Observed and calculated load-settlement relationship in a sandy gravel

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to obtain a better understanding of the nonlinear stress-strain behavior of the typical gravel of Santiago, Chile, due to the increasing needs for construction of high-rise buildings, multilevel underground constructions, and new subway lines to be built under historical city landmarks. A finite-element computer program to perform incremental stress-strain analyses of soils was developed on the basis of a modified version of the hyperbolic elastic model. The changes herein proposed to this well-known constitutive model were based on triaxial tests carried out on 150 mm diameter specimens of compacted sandy gravels which involved various stress paths. A comparison was performed between the observed and calculated load-settlement relationship in a plate-load test that included unloading-reloading cycles. From the good agreement obtained it is concluded that the modified version of the hyperbolic model proposed represents reasonably well the behavior of the Santiago gravel.