Analysis of sequential active and passive arching in granular soils

Abstract

Arching in soils has received great attention for several decades due to its significance on the soil-underground structure-interaction. However, soil layers underneath such an underground structure might undergo cycles of swelling and shrinking resulting in the generation of alternating active and passive modes of soil-underground structure-interaction. Consequently, the stresses on the underground structure and adjoining regions of ground become complex. The state of stress on underground structures as a result of cycles of active and passive arching was neither explored nor systematically assessed. In the present study, comprehensive investigation was carried out to examine; i. the effects of direction of initial displacement to induce an initial active or passive arching, ii. the behaviour of subsequent arching, iii. the effect of magnitude of initial displacement on the formation of arching and iv. the influence of soil height on sequential active & passive arching. The experimental results showed clearly that the magnitude of displacement of the yielding region significantly affects the formation of the arch and the degree of stress redistribution. Alternating the displacement of the underground inclusion exacerbated the formation of active and passive arching leading to a substantial reduction in shear resistance and stress redistribution. It is noted that the greatest loss in shear resistance occurs from the second cycle and remains virtually the same with further cycles. Sequentially alternating displacement of the underground inclusion is found to be detrimental to the formation of full active and passive arches irrespective of the burial height.

Alternant active and passive trapdoor problem: from experimental investigation to mathematical modeling

“…For trapdoor problem, K is not easy to be determined as stress transfer and principle stress rotation with trapdoor movement. Different researchers have proposed different methods to determine K values in both active and passive states [1,8,18,44]. However, most of the method only provide a constant value of K. In this part, Different from previous methods, considering K may change as the trapdoor moving, each ratio q is related to the K at that stage.…”

“…The alternant active and passive trapdoor problem was first investigated by Aqoub et al [1]. This study mainly focused on the load evolution of sequential active and passive arching and found that the alternation of the movement direction was detrimental to formation of full active and passive arching.…”

Passive Soil Arching Effect in Aeolian Sand Backfills for Grillage Foundation

“…The interactions of buried structures, thin overburdened soils, and high-load frequencies accelerated soil arching degradation and led to greater surface settlement. Some structures produce passive arching effects in many engineering applications, such as grillage foundations [34,35], cluster piles [36,37], and buried steel culverts [38]. Xiang REN et al and Ma D et al [39,40] studied the formation process and influence factors of passive soil arching before cantilever anti-slide piles through numerical modeling.…”

Passive arching in rubberized sand backfills

“…For embankments, for example, the typical movement due to self-weight is 0.1% of the height of the embankment (Look, 2007). Other examples of passive arching include pile groups, where a pile may experience both active and passive arching on different sides (Shelke and Patra, 2008;Yuan, et al, 2014), anti-sliding or D r a f t stabilisation piles inserted into soil slopes (Chen and Martin, 2002;Kahyaoğlu et al, 2012;He et al, 2015), swelling of soil around an underground structure (Aqoub et al, 2018), or even soil pressure sensors where over-registration of stress values indicate passive arching on the sensor (Talesnick, 2013).…”