1965. S.M. Abbas, Testing and Modeling the Behaviour of Quarried and Rockfill Materials, Ph.D. Thesis, I.I.T. Delhi, 2003.
Authors Profile
Dr. Syed Mohd Abbas is Associate Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He received his Ph.D degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India in 2003. The author got Excellent Paper Award for a research paper published in International Journal of Geomechanics, ASCE in 2008. He is an Affiliated Member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); member of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and Geo Institute; life member of Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS), IGS-Delhi Chapter, Indian Society of Earthquake Technology. He has 18 years of teaching and research experience.
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