Stability Problems in Soil‐Structure Interfaces: Experimental Observations and Numerical Study

Abstract

This article presents experimental results of tests on soil‐structure interfaces carried out on a new “ring simple shear” apparatus specially developed at Ecole Nationale des Ponts and Chaussées, Paris, for such studies. In this apparatus strain localization takes place at or near the surface of the rotating steel drum that forms the soil‐structure interface. Depending on the conditions of tests, in terms of surface roughness, special instrumentation is capable of recording local as well as global response. Three tests on Hostun gravel at different confining radial pressures have been conducted and a deviatoric hardening model with nonassociated flow rule has been adopted for their numerical simulations. The point of inception of strain localization based on various theoretical considerations has been discussed and experimentally verified. The post‐peak behavior is simulated by employing a homogenization technique in which the soil sample is treated as a composite material consisting of a shear band surrounded by intact material. A deviatoric strain softening model has been adopted for the shear band. It is shown that the mechanism of failure and the response of the soil sample is reasonably well simulated. Although there are some concerns regarding the homogeneity of the sample, the post‐peak stage and the overall mechanical response of gravel‐steel interface are rather well reproduced.