Micromechanical modelling of cemented sands under low amplitude oscillations

Abstract

Microstructural continuum modelling is applied to study the mechanical properties of cemented sands under low amplitude oscillatory loading. The effect of cement in sand is accounted for by considering adhesion in addition to friction at the inter-particle contact. Under the assumption that cemented sands are statistically isotropic random packings of equal spheres, a closed form relationship is derived for the initial shear modulus of cemented sands under isotropic confining stress. Also, the secant moduli and damping ratios are computed numerically for various strain amplitudes. The influence of degree of cementation, initial confining stress, particle size, void ratio and strain amplitude on the mechanical properties of cemented sands are investigated. Comparisons of the theoretically predicted results are made with experimental measurements.